Overview

Relating: Erwin C. Dietrich (producer, writer and director). Born: October 4, 1930 in St. Gallen, Switzerland ₪ 7.3/ 10

►Note: Tribute to Erwin C. Dietrich.

Author: Stefan Rechmeier (Hille, Germany)

Research and coordination: Vanni Maresco, Amedeo Cassarà

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Switzerland is More Than Cheese

Born in a small Swiss village at the fourth of October 1930 Erwin C. Dietrich quickly gets aware of his wish not to end up as an office clerk but having something to do with the big screen and to walk the Hollywood Boulevard one day. Persuading his parents to support this wish he first attended a theatre academy where he learned a lot about making art behind the punched curtain which helped him to produce his own first movie Das Mädchen vom Pfarrhof (The Girl of the Rectory) in 1955. Since easy entertainment was very popular and his film was a success he continued with this kind of movies some time until there was room for something more exiting. In the first half of the 1960’s Dietrich produced some Edgar Wallace-like movies and earned money with suspense-packed titles like Die Nylonschlinge (The Nylon Loose, 1963), Ein Sarg aus Hongkong (Coffin to Hong Kong, 1964) and Der Würger vom Tower (The Strangler of the Tower) which was realized in 1966. Also in 1966 Dietrich produced his first sexy movie Schwarzer Markt der Liebe (Black Market of Love) which was directed by Ernst Hofbauer who would create most of the famous Schulmädchen-Report (Schoolgirls Report) flicks during the 1970s. The film was a great success and was followed by a bundle of teasing titles like Seitenstraße der Prostitution ( Side Roads of Prostitution, 1967), Unruhige Töchter (Sexy Baby, 1967) or …und noch nicht sechzehn (Not 16 yet, 1967) where the last one was realized by famous photographer and steady ECD-crew member Peter Baumgartner. 1968 should become one of the most important years for Dietrich because with Hinterhöfe der Liebe (Backyards of Love) he both directed a whole film by himself and got lucky with Die Nichten der Frau Oberst (Guess Who´s Coming for Breakfast) which became the most successful movie of the year in Germany.

Die Nichten der Frau Oberst was followed by a very similar second part also in 1968 and some kind of turnaround of the story called Die Neffen des Herrn General (The General´s nephews) in 1969. Beside some other sexual related movies in 1969 like the nudist picture Nackter Norden (Naked North) or erotic thrillers like Champagner für Zimmer 17 (Champagne for Room 17) and Schwarzer Nerz auf zarter Haut (Black Mink on Smooth Skin) Dietrich got fond of cheaply buying the European rights of sleazy American B-movies, adding some own footage and bringing this stuff to the theatres. From this period we got rather interesting versions of Robin Hood und seine lüsternen Mädchen (The Ribald Tales of Robin Hood) and Django Nudo und die lüsternen Mädchen von Porno Hill (Nude Django) (both 1970) with riding adventurers and coupling nymphomaniacs. Similar stories were exploited with the all own productions Die Sexabenteuer der drei Musketiere (The Sex-Adventures of the three Musketeers) and Der Lüsterne Türke (The Lustful Turk) in 1970. Last mentioned featured German beauty Ingrid Steeger who also attended the very successful Ich, ein Groupie (Higher and Higher) early in 1970 which had to be realized by Dietrich himself since hired American director Jack Hill was up to build this movie to a mess. Steeger became a steady actress within several ECD movies during the following years where she stared in the Schulmädchen-Report look alike series Blutjunge Verführerinnen (The Young Seducers, 1971/72), Die Betthostessen (Hostess in Heat, 972) and as flying young bird in Die Stewardessen (The Swinging Stewardesses / Sweet Sensations, 1971).

Besides, Miss Steeger worked with a lot of regular actresses like Rena Bergen, Margrit Siegel and skinny Marianne Dupont for movies like Mädchen mit offenen Lippen (Girls With Open Lips / Voluptuous Vixens, 1972), Blutjunge Masseusen (Pinup Playmates, 1972) and Die Mädchenhändler (White Slavers, 1972). He also employed little valkyriesh looking Christa Free who stared in the famous but rare The Exorcist rip-off Der Teufel in Miss Jonas (The Devil in Miss Jonas, 1974) and in its quick follow up Was Geschah Wirklich mit Miss Jonas? (What Really Happened to Miss Jonas?) which also hit the market in 1974. 1974 brought a bundle of humorous sexy movies like Mädchen, die sich hocharbeiten (Strip for Action, 1974), Frauen, die für Sex bezahlen (Sex Service, 1974) and Die Bumsfidelen Mädchen vom Birkenhof (Ranch of the Nymphomaniac Girls, 1974). But to go one years back I have to mention Dietrich’s (first) excursion into the war business that he entered with Eine Armee Gretchen (She-Devils of the SS, 1973) which came up with enormous sets and the weird story of poor women who were forced into service within the signals. Beside their daily duties these girls sure found time to play around with horny master race soldiers of the Third Reich. On 1975, Dietrich returned to the adolescent narrative pattern, shooting Mädchen ohne Männer.

Jesus Franco was known for realizing at least two film at once and therefore came up with over a dozen movies within the short period from 1975 to 1977 where he was on Dietrich’s wag list. Voluntary sex was over when Dietrich met famous Spanish director Jesus Franco who realized one of the most controversial WIP movies ever made: Frauengefängnis (Barbed Wire Dolls, 1975) did very well at the counter and therefore was followed by hundreds of similar pictures where some of them like the very brutal Greta – Haus ohne Männer (Ilsa – The Wicked Warden, 1976), sultry Frauen für Zellenblock 9 (Tropical Inferno, 1977), tame Frauen im Liebeslager (Love Camp, 1977) and the late Gefangene Frauen (Island Women, 1979) came directly from Switzerland. Movies like Die Liebesbriefe einer portugiesischen Nonne (Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun, 1977), Frauen ohne Unschuld (Girls Without Innocence, 1977), Das Frauenhaus (Blue Rita, 1977) and the very strange Heisse Berührungen (Midnight Party / Lady Porno, 1976) were sold all over the planet, and with their version of Jack the Ripper (1976) Dietrich and Franco even were able to work with international known enfant terrible Klaus Kinski in the lead part as Londons most famous womanizer. 1976 brought up Dietrich’s only personal direction of hardcore with the very rare episode flick Adam + Eva (Adam and Eve) since he already brought his version of the American documentary film Mustang: The House That Joe Built as Frauen im Bordell (1975) to the big screen.

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With Alain Payet he hired a famous porn director who came up with Nach Bangkok, der Liebe wegen (Bangkok Connection, 1977) which hardcore version was shipped as videotape with listing number one by Germany celebrated hardcore company Beate Uhse. There were other porn movies later on made by French director Gérard Loubeau who implemented Ein Lasterhafter Sommer (Hot summer love in Ibiza, 1981) and the rather rough Heißer Sex auf Ibiza (Hot Sex in Ibiza, 1982) which was shot back to back with Sechs Schwedinnen auf Ibiza (Six Swedes in Ibiza, 1982) – this is why both feature platinum blonde Marylin Monroe lookalike Olinka Hardiman. Beside the installment of the so called 6 Swedes which started early in 1979 with Sechs Schwedinnen im Pensionat (Untamed Sex) and a redesign of the bought up Italian Joe D’Amato flick Emanuelle e Françoise le sorelline (Emanuelles Revenge, 1975) which became Foltergarten der Sinnlichkeit after a few cuts and changes Dietrich went to realize on of his dreams: to produce a very big movie and come up with an international known cast. The Sea Wolves (1978) stared Gregory Peck, Roger Moore and David Niven, was implemented by English director Andrew McLaglen and successful in the way that it was followed by dozens of mercenary adventures all over the world. Dietrich himself put some of there soldiers into service and kept them fighting for fortune.

Another surprise was his collaboration with lucky beggar Paul Grau who was hired to create a sequel to a very profitable movie Dietrich brought to the cinema in 1978. But Stingray (1978)– or Los violadores (Mad Foxes, 1981) which was its title when it entered the big screen – developed itself to be insomuch sleazy and brutal that it seemed to be unplayable: A crude mixture of blood, misogyny and nazi rockers! Nevertheless Los violadores did very well, became a rare treasure as videocassette and was luckily republished on Versatile Disc. While the 1970s ended with a new version of Die Nichten der Frau Oberst (Secrets of a French Maid / Come and Play With Me 2, 1979) and some lustful adventures of pharmacists daughters Julchen und Jettchen, die verliebten Apothekerstöchter (Come Play With Me 3, 1980) Dietrich wanted to make some art in the 1980s. But his cooperation with Italian director Marco Ferreri did not take place under good circumstances and so Storia di Piera (Story of Piera, 1982) with Isabelle Huppert and Germany’s art school scream queen Hanna Schygulla was not very successful. Sech Schwedinnen Hinter Gittern (1982) was the tame version of USA porn movie Ballgame directed by Ann Perry and became the end of Dietrich’s career as sex film producer. The 1980’s brought a lot of soldiers, weapons and hidden treasures until Dietrich reactivated his humorous desires and wanted to bring Switzerland’s famous comedian Walter Roderer back on the big screen.

Ein Schweizer namens Nötzli (A Swiss named Nötzli, 1988) did not bring a fortune and so didn´t the sequel Der Doppelte Nötzli (The Twofold Nötzl, 1990). Therefore Dietrich though of his job as a producer to be done and started headed up to new challenges. One of those challenges was to concentrate on his job as cinema owner with the responsibility of bringing playable movies to Zürich. Another one started in 2002 when DVD was up to please collectors hearts by bringing lots of companies to publish long time forgotten movies. With a remastered and uncut print of Jesus Franco’s Jack The Ripper Dietrich set off a brilliant series of excellent DVDs that includes not only very successful movies but also rare and never before released flicks like the original Die Nichten der Frau Oberst from 1968, Muslims favorite Der Lüsterne Türke and Ingrid Steeger´s tourist guide adventures with Die Betthostessen. Aside of all those production activities one should be aware of the circumstance that Mr. Dietrich’s numerous Swiss and German companies – ASCOT, AVCO, AVIS, Afiba, Elite, Urania, VIP – brought hundreds of movies into the theatres to gratify a wide bandwidth of opposite tastes. So there is definitely more from Switzerland than cheese!

Note: All movies are mentioned with their original titles. International titles are within brackets as normal font respectively Italic as English translation when international title is not known.

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Author	Stefan Rechmeier
Location	Hille, Germany
Publisher / Issue	© DBCult Film Institute - © Stefan Rechmeier
Date	First edition: Winter 2008 / Second edition: 19 February 2012
Type	DBCult Film Institute dossier