Review: "Mädchenjagd in St. Pauli"/Dark Nights in St. Pauli 1966: How low can you go?

January 04, 2025

Review: "Mädchenjagd in St. Pauli"/Dark Nights in St. Pauli 1966: How low can you go?

1966 was a watershed year in the development of the Krimi movie. Every movie I come across from that year is filled with mayhem, naked bodies, and murder. All hover around the same true-crime case of Helga Matura (a grisly murder of a call girl). This one here is basically the bottom of the barrel. It is so cheaply made that the whole decoration (for all the "sets"=rooms) consists of cut-outs from the merchandise to "Mondo Di Notte no.3." It took me a while to realize that they simply deleted the lower part of the movie posters so that the title is missing. Well. Furthermore, not much of the movie has survived. The only available print is missing one complete film roll (=20 minutes), is severely cut and mutilated (most probably by horny projectionists, taking their share from that movie—knowing no one would or could care).

This is a strictly "Hamburg" affair, with the novel it is based on being published in a local daily tabloid newspaper (where else?) and everything (including the "Austrian" border) is shot there on location. I am very sure that there are no studio shots here; all is on location, and it really looks worn down and filthy.

The story: We are informed that "Today's girls are in danger of being drugged and abused, which can lead to lethal outcomes" by our trusty inspector-from-the-police voice-over. Needless to say, while the credits are rolling, we see a VW Hippie van being used as an emergency transporter, and a drugged, lifeless woman is transported to a hospital.

Immediately dead, the medic-in-charge can directly point out that she died from an ultra-rare South American poison and calls the police. Now the story of how this came to be unfolds: Very statuesque Margot Hildebrand is a nightclub singer addicted to prescription pills that she gets from the nightclub manager. As he demands natural compensation instead of the usual monetary one, she flees into the night and breaks down. She is found by a gay artist who takes her to his room. Surprised that he did not take advantage of her, she offers to undress and marry him. Meanwhile, a friend of this artist travels from Austria in his red British sports car, carrying the drugs to Hamburg.

"Austrian" Border. Sure.

Arriving in Hamburg, he gets informed that they get the prescriptions from a certain doctor, who is currently on vacation. So our drug smuggler should charm the doctor's female assistant into getting the prescriptions. He does but drugs her to have easy sex with her, and she dies. (?)

He then visits his friend, the artist, to meet the singer. He then drugs her to have sex with her and she dies. (?)

The police is now on his tracks, looking for the red sports cabriolet, as is the syndicate for the bad "publicity" he is giving them. Finally, they hand him over to the police. In between we get a completely unconnected subplot about a pimp trying to lure a girl to Munich where "he would make her dreams come true." Just mentioning it.

Mobster special agent Vera handing
over the accused to the police.
Justice in progress!.

The (??) result out of a whopping 20 minutes = 1 film roll that is missing from the only surviving print. Given that this is the most saucy one and that in this print different projectionists had already cut out stuff, I frankly cannot provide you with any insights on how wild that movie actually is. That what's left to see is mild nudity and Doris Wishman roughness, but nothing extraordinary...

Margot Hildenbrand surely was talented.

The seedy backdrops of Hamburg absolutely
look realistic here. Amazing!

"Money to burn"—obviously first-time director "Günter Schlesinger" had a lot of cooperation from the wild side of Hamburg here, as most of the actors are virtually unknown and might be actually recruited in the nightclubs. There is a series of erotic-sleaze-krimis, all depicting different German cities, but Hamburg's St. Pauli later became a brand of it's own with numerous Krimi-escapades filmed there by Rolf Olsen, who, coincidentally, had put out his own Giallo-Callgirl-Murder Epos, "In Frankfurt sind die Nächte Heiß" in 1966. The latest St. Pauli vice/crime movie was "Der Goldene Handschuh" in 2019 (The Golden Glove).

The movie does not seem to have been distributed outside of Germany, not even in BeNeLux, which hints at the very low-budgeted distribution also. The movie was offered to the British market in a subtitled version, "Dark Nights in St. Pauli", and there are some newspaper adverts as indication that it was shown in "specialised halls" such as London's "Odeon Cafe". Premiere was at Birmingham's Jacey-Tatler in May 1968 that was specialized in "continental feature films". Obviously it was one print that was circulated from May-June 1968.

Schlesinger directed other Hamburg/sleaze Krimis like "Schrei nach Lust - Liebe als Köder" (Cry for Lust - Love is the Lure) in 1968 with most of the crew returning (including Hildenbrand). He frequently returned to the subject up to "Kokain - Tod in St. Pauli." (Cocaine, death in St. Paul.) - a true auteur, sticking to his subject in 1986.

I cannot possibly judge this one as 1/4 is missing. What may or may not be on the missing roll might be very important. As a curio, this is fine to have seen, but sadly leaves you with the taste for wanting more...

Not much to show you here, except for the modern-made trailer HERE.