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The Sinful Dwarf
[Severin]
1974; color
Directed by Vidal Raski
Starring: Anne Sparrow, Tony Eades, Clara Keller, Werner Hedmann, Gerda Madsen, Dale Robinson, Jeanette Mardsen, Lisbeth Olsen, Jane Cutter & Torben
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Touted as "the mother of all Dwarfsploitation movies" (a not entirely inappropriate description, all deference to The Terror Of Tiny Town aside), this is truly one of the weirdest films I've ever seen. If there's one thing to be learned from The Sinful Dwarf it's that in the '70s, especially in Europe, you could get away with putting just about anything - and I do mean ANYTHING - in a movie and someone, somewhere would release it. Where else are you gonna find a story about a toy-obsessed perverted dwarf and his perpetually drunken ex-showgirl mother who runs a creepy rooming house with a secret attic full of naked girls held captive, doped up and used as whores, paired with a subplot about heroin smuggling? Only the realm of Eurosleaze, my friends. I'm not sure I can even comprehend what "inspired" William Mayo to write this story but it's no surprise that, afterwards, he didn't pen another script for over 20 years. The story centers on a young married couple, an unsuccessful writer and his wife, Peter & Mary, who decide to stay at said run down rooming house (because it's cheap) while he tries to sell some of his stories around town. At night, while Peter sleeps peacefully, Mary is kept awake by strange noises coming from the attic and footsteps going up and down the stairs. With Peter's out during the day she's left alone in their dingy room with nothing to do, so she starts snooping around the house to try and suss out the source of the noises. She goes into the attic and finds nothing but a bunch of dusty, cobweb covered relics and a smattering of the dwarf's toys, all of which creep her out. Undeterred, and despite Peter telling her she's got a wild imagination, she grows more and more suspicious. When Peter can't get a regular writing gig he gets a job working for a toy maker named Santa Claus who, as it turns out is the landlady's heroin supplier. When he gets sent to Paris for three days (unbeknownst to him to pick up stuffed animals that are actually stuffed with heroin) Mary stumbles onto the secret room in the attic where the girls are being kept. But, before she can go to the police, she's caught by the landlady, chained to a wall, booted up with dope and raped by at least one "customer." When Peter returns from Paris he finds Mary gone with only a note saying she "can't take this anymore." (A note typed by the landlady.) Surprisingly un-distraught, he goes back to work at the toy shop but when he overhears the dwarf come in and have a very weird conversation with Santa Claus he puts two and two together, finds the dope in the toys and goes to the cops. I don't have to detail every bit of the finale, but needless to say Mary and Peter are reunited and mother and son end up quite dead. I'm not sure if I can recommend this to anyone except fans of the totally weird and bizarre.
—the Kommandant
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