Hostage [aka Savage Attraction] (1983)    New World/Drama-Thriller    RT: 90 minutes    Rated (sexual content, nudity, violence, language)    Director: Frank Shields    Screenplay: John Lind and Frank Shields    Music: Davood Tabrizi    Cinematography: Vincent Monton    Release date: May 5, 1983 (Australia)/September 7, 1984 (Philadelphia, PA)    Cast: Kerry Mack, Ralph Schicha, Judy Nunn, Clare Binney, Lydia Kreibohm, Henk Johannes, Benno Sterzenbach, Moshe Kedem, Michael Harrs, Burt Cooper, Gabriella Barraket, Ian Mortimer.    Box Office: N/A

Rating: ***

 Take a gander at the poster I selected for this review. Look at the sexy lady in the negligee posing provocatively on the bed. Read the tagline talking about “a 16-year-old girl looking for excitement” and “the men who turned her innocence into something savage.” With a title like Savage Attraction, it has to be a dirty movie, right? WRONG! This is what we call a “bait and switch”. All of the above is a means of luring people into the theater with the promise of softcore sex only to give them a crime drama about a young girl married to an abusive psychopath. Its original title is Hostage and it’s based on the supposedly true story of Christine Maresch, an Australian teenager who committed bank robberies with her husband Walter in the late 70s. I say “supposedly” because I can’t find anything on this case other than this movie. I Googled Christine’s name and Hostage is all that came up.

 I was one of the suckers that bought a ticket to Savage Attraction when it hit US theaters in ’84. My 16YO self thought it was going to be like one of the dirty movies shown on late night Cinemax. I guess you could say the poster served its intended purpose. At the time, I didn’t like it. I felt cheated which I let cloud my objectivity. Although I never forgot the experience, I never felt compelled to watch it again until I recently came across it under its original title on one of my streaming services. In the 35 years that passed, I developed an appreciation for Ozploitation so I decided to give it another chance. This time, I liked it.

 Hostage opens in 1974 with Aussie teen Christine (Mack, Desolation Angels) running away from an abusive household and joining a carnival where she meets Walter (Schicha, Loft), a charming German maintenance worker who flatters his way into her heart. He proposes marriage and shoots himself when Christine turns him down. He refuses life-saving surgery unless she marries him first. Once married, they move in with her mum (Nunn, Prisoner: Cell Block H) who clearly disapproves of their union. It isn’t long before she gives birth to a daughter. Naturally, the real nightmare has yet to begin.

 Walter is clearly unhinged. He’s prone to fits of anger and violence. He’s also very controlling. First, he tricks Christine into moving to Germany by promising he will arrange an abortion for her once they arrive. He’s lying, of course, abortion isn’t legal in Germany (at least not at that time). Next, she discovers he’s a member of the Nazi Party and plans to help restore his fatherland to its former glory under Hitler. Angry about Christine sneaking off to Holland for an abortion, Walter makes her help him rob a bank by threatening to keep her from their daughter. The robbery gets him exiled from Germany by the Party as he can no longer be trusted. As they go from place to place, Christine grows more terrified of her husband and wants to escape with their daughter. Of course, he won’t let that happen.

 All things considered, Hostage is a more appropriate title than Savage Attraction although I must admit to liking the latter one better. Why? It’s a cool sleazy title even if it is misleading. As for the movie itself, it’s an interesting piece that mixes domestic melodrama with international crime. It sometimes seems too far-fetched to be true. Take the main characters’ detour to Turkey where they’re propositioned by a fez-wearing Turk who wants to buy Christine and their daughter. It results in a violent altercation where one man has his throat slit (graphically, I might add) and another is run over by their car. For my money, it’s the best scene in the movie. Still, it’s hard to believe this actually happened…. that is, if any of Hostage happened at all. I’m not saying it didn’t but why can’t I find anything on it?

 I must admit that the acting is pretty good for a cheap tabloid-style melodrama. Mack, an attractive lady, endows Christine with naivety and frightened submissiveness as she simultaneously loves and fears her increasingly paranoid and possessive husband. Although the situations aren’t always believable, her character is. As Walter, a delusional person who truly believes in his wrong-headed cause, Schicha is scary as hell. He’s completely bonkers. He’s also in love with Christine although that doesn’t mean much for a person who confuses love with control. The two actors have volatile chemistry. Their scenes together seethe with tension, violence and sexuality.

 The more I think about it, the more I like Hostage/Savage Attraction. I know, New World made a dumb move marketing it the way they did, but can you blame them. The case on which it’s based wasn’t widely known stateside. To break even at the box office, they needed a hook and sex is always a great one. It’s a classic New World stunt. I LOVE IT! The movie itself is good crazy fun with a climax that prefigures Dead Calm, another great thriller from Down Under.

 If you like Ozploitation, it’s definitely worth a look. As for me, I still find it funny how some bad movies improve with age. Hostage or Savage Attraction, whichever you prefer, is a more satisfying watch than a lot of big studio pictures from the past couple of decades. I never thought I’d write that sentence, but here we are.