Schamlos (shameless) is an exceptional Austrian movie by an exceptional director. While Austrian movies in the 60s mainly were Heimatfilme - colorful pictures about the better days back in the monarchy - Saller did not care too much about this mainstream and started with b/w exploitation cinema. His first movie - "Geißel des Fleisches" - came as a shock to Austrians, his second movie "Schamlos" repeated that experience.
A very dynamic Udo Kier stars as Pohlmann, a teenager setting up a gang to collect protection money, who falls in love with an exotic dancer, who gets murdered. Can Pohlmann revenge her? Pohlmann investigates in caravans, used as mobile whorehouses, threatens everybody he meets with violence - all in all, he behaves like bad guys should behave - especially if you take the German TV series "Der Komissar" as a pattern (which started 2 years later).
The score unbelievable - especially the main theme played during the scenes in the "beatschuppen" (mixture between speakeasy and disco).
All in all a really entertaining movie - and don't forget: you can always tell people that you just watch it for historical research...
"Schamlos" is now released on DVD in an edition by Austrian newspaper "Der Standard" for the first time ever - audio is only available in German.
7 out of 10
