The Endangered List (Case File #49)

THE CAPTIVES (1970)

Directed by
Carl Borch
[Lee Frost]

Produced by
B.T. København
[Armand Atamian]

Photographed by
E.R. Frederiksen

Assistant Director
Brüel Marquart

Sound Recording
Hans Sørensen

Editing Supervisor
Peter Cooke

CAST
Brigit Krøyer (Avi)
Karl Hansen (Max C. Kragh)
Orla Nsu (Edith)
Leif Betheas (Jorgen)
Annelise Dette (Liala)
Emil Kjarum (Steen)

Rating: self-applied X

Released by
Phoenix International Films


PLOT

Max C. Kragh (Karl Hansen), a wealthy industrialist, and his wife Edith (Orla Nsu) are traveling through the hills of Denmark heading toward their weekend retreat, when they see a young girl, Avi (Birgit Krøyer), thumbing for a ride. They stop for the girl, and suddenly Max is pulled from the car by two of Avi’s friends, Steen (Emil Kjarum) and Jorgen (Leif Betheas), while Liala (Annelise Dette) watches happily from the other side of the road.

The kids seem unmotivated in their violence, as though they were a representation of a future generation of wild human animals that our society has only begun to get a taste of.

Half crazed with drugs, they kidnap Max and his wife and break into an unoccupied house. Now their hidden, depraved thoughts are brought out into the open. The night becomes an orgy of lust and terror for Max and Edith. They are subjected to countless indignities. Max best represents their hatred for the establishment and becomes the focal point of their terror. At last, Edith is sexually assaulted by all while Max is forced to watch, the final act of debasement in an already lust filled night.

Film director Carl Borcht moves his cast expertly through a story that on occasion seems almost stylized and unreal, which only heightens by contrast the scenes concerning human sex. The film has a message far greater than “don’t stop for hitchhikers.” Denmark is the first country in the world to legalize pornography. Perhaps through that the generation depicted here could be possible.


The second of three micro budgeted, non-sync-sound softcore quickies that director Lee Frost and producer Armand Atamian made using short-end scraps of film and then passed off as Danish productions through their Phoenix International Films -- the other two "imports" being RIDE HARD, RIDE WILD (1970) and SLAVES IN CAGES (1971) -- THE CAPTIVES first hit theaters in March of 1971. Phoenix International later collapsed into Freeway Films when Atamian started producing hardcore hits like BEACH BLANKET BANGO, CONFESSIONS OF A TEENAGE PEANUT BUTTER FREAK and the Johnny Wadd series. According to Atamian's niece, Julia St. Vincent, Frost loosely remade this for Freeway as the hardcore SWEET CAPTIVE (1979), starring Rhonda Jo Petty, John Holmes and Paul Thomas.


The older actor pictured below -- credited as "Karl Hansen" -- looks a lot like John Dunn from Richard Robinson's ADULTERY FOR FUN & PROFIT and IS THERE SEX AFTER MARRIAGE?


Julia St. Vincent and her sister worked for their Uncle Armand while they were in high school and designed many of the Phoenix International one-sheets and ad mats, including the ones featured here.