I'm a long-time aficionado of classic Eurotrash films, which generally means a time period between the later 60s until the middle (and occasionally later) 80's. It was a kind of odd twilight period for many things, but especially for the weirder/ridiculous and yes trashy side of films in Europe (where I live, though am not from but moved to because of a number of reasons... the legacy of trash was a big factor though!). The Israeli/German production "Die Pinups und ein heißer Typ" ("The Pinups and a Hot (Guy)") fits right in the timeline and fully encompasses what I love about this.. well, not "genre" but it sort of is in its own way. This really was just meant to be a normal type of "film" but ends up with the "trash" tag as it generally is a bit exploitative and technically a "mess", but in SUCH the right way that it goes into another category than it originally expected.
I'll do a brief overview of the plot as it's pretty simple, basically this down-on-his-luck German songwriter guy named Fredy (Sascha Hehn) really wants to have a hit and decides he wants to have a girl-group make it happen for him. He recruits various misfit girls (who are all randomly American though somehow just in Germany because.. whatever) to be in the group. His main hit he really wants to make happen is honestly the worst song of the whole movie (though by the end of the film it finally gets a better version done of it), "Where Are You Now Number One". After failing at getting audiences to care, Fredy and the other main guy Rolf (Moti Giladi) decide to go "New Wave" to make the girls seem "hip" and "now". This becomes the best decision they could have made, especially for us as viewers, because this is when the film really kicks in (around the 40 minute mark). When the girls get their new wave makeover they bust out one of the best songs of the film, "New Wave Lover" (which is one of the alternate English titles of the film), this song is GOLD. Totally catchy and I keep rewatching it rather frequently. Same goes for a song that shows up a bit later with the girls going full-crazy for the performance of the song "Neon" which is fantastic. Both songs are absolute highlights, in addition to the other big heat number "Money & Love", which is more minimal (the lyrics are just 2 words). Also noteworthy are Moti Giladi's impressions of various people, including Billy Joel and amazingly Amanda Lear!! Of course there's a tacky trans-joke made about her but that was sadly typical of the time.
Anyway, to cut a long story short Fredy is an oddly difficult guy and for reasons that aren't particularly clear blows up at the girls rather often and this becomes a problem later on. I won't give spoilers but I don't think it necessarily matters. The main things to care about are the musical numbers anyway, I've honestly just gone back and replayed the 3 hottest songs over and over. I'd suggest trying to search for the actual album "The Pinups" and wonder where all this somehow went wrong and never actually got anywhere it seems. Perhaps there had to be a large number of years for it to be lost and rediscovered to be appreciated, which can often be the case. Still, I think it's totally worth watching!
