Higher and Higher (3 Stars)

In the introduction to the film, the director Erwin C. Dietrich calls this Ingrid Steeger's first film. That's not true. She made five films from 1966 to 1969, before she made "Higher and Higher" in 1970, but I understand what he means. Her previous appearances were all minor roles. This is her first lead role.

Ingrid Steeger was born on 1st April 1947 in Berlin. Her early film roles, from 1966 to 1973, were almost all sex comedies. Then she became a regular on the TV series "Klimbim", a German equivalent of "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In", so she no longer appeared nude in films. From 1973 to 2006 she was considered a serious actress and starred in many films and TV series, so we never saw her riding nude on motorbikes again.

From 1970 to 1972 she made eight films with the Swiss director Erwin C. Dietrich. They're usually referred to as her Swiss films. (There was a ninth Swiss film that Erwin C. Dietrich produced but didn't direct). Her Swiss films were erotic, but not all of them were comedies. On the contrary, "Higher and Higher", her first Swiss film, is a tragedy.

The original film title is "Ich, ein Groupie", which means "I am a groupie".

Ingrid Steeger plays Vicky, a young girl who lives in London. She sees a rock group playing in the park, and she's fascinated by the music. The singer, Stewart West, is fascinated by her, so he invites her to a party. She takes marijuana for the first time, after which they have sex. She says she loves him, but he laughs at her. His group has to go to Berlin to play a concert the next day, so she asks if she can go with him. He says Yes, but he gives her the wrong time, and he leaves without her.

Vivian, another girl who follows the band, has overslept. Vicky persuades her to travel to Berlin with her to find Stewart. Vivian says Vicky is silly, but she doesn't mind an adventure, so the two girls leave together.

The film turns into a road movie. The girls visit Amsterdam, Zurich, Munich and Berlin. They can't afford hotels, so in each city they go to rock concerts and sleep with the musicians to get a bed for the night. Every night Vicky sleeps with a different man. Every day she takes stronger drugs, progressing from marijuana to heroin and LSD. In Zurich she briefly joins a gang of Hell's Angels. In Berlin she's invited to a cult of Satan worshippers, where she's whipped and tortured.

Murphy Blend was a remarkably good German group who only made one album. They sound similar to Deep Purple.

Birth Control is still together today, 50 years later. They've made 20 albums together. The bass guitarist, Bernd Koschmidder, didn't know what hit him. First Vicky dances on stage with the group. Then she goes back to his apartment, rips his clothes off and rides him to exhaustion.

Normally I wouldn't mind sex scenes in a film, but in this film they're all somehow depressing. While having sex with other musicians, Vicky is thinking about Stewart. Then there are the drugs which she takes before and after sex. Her life is spiralling out of control.

Is there a happy ending? No. At the end of the film she overdoses on LSD. She runs through the street naked, thinking that she's running through the mountain valleys in Switzerland. A car hits her, and she's dead on impact.

The film's message is clear. Don't hang out with rock stars, or you'll end up dead. I don't like this message. The only thing I like about the film is that there's a lot of nudity, and Ingrid Steeger was a beautiful woman.