Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS

Most here are aware of how this one plays out. Experiments are conducted on war camp prisoners, which are all overseen by our lovely Fraulein Doktor (of title fame). This gal has a nasty habit of collecting male "forget me nots". Some collect stamps. Others, genitals. Call her an eccentric.

Anyhow, politics between the camp and Berlin come into play along with an American she can't figure out (and the requisite escape plans brewing), but those are mere plot details. No sense boring everyone with gratuitous information on the storyline when there's some juicy bits to discuss.

Torture of many respects abound in this one. Castration, gang rape, bacterial/viral injections, human lobster pots, slow hanging (mit eis schmelzen), nipple 'trodes, the list goes on and on. The production values are pretty fair in this one (the sets being left over from "Hogan's Heroes") and the makeup's not half bad. The acting's a bit over the top in "Ilsa", especially with the doktor's blonde henchwomen, but who can really fault topless floggers? Not I.

Thumbs up for me here. It's only single "X", but still some nasty fun.

Charlie.

Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS certainly deserves its reputation as a nasty film. Although it is thoroughly cheesy, poorly acted, routinely directed, and extremely camp at times, the film still packs a punch due to its ability to offend and disgust at every turn; the depiction of Nazi atrocities in the name of entertainment is hard to defend (so I'm not even going to try) and this movie pulls no punches with its well executed graphic violence and horrific torture scenes.

Ilsa, played with gusto by chesty blonde Dianne Thorne, is the Kommandant at a concentration camp where she oversees medical research performed on the female prisoners. Meanwhile, she uses the males to try and satisfy her sexual needs (and when they fail, she has them castrated!). It is up to German/American stud Wolfe to lead the prisoners in a revolt against the guards whilst simultaneously gaining Ilsa's trust by rogering her senseless at every opportunity.

This notorious sleaze classic packs so much depravity into its 96 minutes running time (uncut), that lovers of exploitation will have a field day. From the opening scene in which Ilsa's sex slave is dragged back to the camp to be emasculated, to the ending in which the prisoners exact bloody retribution, sex and violence pervades every frame. The effective make-up FX by Joe Blasco are repugnant enough for hardened gore-hounds and fans of the female form will be delighted by the copious amounts of nudity (nearly every woman gets naked at some point in the film!). And lets not forget the scene in which Ilsa pees on the Nazi general...

Thirty years after it was made, Ilsa still has the ability to shock—the mark of a true exploitation classic!

Ilsa is one sadistic mama who tortures men and women to prove that women have a greater threshold for pain and also just for the fun of it. This is the first of a series of exploitation films featuring Thorne, who is endowed with certain God-given gifts that are prominently displayed. In fact, her bra should have received the Oscar that year for best supporting an actress. It is intended to be trash and it makes no attempt to rise above that. There is plenty of nudity and gore. It would have been better if the violence could have been toned down a bit but the blood looks so fake that it is not very disturbing. This qualifies as a guilty pleasure.

I completely see why some people really like this movie (director Quentin Tarantino among those that do).

The movie may have been slightly cringe-worthy when I saw it (mostly the way the director relishes in the dirty art he has created), but in retrospect is fluff compared to a lot of the movies I've seen since then. Even though this movie is pure, unadulterated carnage and heinous acts throughout the entire course of the film, it had a redeeming quality.It's hard to pinpoint what made this movie so appealing to me. It was a perfect emblem of the pure sleaziness and overall decadent atmosphere of the 70's smut prevalent at this time. Like all grindhouse films, it appeals to the baser senses - filled with excess violence (grizzly and well-done) and sex. And it's shot amazingly well for such a poor film. I expected it to be grainy and imperceptible.

There's an element of immorality felt when watching films like this, but it's a healthy outlet to sublimate impure thoughts. It's sensationalist, yes. Probably no artistic merit either. But it's an appetizer of the 70's Perversia. I do think it's mostly meant to be titillating and gross for the sake of being gross. It's so blatantly in-your-face tasteless and bad that I love it. Stay away from it if you don't have a knack for the depraved.

ILSA: SHE WOLF OF THE SS

Aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Sound format: Mono

Ilsa, the sadistic female commandant of a Nazi concentration camp, conducts hideous medical experiments on her female inmates and is 'serviced' nightly by a studly male prisoner who is secretly plotting rebellion against her monstrous regime.

Produced in the wake of successful women-in-prison thrillers such as THE BIG DOLL HOUSE (1971) and the notorious LOVE CAMP 7 (1968), Don Edmonds' ILSA SHE WOLF OF THE SS preceded a wave of Nazi exploitation titles which flooded the grindhouse circuit during the 1970's, particularly in Europe (cf. Horrifying EXPERIMENTS OF THE SS LAST DAYS, THE GESTAPO'S LAST ORGY, SS EXPERIMENT CAMP, etc.). Aiming to outdo his competitors in terms of sex and horror, "Ilsa" was conceived by legendary producer David Friedman (SEVEN INTO SNOWY, THE RAMRODDERS, etc.) as a combination of softcore sleaze and hardcore violence, photographed on standing sets from the recently-cancelled TV series "Hogan's Heroes" (unfortunately, Friedman fell out with the film's Canadian backers during post-production and is billed on-screen as 'Herman Traeger'). Ilsa herself is played with unrestrained gusto by the wonderful (and wonderfully endowed!) Dyanne Thorne, a statuesque beauty who uses her voluptuous charms to seduce and destroy her helpless victims, in a manner both Sadean and erotic.

But the movie's sexual candor is offset by a series of tortures and medical experiments - courtesy of Joe Blasco's revolting makeup effects - rooted in appalling historical fact: For instance, the wound in a young girls' leg is deliberately infected with gangrene, and another unfortunate victim is forced to stand naked on a quick-melting block of ice with a noose tightening around her throat while SS officers dine in front of her. Reckless bravado or depraved opportunism? YOU be the judge...

Edmonds was clearly unable to get all the coverage he needed to tighten long-winded dialogue sequences (some scenes drag as a consequence), but while production values are sparse, the film is designed and photographed with consummate skill, and the climactic showdown between Ilsa and her former inmates closes proceedings on a note of genuine horror. You have been warned! Thorne featured in two legitimate sequels, ILSA: HAREM KEEPER OF THE OIL SHEIKS (1975) and ILSA: TIGRESS OF SIBERIA (1978), along with Jesùs Franco's tawdry cash-in GRETA THE WICKED WARDEN (1977).