Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS

When this movie first came out in the 70's it was a 42nd street style grindhouse pleaser that would have shocked mainstream audiences; however with the advent of video few will be so shocked today. Ilsa is impossible to take seriously. Sure medical torture was carried out by the Nazis but this movie is not like Men behind the sun, and you will be left questioning the authenticity of Ilsas source. Ilsa can be enjoyed as an exercise in bad taste that John Waters would enjoy; torture, Nasty nazis and a range of bad accents, though Joe DeBlascos SFX makeup is pretty good.The camerawork is good giving it a gritty feel, and the sets (used by Hogans heros!) are impressive. Ilsa will neither exceed nor dissapoint as an exploitation flick, and thats my recommendation.

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!

An exploitation classic that is a surprisingly enjoyable film. Ilsa, the Arian commandant of a secret medical facility, sets out to prove to her doubting superiors that women are able to endure greater pain and suffering than men. She does this by torturing the female inmates in increasingly diabolical ways, while trying to break the American 'sexual freak of nature', Wolfe. Cue lots of gratuitous nudity, castration, strangulation, boiling alive, magnificent pre-implant breasts, softcore sex and gang rape, golden showers, and general bloody mayhem. The German accents are hilarious, and the acting barely one step up from Hershael Gordon Lewis and early John Waters. It even has the ubiquitous 'moral message' at the beginning. But unlike so many of these movies, 'Ilsa' manages to avoid descending into tedious repetition half way through, and builds to a brilliantly ludicrous climax in which an entire camp is gunned down by machine gun fire, without a drop of blood being spilt. Brilliant.

Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS is a surprisingly well-made film, given its garish title and unabashed exploitative intent. For all the gore, nudity, and laughter inducing dialogue, the film features good camera work, quality special effects, and a quick moving plot. It follows the travails of an American soldier sent to a Nazi medical camp run by Ilsa, who is obsessed with proving women's superior capacity to handle pain so that she can go to the front lines.

Ilsa represents Nazispoitation at its finest. Throwing the history book out the window, the film gives us a Nazi concentration camp populated by topless female guards and open lesbians. Just for fun, it adds gory experiments which all seem to require attractive nude women. Is it tasteless? Lords yes! But it's also fun.

What takes this a notch above other exploitation films is that genuine talent was involved. Ilsa has quality cinematography and surprisingly good special effects. (This may be because, as director Don Edmonds points out, many of the people involved were mainstream filmmakers working under pseudonyms for a quick buck.) Although no one would mistake it for Oscar material, Ilsa is a worthwhile film for all exploitation fans.

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).