Ilsa the Tigress of Siberia

I loved the other three, but it's easy to see why Jess Franco's Ilsa the Wicked Warden was picked as the third movie in the trilogy, and this one was forgotten. Nowhere near as shocking as any of the others. The best part of the movie is the starting when they're actually in Siberia (most of the movie takes place in like Canada or something). The deaths at the Siberian camp are entertaining, but the chainsaw/arm-wrestling scenes is cut under the title, The Tigress. Over all its a pretty boring action movie.

This is part of the Ilsa series (I think it's number 3). Apparently, the owners of this film would not sell the rights when the rest of the Ilsa movies were re-released on DVD a while ago. As a matter of fact, the only reason I have it is a friend of mine gave me a VHS copy of it that seems to be vintage (I don't even know if it has been released on DVD or another VHS run in a long time. Finding it may be kind of rare). It has its moments, but isn't as good as the rest of the Ilsa movies. It's basically the same type of story (Ilsa is sadistic and has sex a lot), and wasn't as coherent as the Ilsa stories (which sends it down in my opinion). I think that the writers put two different Ilsa stories they were working on together and decided to release it to make a quick buck.

The plot is that Ilsa is the Commandant of a Gulag in Siberia during the tail end of the Stalinist period. Ilsa enjoys two things, torture and sex (for those of you who have seen the other Ilsa movies, this should come as no surprise). She sets out on "re-educating" an author who has been sentenced there for writing criticisms of the Bolsheviks, but finds that he is a tough nut to crack. All hell breaks loose after Stalin dies and the guards have to destroy the gulag and escape. After this, things get goofy. Fast forward to 1976. The writer is now working as a security guard for the Soviet men's hockey team while they're at the Montreal Olympics. He is recognized at a brothel by Ilsa (who is now the head of an organized crime syndicate) and kidnapped. Ilsa decides to go through round two with the torture, but uses some new technology.

All in all, it was kind of lack luster. The biggest problem was that the script was really weak (the major weakness should have come out through the description of the movie). I also learned from this film that there are two identical lakes in Siberia and Quebec (they used the same damn hole in the ice in two separate scenes). Dyanne Thorne's performance is pretty much the same as in her other Ilsa movies, but this film just didn't live up to the rest. Sure, there's a lot of sex and torture, but somehow it really doesn't soothe the palate. I gave it a 3 because it did have some fun parts.

Some films have great stories. Others have thrills, suspense and mystery. This one has a phenomenal pair of breasts. And I have to admit that, all things considered, that's a pretty good production value. Yes, Ilsa the Tigress of Siberia may very well be an uneven movie in many ways but at the end of the day Dyanne Thorne is the only reason to watch this, right? Ms Thorne has a truly eye-popping physique and she gets naked a lot. And that's more or less it really.

The story is hilariously half-hearted. The cold-hearted and massive-chested Ilsa controls a communist gulag where she dominates a group of male dissidents. After a prisoner rebellion the story cuts to Montreal 1977, twenty-five years later. The gap in time is almost impossible to detect as everyone looks exactly the same. But even though I point this out, I really don't care because the filmmakers sure didn't, it makes no difference to this trash-fest. Somehow, Ilsa runs a luxurious whorehouse in this second half of the film, giving ample opportunity to feed us even more nudity and sleaze of course.

There's a bit of gore, quite a lot of torture and loads of T&A. Good enough for me.

Like the proverbial cat with nine lives "Ilsa" (Dyanne Thorne) is back and she has returned to the vocation for which she is best qualified--as the warden of a Soviet prison in Siberia known as "Gulag 14". Further, considering that the year is 1953 and Joseph Stalin is the leader of the Soviet Union, Ilsa pretty much has a free hand to do whatever she wants to the prisoners. That said, true to her nature, that means this movie will consist of plenty of torture and brutality along with a few sex scenes involving the beautiful Dyanne Thorne. Unfortunately, unlike the previous two films in the series ("Ilsa, She-Wolf of this SS" and "Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks") none of these scenes were as polished as in the two preceding movies and as a result this particular motion picture failed to achieve the same standards. In my opinion, it was unnecessarily raw and sleazy and lacking in both eroticism and depth. I have rated the movie accordingly. Followed by the 4th (and last) film in the series, "Ilsa, The Wicked Warden".

The first half of the movie is set in Gulag 14 in Siberia.Here,Ilsa(Dyanne Thorne)devises grotesque tortures for the prisoners,feeds their pieces to her pet tiger,and gets friendly with the guards.For the second half,it is 24 years later and she is running a chain of high class whore-house with the emphasis on torture."Tigress" is pretty lame-not as nasty as previous installments-and also quite dull.There's some gore,plenty of soft core sex and silly dialogue to keep the viewer entertained,but this is nothing in comparison to "Cannibal Holocaust","Forced Entry" or even "Ilsa-She Wolf of SS".However if you consider yourself a fan of low-budget sleaze you can give this film a look.5 out of 10.