Written by
Jonah Royston
Directed by
Don Edmonds
Starring
Dyanne Thorne
Gregory Knaph
Maria Marx
Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS (1974)
Plot
Ilsa, a sadistic doctor who seeks to prove that women can withstand more physical pain than men, runs a Nazi concentration camp where men are forced to do manual labor and occaisonally 'please' Ilsa herself (failure to do so results in castration) and women-stripped to the nude, of course, and with hair surprisingly well-kept for being in a Nazi death camp-are subjected to torture in the name of Ilsa's twisted brand of science. Now, though, Ilsa's iron fist is beginning to slip. She's become infatuated with Wolfe, a young American prisoner with the unique sexual ability to "hold it in," a woman with the strength and courage-or stupidity-to defy Ilsa and her worst tortures has turned up, and the Allies are fast approaching...
Comments
It's difficult to review this, which is exploitation at its best-or worst, depending on your point of view, without treating it as just another offensive explotation flick. In the uncensored version (which I got to see), nudity and sex is freely mixed with re-enactments of (supposed) real life concentration camp tortures. While certainly the vividness of these scenes are hindered by the low budget (I should say now that according to legend this movie was filmed illegally on the set of "Hogan's Heroes"), they are still strong. Among these scenes include a woman being boiled alive, a man being castrated, and maggots placed in a woman's open wound, and if you can imagine all this combined with softcore porn and constant female nudity you can get an idea of what this movie offers. With this mixture of eroticism with images of extreme violence and sadism, you have an experience that can be rather jilting, in spite of the camp.
The Nazis themselves are depicted as depraved and decadent, a concept that has existed in cinema since Roberto Rosselini's Rome, Open City. Ilsa herself is shown as an almost pathetic sadomasochist (in fact, it's this sex life that ultimately brings about her downfall), the Nazi gaurds care more about orgies and alcohol than their duty, and the visiting general re-enacts a bizarre sex act often attributed to Hitler by many biographers. The film almost seems to invite the viewer to share in the delight of the sexual depravity of antagonists that hold historical roots, which makes it all the more interesting or disturbing, depending on the strength of your stomach and humor.
Maybe, being an English major, I'm reading way too much in a film that's just mindless trash (I'm sure someone out there already wants to kill me for daring to make a comparison to a Rosselini film). Despite the often hammy acting and Dyanne Thorne's almost cartoonish German accent, there is little comedy to be found outside of the blackest possible. I've given this a high rating, but only because, for whatever reasons, it is engrossing. I can only recommend this to people familiar with this kind of thing (like you Jess Franco fans) or perhaps as an excellent rebuke to people who whine that recent movies are too distasteful and graphic.
Cast Connections:
Director Don Edmonds also wrote the pilot to the long-running USA series "Silk Stalkings."