Ilsa, She Wolf Of The SS [1974] Movie Reviews on CinemaClock

For a film that was shot in 9 days with a shoestring budget of about $150,000.00, the result is impressive. The first two Ilsa films (this one & ILSA HAREM KEEPER OF THE OIL SHEIKS)were directed in about the same number of days by director Don Edmonds and are better films than the third one directed by Jess Franco(not originally an ILSA film, Dyanne Thorne had red hair and had another name in it but it was later retitled as ILSA THE WICKED WARDEN)which had a bigger budget and which took about a month to shoot. ILSA SHE WOLF OF THE SS was the first film to feature a female villain who was the boss and was played very well by actress Dyanne Thorne. While Dyanne is easy on the eyes, the other delights of the first ILSA film was Sharon Kelly's apparence(she's the one who first hides her frontal nudity with a towel in front of a table where Ilsa is sitting, then she is whipped and is tied by the feet and hangs upsidedown)and Sandy Richman who has her neck in a rope and her feet on an ice cube at a lunch table. When the ice melts... well, you get the idea. For me that was the most memorable scene of the film when I saw it on home video about 20 years ago. At the beginning of the film there is a message from the producer(who didn't use his real name as he had a falling out with the other producers)that seems to state that the atrocities that we are about to see are shown to prevent them from ever happening again but the statement seems only to be there to avoid or to stop a wave of possible negative feedback from those who have a weak stomach because this is clearly an exploitation film. People will either like the film for the way it's pushing the violence envelope or for the full frontal nudity. Some won't like either one. I don't have any problems with the nudity but the violence of the SS experiences are a little bit extreme and will NOT be everybody's cup of tea. Still the film, made in the early 70's is not nearly as violent or disgusting as many others that were made at the same time. (Just think about all those 70's italian zombie cannibals flicks and you'll get the idea of what I'm talking about) At the time of it's release, ILSA SHE WOLF OF THE SS made a big profit and with the new dvd release in 2000, it has reached new fans and has clearly made it's place in film exploitation history.