Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS (1975)

ILSA: SHE WOLF OF THE SS (1975) is doubtlessly one of the most notorious Exploitation movies of all-time, and for good reasons. There is no doubt that the film is sick and sadistic, and it is understandable that many find it to be despicable. Yet it is also undeniable that this is classic Exploitation stuff and that every hardcore lover of cult-cinema (such as yours truly) kinda has to see it. Along with Tinto Bras' SALON KITTY (1976), director Don Edmonds' film which was produced by the prolific David F. Friedman (who also produced Hershell Gordon Lewis' early gore films) spawned the Nazisploitation (or Nazi-Exploitation) sub-genre (which practically is a sub-sub-genre of the WIP or Women In Prison movie). These films, mostly from the otherwise best Exploitation country Italy, usually managed to be extremely sleazy and brutal, yet very boring at the same time. ILSA is the undisputed classic of the Nazisploitation genre, and certainly the most memorable film of its kind. Whether that is a recommendation lies in the eye of the beholder. While ILSA (and all the other Nazisploitation films) are strongly against the Nazis who are entirely portrayed as evil, it also trivializes this very sensitive topic, which is of course even more questionable since way more Holocaust-survivors were still alive in the 70s. (Then again, the producer's name is Friedman, and I recently saw a documentary about the popularity of Nazi-porno novels in 70s Israel, so who am I to judge...)The eponymous sadistic female Nazi-villain Ilsa (played by the huge-breasted blonde Dyanne Thorne) is the commander of a Nazi experiment camp. In order to prove that females are better soldiers than men, she conducts gruesome experiments on the female prisoners. She also has sex with the male prisoners, whom she castrates after being disappointed in the can. This changes when the super-potent American prisoner Wolfe is brought to the camp and satisfies her non-stop...Apart from the idea of Nazi-exploitation as such being questionable, ILSA also has a somewhat anti-feminist message: Even the man-eating villainous bitch gets tamed when she is properly getting... err... satisfied. The film is incredibly perverted and gruesome, and while the violence is often exaggerated to a ridiculous point and hard to be taken seriously it is yet very disturbing. The female cast members, most of which are naked for the majority of their screen time, are beautiful, but the setting and sadistic violence makes that impossible to enjoy. Without getting into detail, I can say that there are plenty of notoriously gruesome sequences, some of them hard to look at even for experienced exploitation fans, others more ridiculous than truly disturbing.Interestingly, this is a German-American co-production, even though the film was banned in Germany (probably both for the violence and the controversial Nazi-topic). Apart from the countless rip-offs, the movie also spawned two sequels, ILSA: HAREM KEEPER OF THE OIL SHEIKS (1976) and ILSA THE TIGRESS OF SIBERIA (1977), as well as the unofficial sort-of-sequel GRETA: HAUS OHNE MÄNNER (aka. ILSA THE WICKED WARDEN, 1977) by the Spanish Exploitation deity Jess Franco.In a nutshell, ILSA is highly questionable and I can understand everybody who finds it despicable to make such a trashy movie about such a sensitive topic. However, it is a must-see for my fellow Exploitation fans (even though nowhere near as essential as other super-notorious classics such as CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST or MARK OF THE DEVIL in my opinion). Definitely not for the easily offended.

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.

This is really sick , but what's most offencive is the statement at the beginning stating that this film is based on factual events and that the tortures depicted have been done so in the hope that these heinous acts never occur again. Absolute Balderdash! THis is really the lowest form of exploitation imaginable, the type that degrades both men( the presumed audience for this misogynistic crap) and women. It's even served up as Feminist diatribe, as Ilsa tries to prove that women can withstand pain better than men can. What makes this film almost intolerable is it's mean spiritedness. Salo was every bit as mean spirited but it didn't try to pawn itself off as based on fact, even though it's probably closer to realism than this is. Shameful!

I tried watching this thing after reading the other comments on IMDb, expecting to have my mind blown. Or at least the part responsible for good, sound moral judgement. Maybe I'm just dulled from seeing contemporary newscasts, but the most shocking feature turned out to be the ample supply of untrimmed 1970's bush.The only other thing worth noting was that the German soldier kept shouting 'raus, raus' at a prisoner even when she was already well out of the truck. Clearly one of the supermen. Didn't stick around long enough to get in to the rest of the storyline. I can see the artistic merit of the lead figure, though, in a Lacanian sense: 10 points for inventing her, minus 7 for putting her in such a sh@tty movie. Can't wait to skip through the 3 sequels.