Ilsa, the Tigress of Siberia (1977)

ILSA, THE TIGRESS OF SIBERIA, is the third film in the ILSA series I've watched and my favourite yet. That's not to say I particularly enjoyed it, but I am pleased to report that it doesn't just focus on senseless and sleazy torture like the previous movies in this series. Instead, it has an actual plot for once, alongside action sequences to recommend it.The storyline sees Ilsa now working at a remote Siberian prison camp where the inmates are routinely abused and killed (including by a tiger in one memorable moment). She sets her sights on one particular Russian agent, but he manages to escape her clutches when the camp is overthrown. Later, Ilsa and her chums are holed up in Canada, where she once more runs into the agent she's obsessed with punishing.There are a few torture and gore scenes in this film but they're relatively tame and if not tame then at least unrealistic. Most of the film seems to have been devised as a softcore flick, with tons of sex scenes involving Dyanne Thorne in various states of undress. She's certainly an arresting beauty, and her charms just about carry the film, at least until an arresting shoot-out at the climax which is handled adroitly. ILSA, THE TIGRESS OF SIBERIA is no classic but at least it's less offensive than the previous outings and has a better story.

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".

"Ilsa, The Tigress of Siberia" is an okay entry most of the time.**SPOILERS**Running the Gulag 14 prison in Siberia, Ilsa, (Dyanne Thorne) uses her various torture methods to keep the prisoners in line. When the list of new recruits shows up to begin their punishment, she has an excuse to use her methods once again, using them to rule the camp with an iron fist. Finding that prisoner Andrei Chikurin, (Michael Morin) is unbending in his stead, she tries to ever-amounting forms of torture to break him, but when news comes of the camp's impending closure, she tries to eradicate it and all evidence of what happened, leaving him for dead. Escaping without her knowledge, he finally accidentally comes across her years later as the head of a prostitute-house ring in Montreal, and once she finds out that he is a former prisoner of her camp, she tries to tie up her loose ends once and for all.The News: This one wasn't all that bad, and did have some good points. The fact that there's some really nice sleaze moments in here when necessary is a great plus. The nudity in here is really nice, coming close to the original in terms of quantity, and that's not a bad sign. From the inventive sex scenes with her herself, where she sometimes takes on two at once in raunchier scenes than anything else would showcase, and the fact that the later half of the film is about a prostitute ring is the perfect catalyst for much more of it. The scenes in there, from the intense massage to the undressing and the actual scenes of them all going at it in there are pretty much what has come to be expected in these kinds of scenes. There's only the feeling that none of this comes off as sleazy as it did before, since none of it is really dirty or disgusting, as it was in the past, or merely showing it because it could. That's also the main difference with everything in the film, as it features the same stuff but none of it is dirty or sleazy as it could've been as they're not presented in that light. The torture scenes in the Gulag part are actually really great and brutal, and again, not as graphic as what came before in the series, come off as very cruel; and creative. The tiger pit is the greatest idea, where a cage above the pit with the snarling creature below leads to some really tense scenes before the inevitable happens, and the dunking in the ice water between two points spread out on the ice is sheer genius. The later scenes aren't that great, as the ones in the house are great in theory but produce really cheesy scenes when they're fears are realized through the virtual-reality program. These are so far removed from the tone of the film that it's hard to really understand their inclusion, or why they're really fears at all when done so cheaply, taking the sting right out of the sequences. It does make up for them with two really nice action scenes, including an incredibly fun sequence in the prison where they close it down and remove all traces of the prison, where they round up or shoot the prisoners, torch the remains and everything else, and the struggles and opportunities at fighting back while with the fire are really fun and action-packed. The finale, a confrontation at the house between the operatives and the guards is bloody, violent and really fun, being quite long and actually features a lot of good stuff about it, which ends the movie on a high note. All these things combined, this one turns out rather nicely.The Final Verdict: While not the greatest entry in the genre, this one does get very entertaining at times and is a decent cap to the series. Give it a shot if you're a fan of the series or have an urge to see this one, but the fact that it is so different from the other ones in the series is something fans have to get over.Rated R: Full Nudity, Graphic Violence, some Language and a few mild sex scenes

1/10 And it's pity they don't have "0" (zero). :)Even if (in this time - 1977) Dyanne Thorne had a nice body, the movie Tigress is a lot idiot.Actor/actress are not so good too. Music is like the movie.Photography is bad. Story have no sense. Fight are a joke. Well it's that. I think it's a comedy finally ! :)I have some difficulty we can put this movie in theater and make money. But even today they are movies like that so why not in 1977.If you collect "Series Z" movie buy this movie. Else forget that and even don't watch it.