Customer Reviews

Ilsa - The Wicked Warden

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Ho boy, what to say about this? I admit to viewing this and the original Ilse movie out of curiosity...well, my curiosity has been satisfied. Of the two movies, this one is more everything. It's sexier, it has much more girl/girl doings, and it has longer sickening torture scenes in it. And the gross out ending should satisfy all who enjoy such things. The scary part is the fact that this is clearly meant to be entertainment, and that there are people who will be entertained by it.

I would dearly like to give this a one star rating...goodness knows I'm not likely to be recommending it to anyone. I even hesitate to let anyone know I've seen it. However, I am not one to pass moral judgments. Privately, I feel this movie should never have been made, but I don't have the right to decide what other people are able to see. So, I will allow it three stars, but with the warning to all that this is absolutely a gross out cult film.

The first film in the Ilsa series, "Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS," stands as one of the most horrific exploitation films ever made. Seriously. Even I blanched over the atrocities depicted in the movie. Moreover, it's a rare bird as far as films go because it never loses its power to shock. In fact, I think the first Ilsa movie becomes even more disgusting with each subsequent viewing. Apparently, audiences flipped their cookies after seeing the movie at the drive-in. Word of mouth led to bigger ticket sales, which in turn led to thoughts about a possible sequel. If you've seen "She-Wolf," you know the idea of a sequel is laughable since Ilsa took a header at the end of the movie. But the wacky world of cinema knows no bounds when the scent of money is in the air, and even the demise of a primary character won't prevent Hollywood hacks from revisiting old ground. Remember the Bobby Ewing dream sequence imbroglio? If they can get away with something that outrageous, resurrecting the deceased Ilsa presents no problem at all. Ilsa returned to die again, and then Jesus "Jess" Franco moved in to take his crack at the Ilsa mythology. Thus was born "Ilsa, the Wicked Warden."

Dyanne Thorne reprises her role as a sadistic torturer of young women in Franco's effort, but this time she's hamming it up somewhere in South America as the head kook at a clinic for female degenerates. The plot is the equivalent of crayon scribbling from a three year old: a young woman escapes from this clinic, receives mortal wounds during the escape attempt, and manages to tell her story to a local physician before dying (Or does she?). This man, Dr. Milton Arcos (Jess Franco himself!) tries to goad the authorities into launching an investigation into the clinic. Nothing much happens at a public committee meeting, but a young woman named Abbie Phillips (Tania Busselier) accosts Arcos in the parking lot afterwards. She's the sister of the aforementioned victim, also a journalist, and she wants Arcos to help her infiltrate the clinic in order to bring the evildoers to justice. Like I said, a three year old with a box of crayons likely crafted the script. It's not like the plot is all that important; it serves merely as the most tenuous of threads with which Franco can tie together his usual penchant for nudity, depraved violence, and ham fisted dialogue. One thing is for certain: "Ilsa, the Wicked Warden" easily maintains the sleaze factor established in the first two films.

The arrival of Abbie Phillips into the sanitarium sets in motion a series of banal events that culminate in the execution of head warden Greta...er, I mean Ilsa (Dyanne Thorne). While trying to discover what happened to her sister, our heroine befriends a female inmate who tells us with great glee how she used to be a man, runs afoul of cellblock bully Juana (Lina Romay), and witnesses the red haired Greta/Ilsa beast rule over the patients with an iron fist. The sleaze washes over us in waves. Numerous shower scenes involving all the girls fail to provide kicks thanks to frequent cutaways to the leering visages of Greta's two ugly female sidekicks. At least someone finds this stuff thrilling. Then there is the subplot involving the male prison guard making cash on the side by selling films of the atrocities in the clinic to a guy on the outside. And who can forget Greta's shenanigans? Who can forget how she uses Juana as a human pincushion? Or the injections and electric shocks she delivers to recalcitrant prisoners? That our gal looks like a million bucks with red hair, a black beret, and a bust that makes grown men weep while committing her outrages is just icing on the cake. By the time the film shows us the consumption scene--intercut with real footage of lions devouring meat--we all must acknowledge we've just scene a "classic." Check, please!

"Ilsa, the Wicked Warden" came out under a number of alternate titles, including "Greta, the Mad Butcher," "Wanda, the Wicked Warden," and "Greta, the Sadist." I happen to enjoy a few Jess Franco films, like "Faceless" and "Vampyros Lesbos," but this one falls into the schlock category. If you want to know what doesn't work here, take your pick: dialogue, dubbing, editing, pacing, direction, acting, and lighting--it's all abysmal. Even after Anchor Bay gave the film a boost during the transfer to DVD, the movie still looks cheap and cheesy. Franco probably shot it on inferior film stock to save a few bucks. The best thing about the film, and I know I'm stretching to say something positive, is how Dyanne Thorne looks like she's making a different film than the one we're seeing, and indeed this suspicion receives confirmation from the actress on the commentary track. Yet despite the myriad negatives, and I could go on and on listing even more vileness contained in the movie, I'm going to give this film three stars. Why? Because Dyanne Thorne is still a real kick to watch even though she might as well be phoning in her performance from Venus. She's fascinating.

Extras on the disc include a trailer, cast and crew biographies, and a commentary track. Give this last feature a listen. Dyanne Thorne, Howard Maurer, and "humorist" Martin Lewis discuss every aspect of the film. All three roundly condemn the picture as pure schlock, and discuss everything from room accommodations while on the shoot to the weird world of Jess Franco filmmaking. Lewis seems fascinated with the number of films made by Franco, and equally fascinated by the bizarre alternate titles most of his films carry. Fans of exploitation will definitely want to give this a watch, although I recommend the first two Ilsa films over this one.

... I wish I'd just rented it instead. It started out kind of erotic, but got gruesome toward the end --- and I mean REALLY GRUESOME!!! I like women-in-prison flicks, but only for the eroticism. This one wasn't really erotic. It was just bad.

I have seen all of the Ilsa movies several times (yes, I admit it) and this one is by far the best. First, a warning: if you are easily shocked, offended, or disturbed, you won't make it through this (or any other Ilsa) movie. I am not exaggerating or saying this lightly. It takes a lot to disturb me, but this movie did the trick. If you love campy women's prison movies, this is also a must-see, though it is much darker and sicker than most of them. Yes, this is an exploitation flick and does not try to hide this fact, but it has a plot, and characters you care about. A woman's sister is being held in a women's prison, so she goes 'undercover' to try to rescue her. The b*tch in charge of the prison is the most twisted, sick, evil, sadistic warden you will ever find in any women's prison movie-- the one and only Ilsa, (or Wanda, or Greta the Mad Butcher, depending on which version you see) the Wicked Warden. Her idea of a nice relaxing evening is using one of the female inmates most sensitive bodyparts for a pincushion, and I am describing the scene tactfully. Others she lobotomizes when they get out of line (or just for fun). The heroine's plan to infiltrate the prison and her sister goes horribly awry when she realizes things in there are much, much worse than she could have dreamed of and there is no escape. The movie's ending is a total show-stopper, when Ilsa comes to one of the most fitting, vividly grisly, ugly endings that you will ever see. Not the most pleasant movie to watch--the first time I saw it, I felt sick for not turning it off and continuing to watch the horrible acts being committed. However, I've seen a lot of really great, bad, and twisted horror/shock/exploitation films, and this one really stands out, with realistic characters, the courage to have a very downbeat ending, and no glamourization of the violence. The images in this movie will stay with you for a long, long time. For some people, that's a warning, for others, a strong recommendation. You think you've seen it all? You haven't, till you've seen this.

Jess Franco's "fake" third entry in the ILSA series is total trash, but still entertains and delivers so much sleaze that fans shouldn't be disappointed. The new DVD is an excellent presentation of this euro-trash classic. The film is actually not an ILSA movie -- Thorne plays a character called Greta (with red hair), but she's just as vile as Ilsa was so later on, the producers re-released the film with alternate titles including "Ilsa the Wicked Warden" as well as "Wanda the Wicked Warden" (the "Wanda" trailer is on the DVD and in it her character is called Greta!).....confused yet? Anyway, there's nowhere near as much violence or gore (except that pin scene or the finale) as in the previous 2 Ilsa flicks, but "Wicked Warden" has plenty of nudity to compensate! It's pure euro-sleaze all the way Franco-style! I must say it's great Anchor Bay could secure these three flicks for release, but it's a shame they couldn't get the "official" 3rd and final Ilsa movie "Tigress of Siberia" (although I'm sure they tried). I guess my VHS will have to do for now.

For fans of true '70's Euro-erotic classics such as The Story of O and Emmanuelle, this film does not deliver any quality erotic scenes. First, the women in the film are mostly unatractive and frumpy looking. The violent S&M scenes are less creative than some Showtime films these days. The lack of "eroticism" is evident from the first five minutes and remains so, throughout the film. It is a shame a poorly produced sexplotation film, such as this one made it onto DVD format, while a first class film such as "The Story of O" has not!

Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS could not be taken seriously; the acting was over the top and it was done on a cheap budget. It is fun to watch if you didn't take it seriously. I wasn't really prepared for the very hard edged nature of this DVD. I have seen the other Ilsa videos, but clearly The Wicked Warden is very hard edged and with little humor. There are plenty of shower scenes and fighting in the shower with wrestling on the floor which may amuse viewers. But between that are scenes of torture and brutality which may put off some; I felt it was more cruel than it needed to be. In a short, this DVD was not a lot of fun to watch although the DVD was a spotless print and there was plenty of frontal nudity. Viewer be cautioned.

I bought this Korean version of the classic exploitation film I saw back in the 80's and I was disappointed about the editing. To put if clearly, all the below the belt nude scenes were almost all cut except for a few needed for movie continuity. If you are going to buy this film: Buy American. This Korean version claims, "complete and uncut." It wasn't

On a couch with white flowers he ended his life. World War II will continue to be one of the defining factors of many people's lifetime. It has been the subject of works as disparate as Bob Fosse's "Cabaret" and Roger Waters' "The Wall". Somewhere in the middle lies "Ilsa-The Wicked Warden". Hitler as woman. Woman as Hitler. This movie exemplifies one man's 20th century fantasy. If Hitler had never existed, someone would have invented him. Popular culture has invented it's own Hitler. We now have images of him and his reign that are ambiguous. Anti-Semitism became the shame of Germany and the world. But hey, this movie didn't torture anybody and it turned a few people on. Hopefully, when a movie like this appears it means that our violent impulses can be channelled into a money-making enterprise instead of genocide. Many people dug themselves out of thier own graves to tell the tales of Hitler's atrocities. It is these people and others that escaped the Final Solution that best may appreciate "Ilsa-The Wicked Warden". Laugh and/or cry while you watch this movie. This is the only Ilsa movie that matters. It poses as exploitation, but works better as education. Many good people were made to fight on his behalf. Hitler was a coward and we must never forget his accomplishments. The ideas that fueled his insane rise to power are still alive. Like it or not, his beliefs will bring to power another like him. Thomas Jefferson said that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. As long as we are alive we have the responsibility to preach the message of love. Hearts that are hardened by hatred have the ability to melt. I hope that you are one that can laugh at "Ilsa-The Wicked Warden".

Oh dear. This isn't really an Ilsa film, but was changed at the last minute, as Dyanne Thorn was playing such a similar character it seemed daft not to cash in. As a result, all references to the character's name on the soundtrack and the titles have been sloppily altered. It really wasn't worth the trouble, as this is a very feeble continuation of the series, by famous hack Jesus Franco, who has trebled the amounts of naked female flesh on show, but drastically reduced all the other elements that made the films interesting. For the record, this film sets Ilsa in some kind of prison/reform school for wicked women, where she presides over staff and inmates alike with absolute power. There are long scenes set in showers, bedrooms, toilets, you get the picture, but very little cruelty, which is after all what we expect. Dyanne Thorn looks great as ever, even as a redhead instead of icy blonde, but the camera work is so shoddy, and the make-up effects are so diabolical (check out the climactic "death by hands and teeth" scene - pathetic!) that its really not worth bothering.