#Ilsa Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks

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[fasterhaji]

Haji Filmography

Motorpsycho! (1965) 

Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965) 

Good Morning… and Goodbye! (1967) 

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) 

Bigfoot (1970)

Up Your Alley/ Bang Bang, the Mafia Gang/ The Mellon Affair (1971) 

Supervixens (1975) 

Wham! Bam! Thank You, Spaceman! (1975) 

The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)

Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks (1976)

The Amorous Adventures of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza (1976)

Demonoid: Messenger of Death (1981)

The Double-D Avenger (2001)

Killer Drag Queens on Dope (2003)

[schlock-luster-video]

Remembering grindhouse film icon Dyanne Thorne on the anniversary of her birth. Here's some Ilsa art!

[vintage1981]

Kino Lorber Launching ‘Kino Cult’ as Packaged-Media Label

Home entertainment distributor Kino Lorber is launching its Kino Cult genre brand as a packaged-media imprint focusing on collector-oriented Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD releases.

The Kino Cult imprint will debut as its own label in October 2023 with special Blu-ray editions of Jess Franco’s erotic horror masterpiece Lorna … the Exorcist (1974, featuring Lina Romay), as well as 4K restorations of Alien Outlaw (1985) and The Dark Power (1985), two video rental favorites from North Carolina indie Phil Smoot.

Kino Cult’s premiere 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release will be a deluxe edition of Clive Barker’s Underworld (1985), directed by George Pavlou, and featuring Denholm Elliott and Ingrid Pitt. Upcoming 4K releases for 2024 include the exploitation classic Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS (1975) and its sequels, Ilsa: Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks (1976), Ilsa the Tigress of Siberia (1977), and Ilsa, the Wicked Woman (1977).

While focusing mainly on horror and science fiction, Kino Cult will continue to embrace its trademark brand of “unapologetically weird” with such diverse genres as European erotica, grindhouse classics, and cinematic rediscoveries that defy categorization.

“Some of the most exciting rediscoveries are happening in the realm of cult cinema,” said Kino Cult curators Frank Tarzi and Bret Wood. “These strange and twisted movies are so unique that we feel they deserve their own imprint within the Kino Lorber family of labels.”

Kino Cult will expand its partnership with legendary cult label Something Weird, with collector’s edition releases to be announced soon.

Additional Kino Cult releases will be announced monthly.

[dirtythi3f]

Ilsa Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks (1976)

[gotankgo]

«Triple Ilsa wonderfulness! "Ilsa She Wolf of the SS", "Ilsa Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks" and "Ilsa Tigress of Siberia", Dec. 19 1986.»

[title777]

Dyanne Thorne

watched:

She Wolf of the SS 1975

Greta - Haus ohne Männer 1977

to watch:

Point of Terror 1971

Blood Sabbath 1972

Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks 1976

Ilsa the Tigress of Siberia 1977

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Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks (Edmonds, 1976)

[mudwerks]

(via Japanese Movie Posters: Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks)

Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks

Canada, 1976 Director: Don Edmonds Starring: Dyanne Thorne, Max Thayer, Jerry Delony, Uschi Digard, Haji

[fasterhaji]

[vintage1981]

Dyanne Thorne, Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS Star Dies, at 83

Dyanne Thorne, who starred as a wicked soldier of fortune in the Naziploitation film Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS and a pair of sequels, has died. She was 83.

Thorne died Jan. 28 of pancreatic cancer while in hospice care in Las Vegas, Howard Maurer, her husband of 44 years and frequent co-star, told The Hollywood Reporter.

After a turn as the Fairy Godmother in the X-rated Pinocchio (1971), Thorne portrayed a warden in a Nazi concentration camp in the waning days of World War II in the lurid She Wolf of the SS (1975), directed by Don Edmonds.

Ilsa subjects her female prisoners to torturous medical experiments to prove they can withstand pain as well as men and thus be able to serve in combat. She also has lots of sex with her male prisoners, and those that don't satisfy her are castrated.

According to the 2008 book The Porning of America, the movie was made on the Culver City set of the CBS series Hogan's Heroes, which had recently been canceled.

"The initial torture scene was not in the original script. Not until we showed up on set that day. So I didn't know they were going to do that scene and [I thought the] little bit that was in the opening of the scene would not be so graphic," Thorne recalled in a 2011 interview.

"When I did it, they poured the red into the water for the blood and they had me walk around. This was the sweetest actor in the world that they castrated. I must tell you that was probably the most shocking scene in my entire life. And from there it just got one shocking torture right after the other."

In his review, Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune called Ilsa "the most degenerate picture I have seen to play downtown" and "80 minutes of sado-masochism … [it] plays like a textbook for rapists and mutilation freaks." He also noted that the movie "is doing terrific business."

Thorne then starred in the Middle East-set Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks (1976), also directed by Edmonds; Ilsa the Tigress of Siberia (1977), helmed by Jean LaFleur; and Wanda, the Wicked Warden (1977), an unofficial sequel of sorts from Jess Franco.

A native of Greenwich, Connecticut, Thorne sang and appeared on the stage; the theater was her first love, her husband said.

She had walk-ons in the studio films Who Was That Lady? (1960), Love With the Proper Stranger (1963) and The President's Analyst (1967) and appeared with Robert De Niro in the 1965 short film Encounter and on the second-season Star Trek episode "A Piece of the Action."

The 1970s also saw Thorne play a wealthy villainess in Point of Terror (1971), star with Anthony Geary in Blood Sabbath (1972) and show up in The Swinging Barmaids (1975), Wam Bam Thank You Spaceman (1975) and Chesty Anderson U.S. Navy (1976).

More recently, she was in the 2013 films House of Forbidden Secrets and House of the Witchdoctor — her husband was in those, too — and Exploitation (2018).

Thorne and Maurer for years ran a business in Las Vegas in which they served as non-denominational reverends to officiate weddings. She wrote scripts and he sang and played keyboards for the ceremonies.

Some clients would ask for an "Ilsa Wedding" — "Ilsa is an icon all over the world," Maurer pointed out — and she would preside dressed in a military-style costume, with the swastika replaced by an American flag. Occasionally, Thorne and Maurer were flown out of state and even out of the country to perform the marriages, he said.

Mike Barnes reporting

[downloadarmy]

Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks

Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks

Ilsa works for an Arab sheik who enjoys importing females to use as sex slaves.

[watching-pictures-move]

Movie Review | Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks (Edmonds, 1976)

Without giving away too much about the ending of Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS, let's just say that it isn't naturally conducive to a sequel, at least one featuring Dyanne Thorne's titular character (which I must regretfully inform you might be considered a pun). Yet here she is, back and as alive as ever, in Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks. This one trades the World War II setting for a more contemporary tale (contemporary during its original release, anyway) in which Ilsa finds herself part of a despotic regime led by the evil Sheik El Sharif (Jerry Delony, whose other notable screen credits include Richard Linklater's Slacker and a Ray Dennis Steckler porno that sounds even more dismal than the ones I've seen). We know he's evil not just because he relishes any opportunity for cruelty (observed when he has a man covered in oil and lit on fire while he watches approvingly with some pretty sweet sunglasses) and keeps a harem full of sex slaves (among them Colleen Brennan, then sexploitation star and later hardcore pornstar with a pleasingly toothy smile she sadly doesn't get to flash here, and Uschi Digard, the Russ Meyer regular introduced here as a "Scandinavian love goddess"). We know he's evil because he also keeps oil production artificially low.

This naturally raises the concern of America and other western nations, and dispatched to meet with the sheik are a Henry Kissinger analogue and his hunky American aide. Now, to call this a satire of the 1973 oil crisis would be extremely generous, although one might find an inkling of resonance in how the movie shows America's willingness to tolerate repressive regimes when convenient to its own interests, even if the movie doesn't argue this with any elegance. Personally, I'm a sucker for movies that awkwardly shoehorn in real world figures, and in casting the hammiest possible actor as the Kissinger stand-in (whose onscreen highlight is a tantrum he throws by flailing his arms and making teapot-like poses in exasperation) and depicting him as a pedophile to boot...well, folks, I laughed. Sometimes the low blows land.

The hunky American aide catches the eye of Ilsa, and the resulting affair (which features sex scenes with equal opportunity nudity, to their credit) catches the ire of El Sharif, who has both of them tortured (the aide is menaced by a tarantula, Ilsa is molested by an undead-looking hunchback). The two of them then scheme to get their revenge, and the movie climaxes like the original with an uprising, with Ilsa's (mostly topless) harem taking up arms against the palace guards (many of whom have their faces hidden by keffiyehs, I assume to recycle extras and keep costs down). This is followed by an ending that like the original has a certain amount of irony, but is perhaps less dour, depending on which part of the geopolitical arena you sympathize with.

This hits a lot of the same beats as the original movie, interspersing a number of sexually charged torture sequences throughout the plot, and featuring a male challenger for Ilsa as well as an uprising, although Ilsa is on the other side of the conflict this time around. And like the original this is directed fairly artlessly, although the higher production values give this a less dingy feeling, occasionally rising to the ambience of a Middle Eastern themed Playboy photoshoot. And while Thorne, with her arch, forceful screen presence, is again the primary reason to see this, she's paired with a pretty fun foil in Delony, who matches her for sadistic teeth-gnashing glee. And on the whole, this is a lot more palatable than the original, toning down Ilsa's Nazism and turning her into a general dominatrix/authoritarian type (she makes a few references to her preference for Aryan men, but otherwise seems tolerant of the diverse female cast; this does however contain some pretty negative portrayals of Arabs, so it is not without its offensive qualities). The tortures are also less extreme this time around, likely in an attempt to secure an R-rating instead of the X the original was slapped with. (Sadistic highlights this time around include a scene where Ilsa scares some new slaves with a cute little mouse in a cage, explosives jammed into private parts, and a scene where some of the slaves have their chastity belts unlocked, in a shameless ploy to show some bush closeups.)

All that being said, even though this is better made, I suspect Ilsa would not be quite the icon as she is were this the first movie, as the original's junkier construction lets her presence shine in a way this better rounded movie does not. And while the campier tone here makes this easier to swallow for most people, it arguably loses the sense of transgression of the original, which was channeling Nazi atrocities for kicks. I'm not trying to defend the original, which I think is pretty bad, or its genre, which I find morally reprehensible, but merely to note that the earlier movie got a reaction out of me that this one did not.

[ronaldcmerchant]

ad for ILSA,HAREM KEEPER OF THE OIL SHEIKS (1976) and the never made ILSA MEETS BRUCE LEE IN THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE 

[mastcomm]

Dyanne Thorne, 83, Star of Scandalous ‘Ilsa’ Films, Is Dead

Dyanne Thorne, who starred in one of the most notorious sexploitation movies of the 1970s, “Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS” — a head-spinning mix of Nazi fetishism, sadism and female empowerment that is still talked about by grindhouse film aficionados as well as by more serious scholars — died on Jan. 28 in Las Vegas. She was 83.

Her husband, Howard Maurer, said the cause was pancreatic cancer.

Ms. Thorne began in show business as a singer and comedian before veering into risqué movies like “Sin in the Suburbs” (1964) and a version of “Pinocchio” decidedly not for children (1971).

The release of “Ilsa,” though, in 1975, elevated her to an entirely different level of fame, at least among moviegoers of a certain stripe. The film and her character, a Nazi doctor with a taste for sex and torture, became cultural touchstones of sorts, inspiring, among other things, songs by several rock bands.

The movie, directed by Don Edmonds, begins with Ms. Thorne’s character having sex with a prisoner and then presiding over his castration, her frequent punishment for those who do not satisfy her. “This was the sweetest actor in the world that they castrated,” Ms. Thorne told the website Horror Cult Films in 2011.

Ilsa also conducts medical experiments on female prisoners, hoping to show that women can tolerate pain better than men and should therefore be allowed to serve in combat.

The movie, shot in nine days on the studio set once used by the prisoner-of-war sitcom “Hogan’s Heroes,” became an unexpected hit, catching on overseas as well as in certain markets in the United States, including New York, when it had a long run in a then-seedy Times Square.

“To our surprise, ‘Ilsa’ went through the roof,” John Dunning, a founder of Cinépix Film Properties, the production and distribution company behind the film, wrote in his memoir, “You’re Not Dead Until You’re Forgotten” (2014, with Bill Brownstein), adding, “It played more than a year in Brussels alone.”

The whip-wielding Ilsa was so popular that, even though she died at the end of the movie, she was brought back for “Ilsa: Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks” (1976) and “Ilsa, the Tigress of Siberia” (1977). (Ms. Thorne also starred in another film released in 1977 under various titles — “Ilsa: The Wicked Warden,” “Wanda: The Wicked Warden” — that is sometimes regarded as a sequel and sometimes not.)

Mr. Maurer said in a phone interview that Ms. Thorne, whom he married shortly after the first “Ilsa” movie was released, was simultaneously in demand and untouchable because of the reaction to “She Wolf.” He ended up representing her in negotiations for the sequels because no agent would, he said.

Her interests outside of acting included, perhaps incongruously, the ministry. She was an adherent of Science of Mind, a religious movement established in the 1920s by Ernest Holmes, and was an ordained nondenominational minister, Mr. Maurer said.

The two of them had a wedding business in Las Vegas, with Ms. Thorne generally writing the ceremonies and Mr. Maurer, a musician, providing music. Some clients would opt for an “Ilsa wedding.”

“She would do it in costume, in some of the things she wore in the films that we still had,” Mr. Maurer said (though never, he added, with any swastikas). “She would put in little nuances from the films that every fan recognized. Sometimes she’d use the whip. It was all done tongue in cheek.”

She did her last Ilsa wedding in November.

She was born Dorothy Ann Seib on Oct. 14, 1936, in Park Ridge, N.J., to Henry and Dorothy (Conklin) Seib. She was raised largely by her mother, who held various jobs, including seamstress and jeweler, Mr. Maurer said. She took courses at New York University and studied acting, including with the teacher Uta Hagen, he said.

The theater was her first interest. She was a “Casino Cutie” in the original cast of “This Was Burlesque,” a revue that opened at the Casino East Theater in Manhattan in 1962 and ran for more than 1,000 performances before transferring to Broadway in 1965 (although by then Ms. Thorne was no longer in the cast).

She also appeared in skits on Jack Paar’s variety show and similar TV programs in the early and mid-1960s.

Mr. Maurer said a happenstance of wardrobe helped Ms. Thorne win the “Ilsa” role. She had a part-time job as a chauffeur at the time and arrived at the audition straight from a driving shift wearing her uniform.

“She walked inside in this chauffeur’s jacket and jodhpur pants,” he said, “and one of the guys said, ‘That’s her!’”

The movie was loosely inspired by the life of Ilse Koch, the sadistic wife of the commandant of two concentration camps, Sachsenhausen and then Buchenwald.

The movie won Ms. Thorne so many fans that some were still lining up to chat with her at autograph conventions years later. Vincent Canby, however, the courtly film critic for The New York Times, was not one of them.

When he saw the movie, or at least part of it, in 1975 for an article that carried the headline “Now for a Look at Some Really Bad Movies,” among the things he didn’t care for was her attempt at a German accent.

“At the point I walked out of the theater,” Mr. Canby wrote, “she was having an argument on the telephone with a superior officer whom she repeatedly addressed as ‘Hair Gain-hay-ral.’”

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[fasterhaji]

Haji in Ilsa Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks (1976)