Ilsa - The Wick dvd movie.|
Ilsa - The Wicked Warden cheap dvd videos, dvd movies for sale |
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List Price: $29.98 Features • Anamorphic • Color • DVD-Video • Full Screen • Widescreen • NTSC In Theaters : February, 1979 DVD Release : 11 July, 2000 |
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| ♥♥♥♥♥ | Franco takes on Ilsa |
| 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. |
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