Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS

''Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS'' is a 1975 Canadian exploitation film about Ilsa, a sadistic and sexually voracious Nazi prison camp commandant. The film is directed by American filmmaker Don Edmonds and produced by David F. Friedman for Cinépix Film Properties in Montreal. The film stars Dyanne Thorne in the titular role, who is loosely based on Ilse Koch, a convicted war criminal and overseer at the Buchenwald concentration camp.

Upon its release in early 1975, the film was immediately met with widespread controversy and critical derision, with Gene Siskel calling it "the most degenerate picture I have seen to play downtown". Particular criticism was directed at the film's graphic violence; which includes depictions of castration, flogging, human experimentation, and many other forms of torture. Word of mouth quickly spread, and the film was a considerable financial success, becoming a staple of grindhouse and drive-in theatres.

The popularity of the film led to the creation of three sequels, each of which saw Thorne reprise her role. The film's infamy eventually evolved into a considerable cult following, with the character of Ilsa becoming a pop cultural icon ubiquitous with "strong, aggressive" female authority. The film is considered one of the prominent entries of the Nazisploitation sub-genre, and to a lesser degree the sexploitation sub-genre.

Plot

In 1945, Ilsa ( Dyanne Thorne) is Kommandant of a Nazi prison camp. She conducts sadistic scientific experiments designed to demonstrate that women are more capable of enduring pain than men are and should therefore be allowed to fight in the German armed forces. A sadistic authoritarian, Ilsa has a voracious sexual appetite for men, choosing a new male prisoner each night to copulate with. However, owing to her hypersexuality, she is disappointed when her victims inevitably ejaculate and promptly has them castrated and put to death.

After dispatching her latest conquest, Ilsa oversees the arrival of a new batch of male and female prisoners. Though dismissive and dehumanizing of the majority of her wards, she becomes enamoured by the presence of Wolfe (Gregory Knoph), a blond-haired and blue-eyed prisoner who, unlike his compatriots, resembles the Nazi Aryan ideal. Wolfe, a German-American student who had been studying in Berlin before the war broke out, tells his cellmate Mario (Tony Mumolo), one of Ilsa's former victims, that he has the ability to ejaculate at will, allowing him to have sex with incredible endurance and skill. Wolfe demonstrates this when, called to Ilsa's bedroom at night, he manages to bring her to orgasm, becoming her first repeat partner whom she willingly spares.

Having gained Ilsa's confidence, Wolfe begins plotting revolt with Mario and a group of female prisoners who have borne the brunt of Ilsa's tortures. Meanwhile, Ilsa is made gradually more anxious by news of Allied forces breaking through German defenses. Believing that the enlistment of women into the German military will help stem the tide, Ilsa tries to convince a visiting General of her theories of female supremacy by showing him the various inhumane experiments she has subjected her female prisoners to. The impressed General awards Ilsa the Iron Cross for her efforts, while forcing her to fulfill his nascent urolagnia by giving him a golden shower.

With the Germans in retreat, the prisoners revolt, killing most of the guards and rounding up the surviving staff. Ilsa is tied to her bed with her stockings by Wolfe during a sex game, before he steals her gun and helps his comrades. Wolfe pleads with the other prisoners to leave the Nazis to be captured and tried by the Allies, but they insist that they'll escape punishment and summarily execute them. With retreating Nazi forces fast approaching, Wolfe and a lone female prisoner escape into the nearby hills as the remaining prisoners, including Mario, resolve to fight to the death. They are quickly outgunned by a Waffen-SS tank troupe, who promptly wipes out the small resistance.

The Commander disembarks and begins investigating the camp. Upon finding Ilsa tied up, he shoots her in the head before ordering the razing of the camp to destroy evidence of their atrocities. As he brags that the Allies will never know what happened, Wolfe and his fellow escapee watch from atop a nearby hill, the sole survivors of Ilsa's death camp.

Cast

* Dyanne Thorne as Ilsa
* Gregory Knoph as Wolfe
* Tony Mumolo as Mario
* George Buck Flower as Binz (as C.D. Lafleuer)
* Maria Marx as Anna
* Nicolle Riddell as Kata
* Jo Jo Deville as Ingrid
* Sandy Richman as Maigret
* Rodina Keeler as Gretchen
* Richard Kennedy as The General (as Wolfgang Roehm)
* Lance Marshall as Richter
* Jacqueline Giroux as Rosette
* Uschi Digard as Pressurized Chamber Prisoner ''(uncredited)''
* Colleen Brennan as Redheaded Prisoner ''(uncredited)''
* Sandy Dempsey as Prisoner ''(uncredited)''

Production

Development

After Lee Frost and David F. Friedman's ''Love Camp 7'' (1969) became successful in Canada, André Link and John Dunning of Cinepix Film Properties sought to capitalize by producing their own Nazi-themed exploitation film. Dunning was inspired by historical records of wartime medical experiments on unwilling human subjects, but also sought to add a female villain.

Dunning worked on the screenplay with writer John C.W. Saxton, drawing inspiration from Ilse Koch, wife of the commandant of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and, later, Buchenwald. Nicknamed “The Bitch of Buchenwald”, Koch was accused of several war crimes, including an experiment in which she had the skin of tattooed prisoners removed to make furniture. The film's central premise of Ilsa torturing women to test their endurance for pain was based on a wartime medical theory that women could take pain and punishment better than men, because they were better equipped as a result of the birthing ordeal.

Link and Dunning approached ''Love Camp 7'' producer David F. Friedman to produce, an offer he promptly accepted. Friedman was a veteran exploitation filmmaker, having produced numerous “roughie” sexploitation films, as well as Herschell Gordon Lewis’ seminal ''Blood Feast''. The director was Don Edmonds, an actor who’d begun directing sexploitation films earlier in the decade. Ilsa would be his third film as director, following ''Wild Honey'' and '' Tender Loving Care''.

Casting

Friedman’s first choice of casting for the lead role was Phyllis Davis. When she proved unviable, he sought out Dyanne Thorne to play the eponymous character. Thorne was a longtime Las Vegas showgirl who had studied under Stella Adler