Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS (1975) - Edmonds' notorious Nazisploitation sensation

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Promises of sensational sex and violence feature prominently on this no-holds-barred exploitative poster for Don Edmonds' Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS

In SS commandant Ilse's small concentration camp in Nazi-era Germany, women are rotting their lives away or getting trained in pain to be prepared as prostitute slaves for the German soldiers, while the male prisoners are used - and castrated. But a rebellion smoulders ...

Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS is written by Jonah Royston (The Starlost (1973, TV-series)) and John C.W. Saxton (Blackout (1978)) and directed by Don Edmonds (Wild Honey (1972)).

This sensationalistic and entirely sleazy and tasteless film is elevated by good camera-work (cinematography by Glenn Roland (First Strike (1984))) and a thoroughly sadistic performance by Dyanne Thorne (Hellhole (1985)) as the title character. The story is titillating (for the right audience) and the tension builds slowly despite possible confusion as to who is supposed to be the 'hero' of the tale.

 

 

Watch a clip from the film here

 

Cost: Unknown, projected 100k $

Box office: Unknown, projected 5 mil. $

= Uncertain but likely a mega-hit (projected return of 50 times its cost)

[Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS premiered in January (Boston) and runs 96 minutes. The story is loosely inspired by the Buchenwald camp commander's wife Ilse Koch, who was imprisoned following WWII for her crimes. Shooting took place in Los Angeles, California on the left-over set from Hogan's Heroes (1965-71), which the production was allowed to use on the condition that they demolish it after. The film was released to derisive reviews, bans in Australia, Germany and Norway, - and thunderous audience interest. Regrettably the gross numbers are not public information, but they were likely huge: The film sold 186,204 tickets in the small market of Denmark, one of its relatively few markets, coming to approximately 400k $. It may well have grossed more than 5 mil. $. It inspired three sequels, all with Thorne, and none that logically made sense in relation to each other, the first one being Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks (1976), which was Edmonds' return. Thorne first returned in The Swinging Barmaids (1975). Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS is rotten at 36 % with a 4.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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Overlord (2018) - Contemporary preferences jammed into tedious WWII horror action

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Paratroopers dropping from a plane mirror blood splatters on this otherwise starkly white poster for Julius Avery's Overlord

American paratroopers are dropped across a French countryside in a jumble of death and fire on the eve of D-Day (6th June 1944, WWII), and once safely on the ground they are tasked with blowing up a tower, - but a grim Nazi secret is awaiting them...

 

Overlord is written by Billy Ray (Volcano (1997)) and Mark L. Smith (Martyrs (2015)) and directed by Julius Avery (Son of a Gun (2014)).

It presents a graphic novel and video game reminiscent version of WWII with 'attitude'-prone soldiers, (anachronistically for the period their behavior curiously resemble 2010s age teenagers), who feel no visible consequences of any of the insane intimate experiences with death that they go through here.

Aside from these dubious character issues, the film is polished stylishly and bloody, with Nazi experiment monsters and a (politically correct for today) black hero. Overlord is a very basic, 'what-are-you-gonna-do-with-it' type of tiresome ultra-violence product.

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 38 mil. $

Box office: 41.6 mil. $

= Huge flop (returned 1.09 times its cost)

[Overlord premiered 22 September (Fantastic Fest, USA) and runs 110 minutes. Shooting took place around May 2017 in England. The film opened #3, behind fellow new release The Grinch and holdover hit Bohemian Rhapsody, to a 10.2 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it fell out of the top 5 in its 2nd weekend and grossed 21.7 mil. $ (52.2 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Russia with 2 mil. $ (4.8 %) and the UK with 1.6 mil. $ (3.8 %). Avery returned with Samaritan (2022). Jovan Adepo (Fences (2016)) returned in 6 TV and voice performances prior to his theatrical return in The Violent Heart (2020). Overlord is certified fresh at 82 % with a 6.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

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Gestapo's Last Orgy/L'ultima Orgia del III Reich (1977) - The ultimate Nazisploitation trash

ZERO

 

Several lascivious scenes from the film are teased on this Italian poster for Cesari Canevari's Gestapo's Last Orgy

 

A WWII Nazi concentration camp leader runs a camp, where Jewish women are broken down, abused and killed, is astonished at the prisoner Lisa, who is seemingly impossible to illicit a reaction from. Their S&M relationship develops fatally.

 

Gestapo's Last Orgy is written by Antonio Lucarella (The Nude Princess/La Principessa Nuda (1976)) and co-writer/director Cesari Canevari (Per un Dollaro a Tucson si Muore (1964)).

It is a film that left me completely cold. It seems impossible to be aroused by this Nazi exploitation horror in any way, and certainly impossible to care for. The most depraved about it actually isn't that it uses the Nazi era as a pretense to launch several more or less sensational agony and death scenes, - this, of course, was the staple in the Nazi exploitation sub-genre, - but that it stages the concentration camp life with a horny enthusiasm as a piquant sexual experiment, which wasn't all that terrible for the Jewish women. - At least they seem fairly passive in many of the scenes, such as the orgy scene, which, like the rest of the film, is unsensational in a dull way.

Gestapo's Last Orgy doesn't embrace its own inherent lowness, as for instance the much superior Ilse: She Wolf of the SS (1975), but it attempts quite a lot and appears to actually consider itself respectable to some degree. - Which only makes it worse.
 

 

Hear the main theme from the film here

 

Cost: Unknown

Box office: Unknown

= Uncertain

[Gestapo's Last Orgy premiered 31 January (Italy) and runs 92 minutes. Hardcore sex scenes were reportedly shot but subsequently cut out. The cost and theatrical performance of the film is regrettably not recorded online. The film was labeled as a 'video nasty' in the UK and has never been officially released there: It received its most recent denial of a DVD certificate by the British censorship organ the BBFC in January 2021. Canavari returned with Killing of the Flesh/Delitto Carnale (1983). 1,183 IMDb users have given Gestapo's Last Orgy a 4.3/10 average rating.]

 

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