User reviews

Retitled Ilsa the Wicked Warden and released as the third in the infamous Ilsa exploitation series featuring busty Dyanne Thorne, this movie from prolific director Jess Franco bores despite the excessive sleaze and gratuitous nudity on offer.

In an unspecified South American country, political prisoners are being committed to a maximum security asylum where they are tortured for information by the sadistic warden (guess who?). Whilst being subjected to torture (and, in one scene, rape by violent murderers), the prisoners are filmed by one of the guards who has a profitable sideline selling his specialist movies.

Enter Abbie Phillips, a beautiful young woman (and owner of the wildest 'bush' on the planet) who has had herself committed on purpose in order to search for her sister, an inmate who has mysteriously disappeared. Abbie must endure suffering and degradation at the hands of the inmates and staff before she can eventually discover the truth.

Less violent than previous Ilsa movies, but easily just as sleazy, this film is heavy on the sadism, perversion and nudity—all Franco specialities— and yet somehow it still manages to drag. Franco's awful direction and the overall low standard of acting certainly doesn't help matters; however, if you can endure the dreary parts, there are some priceless moments that make the effort worthwhile.

Lina Romay's performance as Juana, Ilsa's masochistic lesbian bitch, is particularly unforgettable. I guarantee that your jaw will hit the floor during the 'lick my culo' scene (you'll have to watch the film to see what I mean). Also worthy of mention is the scene in which Ilsa kills Abbie's sister with the old 'plastic bag over the head' routine. Nasty.

The shocking finale sees the warden set upon by the inmates, led by Juana who can no longer put up with Ilsa's wicked ways. The long suffering inmates literally tear her to pieces, biting and ripping her with hands and teeth—all the while being filmed by the movie-making guard who gets to deliver his potentially most profitable work so far: a snuff film!

There are tens of thousands of DVDs out there for the customer to purchase or rent, but viewers will have to look long and hard before finding a sleazier one than Jess Franco's contribution to the Ilsa saga, "Ilsa the Wicked Warden" (1977). Here, Dyanne Thorne, who thrice before portrayed everyone's favorite buxom blond sadist, plays a buxom redheaded (her natural color...who knew?) sadist who's in charge of a women's mental hospital in some unnamed tropical country. (Though filmed in Portugal, the picture seems to be set somewhere in Central or South America.) Franco, an incredibly prolific, oftentimes slapdash director in many film genres, with over 140 (!) titles to his credit, throws quite a bit into this Ilsa story to guarantee a good time (well, better make that "memorable experience"). Thus, we get to see electroshockings, a human pin cushion, cannibalism, feces eating, shower fights, vaginal cauterization (yikes!), transgendered lesbianism, gang rape, bloody whippings and so on. While the tortures on display are not as hard to take as the ones in Ilsa's first foray, "She Wolf of the SS" (1973), this picture somehow feels...well, "sleazier" is the only word that keeps coming to mind. Ilsa herself, monster that she is, looks absolutely outstanding here, and her just deserts at film's end will long linger sickeningly in the viewer's memory. The DVD that I just watched looks terrific--a first-rate transfer job from the fine folks at Anchor Bay--although the execrable dubbing throughout the film is a significant drawback. I suppose this picture is best recommended for Jess Franco or Ilsa completists only; needless to say, it is NOT the movie to watch with Aunt Petunia! It is as sick and, well, sleazy as can be, but for lots of folks out there...hey, that's entertainment!

In South America, Abbie Phillips (Tania Busselier) pretends to be a criminal to be interned in a clinic, with the objective to find her missing sister and get evidences of violence against the interns to prosecute the administrators. The `clinic' indeed is a camp of torture and sadism against women, commanded by Greta (Dyanne Thorne). One of the guards of the clinic films the women in humiliating sexual situation to a client, who pays big money for the tapes. The end of the story is very violent. Three days ago I bought this imported DVD with the name `Ilsa, the Wicked Warden' in a sale offer together with `Ilsa - She Wolf of the SS'. This sick and sadistic movie is not so nasty as `Ilsa- She Wolf of the SS', but is also very disgusting. The story is very shallow and incredible, sometimes ridiculous, for example when uses some Spanish exclamations or lost words or shows women with the body full of cellulite or pictures of guerilla, and presents basically only violence against the interned women. The trashy and violent end of the story looks like a horror movie and is the best this movie can offer. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): Movie not available in Brazil.

Anyone who has ever seen a 'women in prison film' will know exactly what to expect from this one. The production values for Ilsa - The Wicked Warden are really rather good, but don't let that fool you - as this is pure and utter filth and a welcome addition to Jess Franco's already sordid filmography. The film is apparently a sequel to Don Edmonds's Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS, and this time sees the uncompromising woman running a mental hospital for (naturally) women. However, this place doesn't treat the sick - it's run by them! Ilsa and her cohorts are forcing the female population to have sex with men and selling tapes of it! There's also a plot about a woman checking in to find out what happened to her sister... I have to be honest, I'm not a massive fan of this odd little sub genre, but Jess Franco has a real flair for this sort of thing and Ilsa - The Wicked Warden is a cut above a lot of genre entries. Dyanne Thorne is imposing as the title character and does well at commanding every scene she's in…although that isn't difficult given the talent of her co-stars. Overall, Ilsa - The Wicked Warden is bound to appeal to sleaze fans and comes highly recommended to the right people!

WICKED WARDEN is my least favorite of the "infamous" ILSA series. Granted there are some pretty sleazy moments (after all, Jess Franco DID direct the film...) but I just couldn't get into this one. This one finds the torpedo-tittied Ilsa as a warden at a prison for disturbed young ladies...Plenty of soft core tits-and-ass, and a few "torture" scenes, but nothing really to write home about. A few classic scenes (the post-doody-forced-ass-licking comes to mind...) but all-in-all, more of an Italian softcore sleazy sex film. If you really dig Franco's other stuff, or that genre of films in general, you'll probably really feel this one. Personally, I prefer more "extreme" sex and violence in my exploit films, and this one didn't really deliver. Check out SHE WOLF or TIGRESS for a better experience in the Ilsa series, HAREM KEEPER isn't too bad either. 5/10 for WICKED WARDEN

'A notorious sleaze-series and I'm not involved?!?…That simply cannot be', Franco must have thought while watching the previous Ilsa installments. And so he filmed his very own addition to what is perhaps the most infamous exploitation series ever made. Ilsa, portrayed by the blouse-bursting wench Dyanne Thorne, appears any place where vicious, nasty events occur…Nazi experiment camps (still the most shocking film in the series), Mid-Eastern harems and Siberian torturing camps. In Franco's vile fantasies, she runs an American hospital for deranged women. Although that's merely just a cover-up, because in the deepest cellars of this institution political rebels are imprisoned. When a young girl goes undercover to find out what really happened to her supposedly dead sister, she gets institutionalized and discovers that the hospital is a Sodom and Gomorrah of perverted lesbian guards and sexually insane inmates. Masochism, rape and torturing are a daily routine. None of the Ilsa movies were ever great…but at least the first two had several extra values that made them legendary. She Wolf of the SS was nauseating and downright shocking. Harem keeper of the oil sheiks inserted bizarre and absurd humor. Tigress of Siberia and this Wicked Warden have nothing to add, really. An hour and a half of pure perversion and European class-A sleaze. Dyanne Thorne is clearly getting older and her sexual charisma seems to have vanished entirely. She's a redhead now, by the way. Fans of the previous installments might still enjoy this film as well as devoted Thorne fans. All other audiences will simply see this is as a lame variant on the 'Babes behind Bars'-flicks.