Strange, depraved vision of Jess Franco's concerning Ilsa, that wicked, blouse-popping sadist of the famous/infamous series starring statuesque/bosomy Dyanne Thorne. This time around a young girl gets into a hospital run for women who suffer from sex-related diseases such as lesbianism and nymphomania. It seems she had a sister admitted a year ago and wants to find out what has happened to her even though she knows no patient has ever left. The film takes place somewhere in South America where a government is fighting rebels. Well, you get what you might expect from a series like this: lots of nude girls, lots of perversion, lots of sadism, lots of sleaze, and generally a sick/guilty feeling having seen it. There are many scenes which are downright disgusting such as one dealing with the use of a plastic bag, another with pins and a human pin cushion, shock therapy, a night with the boys from the local prison, and the grand finale where Greta(Thorne) is out to lunch with the girls. Franco is a decent director in terms of piecing a film together(despite what the subject matter might be). He can draw scenes out for suspense. He can also shock which he does well too. The acting was decent overall. Thorne is way over-the-top, but hey who cares once they see her? She is the personification of voluptuousness wearing her strained military blouse and high boots with red hair this time round. Ilsa, the Wicked Warden is a unique look at what film can do...and perhaps should not do.
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BaronBl00d2 August 2005
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BA_Harrison11 May 2006Retitled 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 nudityall 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 teethall the while being filmed by the movie-making guard who gets to deliver his potentially most profitable work so far: a snuff film! -
Bunuel19763 April 2005Today, I watched another 2 Jess Franco titles from the Anchor Bay UK 8-Disc Set (which I rented from my local DVD outlet): ILSA, THE WICKED WARDEN (1977) and JACK THE RIPPER*** (1976).
Though I wouldn't say that ILSA is exactly a good film, I was still quite surprised by how it managed to hold my interest throughout. Not that it made particularly inspired use of the various subtexts suggested in the script (the snuff movie angle, for instance, is not dealt with in any depth) apart from its over-the-top, and undeniably horrific, conclusion but it was certainly above-average for an Erwin C. Dietrich production with adequate scenery, an evocative if repetitive score and competent performances. The dialogue of the German-language version, however, was pretty hilarious (the various odes to Greta/Ilsa recited by the inmates, the sanitation officials who arrive for a surprise inspection complaining that the rumors of the supposedly corrupt management inside the prison are unfounded for obvious reasons, they may not have been taken to see the dungeons where the female convicts are tortured, but did they even question themselves why these were forbidden the use of underwear while serving their sentence?!); still, the English dubbing (heard during the interview section of the supplements) makes it sound even worse!
I haven't seen the 'original' Ilsa films but, while Dyanne Thorne seemed to be relatively at ease inhabiting the Jess Franco movieworld, I also feel that her character was pretty one-dimensional and not really the main focus of the film; Lina Romay, on the other hand, has a lot of fun with one of her better roles; even Tania Busselier (in her third and last film for Franco) seems to have matured somewhat and here makes for a creditable heroine (for whom Franco boldly reserves an unexpected tragic fate, though this was perhaps done so as not to involve her in the film's cannibalistic climax).
Unfortunately, this edition was cut by more than 2 minutes by the BBFC: the death-by-asphyxiation of Rosa Philips was evidently trimmed as it now occurs in a split-second; I may be wrong but I reckon that the remainder of the censored footage involved the lobotomy performed on the Tania Busselier character (did they even show this?) as her sudden appearance as a 'vegetable' is most jarring
Anyway, I look forward now to renting and watching another of Franco's notorious 'Women-In-Prison' films for Dietrich, namely BARBED WIRE DOLLS (1975). -
nfaust115 May 2004As far as politically incorrect movies are concerned, this one (and the entire "series", for that matter) must rank as one of the MOST incorrect ever. Not a recommendation for all movie viewers, that's for sure. But for some of us, the blunt outrageousness of ILSA, THE WICKED WARDEN with its calculated S&M games filling in for a plot, and the grand, almost operatic, pleasure that actress Dyanne Thorne unapologetically conveys with each terrible torture bit, makes this a jaw dropping, exploitation adventure. WICKED WARDEN is my favorite of the series for a couple of reasons. First of all, Jess Franco, not one of my favorites and not a great one for telling an understandable story, obviously enjoys stringing together horrible moments of torture and violence. His approach, surprisingly effective here, is to provide a context for what's going on - and the context is enough. The prison is Ilsa's own private funhouse; what she does is for her own pleasure, period. Unlike Don Edmons, Franco understands this kind of movie: he starts with Ilsa and filters the punishment down through the ranks. Ilsa's brand of immoral hedonism turns the entire prison into an S&M club where inmates use sex and humiliation as currency. Franco knows how to stage scenes with pins and plastic bags; played low key and with simple means, this stuff gets to you. It seems like the movie is constantly crossing the line and what we're watching is real - which, of course, it's not. But Franco's straight forward, unashamed voyeuristic style transcends the silliness inherent in material like this and gives it a weird kind of weight. Sometimes you can hardly watch what's going on, but you can't take your eyes off of it either. The other element at work here is the GREAT Dyanne Thorne who in my mind is a terrific actress. As big a performance as her Ilsa is (and is in all the movies) there's not a hint of parody. That would be the easy way out for any actress playing such a despicable role. Thorne plays it straight. You believe that Ilsa's life is worth living because of what she does in this prison. Her gestures are grand, but her playing is internal: she shares Ilsa's dark and primal joy with the viewer. That's what makes these movies still sort of difficult today. Ilsa's not kidding, and Dyanne Thorne drives this movie with an unbeatable force. If these movies had been made in the 1940's (Ha!) Thorne would have emerged a big star. Where is she now? Am convinced that an actress who can pull off Ilsa can pull off just about anything. No longer a young woman, I know; but I'll bet she's still a striking figure. Come back, Dyanne, come back. All that said, ILSA THE WICKED WARDEN is worth the effort. It's as guilty a pleasure as you could ever hope to find.
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I've never understood the Ilsa films. They are set across different parts of the world, different time periods and the ending of certain films suggest that a sequel simply should not have been possible.
This one goes by about three or four different names which confuses matters even more. Whats even more confusing is just how little entertainment value there is. I know this is an exploitation flick but the previous two had their moments, this is just bafflingly poor.
This is the worst third part of a franchise since Terminator, I mean seriously who thought it'd be a good idea to make that R rated franchise so tame and do cut away deaths? That person needs to be punished with having to watch this Ilsa movie on a loop for 6 continual weeks. That right there is cruel and unusual punishment, but so is this film -
ferbs5417 July 2007There 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!
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Bogey Man6 January 2004Ilsa - The Wicked Warden (USA, German, Swiss, 1977) is the fourth installment in the repellently themed "nazsploitation" Ilsa series that began with Canadian Don Edmond's Ilsa - She Wolf of the SS in 1974. The good thing is that this Franco film does not include any nazis or camps in it, just turkeyish plot in which the Ilsa character Dyanne Thorne runs a hospital that turns out to be, surprisingly, a nasty place in which girls are being tortured and force-showered without the outer world knowing anything about the place! Well credibility has never been Franco's strongest point.
The film has practically all the typical and main Franco elements in it. It has very slow parts that are totally unnecessary to the "plot" or narrative, they are just there to make the film run a little longer. It has the director in a brief role, it has at least two prolonged shower scenes and imaginative attempts to show Franco's wife and sensual actress Lina Romay nude in front. And naturally it has several scenes of violence and sexual sadism, and since the film was produced by the European trash/sleaze king Erwin C. Dietrich (producer of Franco's Jack the Ripper (1976) and the awful Eine armee gretchen that belongs to the most ridiculous celluloid misusages of the whole cinematic history, directed by the producer himself in 1973), it is nothing but greedy sexploitation for the whole 90 minutes.
Another thing that is typical for Franco is that he likes to add some symbolism to his films, as if he really had had something in mind but was unable to, for one reason or another, really deliver the message with the film. I'm talking about the ending that definitely belongs to the most unforgettable endings of the director's colorful filmography and would have worked fine in the more ambitious hands. Now it is just there after 85 minutes of honest exploitation so it is impossible to be taken seriously after the footage that has just been shown. Also, would that world really be any safer or "cleaner" even if the protagonist she-devil was killed?
Due to the ending and its potential, this belongs to the more interesting Franco films. Otherwise it is just as boring, slow moving and gratuitous money-taker as most other exploitation films by Franco, Italy or any other region. -
gregorycanfield31 August 2021The only positive thing about this movie is the nudity. There is much nudity, as well as female prisoners with their tops unbuttoned and wide open. This is what's good about the movie. However, anything positive is outweighed by the graphic violence, torture, and overall ugliness of the whole thing. Dyanne Thorne was not sexy at all. I've watched cartoons that had sexier characters. If you feel compelled to check this out, be warned. There is a scene of someone literally being eaten alive. Refer to my heading.
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ma-cortes2 July 2022From the fevered , wonderfully perverted minds of Spanish filmmaker Jess Franco and Switzerland producer Erwin C. Dietrich comes this surprsing WIP Greta - Haus ohne Männer(1977) . Typical WIP movie dealing with the violent subgenre WIP with a mediocre cast and a lot of women behind bars without men . This is a so-so and extremely sadistic film with lots of graphical violence, rape, lesbianism and naked women .Sadist scenes and sleaziness abound in this below average Women-in-prison movie from or ¨Uncle Jess¨ with a lot of erotism and gory frames .At the beginning an unfortunate girl escapes but is mercilessly chased by the most dreaded pursuers. After the mysterious disappearance of her sister, a desperate young woman goes undercover to infiltrate ruthless warden Ilsa's mental health facility for the sexually deviant women. Ilsa (Dyanne Thorne) , now a vicious warden, runs a mental-hospital for young girls. A girl deliberately "checks" in to the hospital to find out what has happened to her sister who stayed there. Abbie (Tania Busselier) , summons up the courage to go undercover by willingly incarcerating herself. Meanwhile Ilsa and one of the guards (Eric Falk) and an abusive prisoner (Lina Romay) are forcing the inmates to have sex . She is the most dreaded warden of them all and she will stop at nothing to get her purports and at whatever means . Things go wrong for Ilsa when eventually prisoners stage an uprising. That Infamous "Ilsa" Woman Is Back . Her Prison Was Hotter than Hell ! Hotter than Hell ! Young Girls...Chained ...Condemned To a Life of Torment at the Hands of Their Beautiful, Brutal Captor!. .What do they do to satisfy their innermost female desires! Because of the Shocking Nature of Certain Scenes, This Film is Not Recommended for the Sensitive or Squeamish! Apprehended and handed over to the custody of the local prison wardens and jail wardens ! . As it really is! In all its raw realism!.Due to the Subject Matter of This Film Only the Very Mature Will Be Admitted!.One soul hungered to touch another!.Whisper to your friends you saw it!
This is an extremely controversial movie , in fact it remained banned in several countries .Disagreeable movie with loads of nudism and lesbianism , stars the naughty Dyanne Thorne as the evil warden Ilsa or Greta enjoying the female prisoners and torturing women .Dyanne Thorne show as a villain warden who rules the institution with an iron fist mistreating inmates . Plot is incidental to violence , as Ilsa is a really villainous and heinous warden carrying out grisly criminal acts , mistreating and torturing . Here the sinister entertainment is watching as the torture-loving Ilsa runs a medical hospital by using all kinds tortures , mistreating , performing unspeakable horrors . This is below average and extremely sadistic film with lots of graphic gore , violence , guts and naked women.
Produced in short budget by Erwin C. Dietrich , the motion picture was lousily directed by Jess Frank with lots of skin and no acting , providing a boring flick in low budget with plenty of shortfalls , failures , flaws and gaps .In the Seventies Franco directed various WIP movies , such as : this revered classic ¨99 Women¨or ¨Der heiße Tod(1969) or ¨99 mujeres¨ with Maria Schell , Herbert Lom , Elisa Montes , Mercedes McCambridge ; ¨Love camp¨ (1977) with Muriel Montosse , Monica Swinn ; ¨Barbed Wire Dolls¨with Lina Romay , Paul Muller , Monica Swinn ; "Wanda , The Wicked Warden" 1977 by Jess Frank with Dyanne Thorne , Lina Romay , Tania Busselier , or ¨Women in Cellblock 9¨ (1978) or Frauen für Zellenblock 9 with Karine Gambier, Susan Hemingway, Howard Vernon, Dora Doll and ¨Sadomania¨(1981) with Ajita Wilson , Andrea Guzon , Ursula Buchfellner, Antonio Mayans . Ila series is formed by four films : "Ilsa : She Wolf of the SS" 1975 with Thorne, Ushchi Digart , Sharon Kelly , George Buck Flower . "Ilsa Harem Keeper of the Oíl Sheik" 1976 with Thorne , Max Thayer . "Ilsa the tigress of Siberia" 1977 with Thorne , Michael Morin, Tony Angelo . And this one : "Wanda , The Wicked Warden" 1977 by Jess Frank with Thorne , Lina Romay , Tania Busselier. It is a 95 minutes of pure mind melting sleaze entertainment with no sense and for some fans being an exploitation gold , though it depends on the version you have opportunity to see : light , softcore or hardcore . Rating : 3.5/10 .Not for the easily offended , but what Franco movie is ?. -
slake0912 February 2005You have Jess Franco directing and Lina Romay starring, is there a more sure guarantee of a high sleaze content? You just can't ask for much more.
However, this movie doesn't approach the pure, unadulterated, in your face sleaze of other Franco/Romay movies, although it tries. It tries hard.
You have Ilsa, the wicked warden, torturing and tormenting the poor female inmates, although to be sure the torture and torment wasn't very convincing. You get the feeling the actresses might have looked a bit more tormented if Franco had told them they had to take a pay cut. So it goes.
You have Lina Romay, hot as molten steel, running around naked as the day she was born and enjoying it as usual. I have to admire a girl who is so completely dedicated to being naked all the time, in every situation. She is just an unabashed exhibitionist, not even requiring the flimsiest of excuses to remove her clothing. She insists on it! She demands it! It's probably in her contract somewhere that she gets to spend at least ninety percent of the runtime of any movie naked.
The plot line is the standard Ilsa fare, a wicked woman giving everyone a hard time until she gets her just deserts. Yawn. If you even thought about watching this for the plot then you are in line for a sanity check. This is, as has been said, Class A Euro-Sleaze.
Too bad they don't make them like this any more. -
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. -
Captain_Couth2 September 2004Ilsa, The Wicked Warden (1977) was the last of the Ilsa "franchise"s. I don't even think it's was a true "Ilsa" film. However it's been labeled here in the 'States as a legit Ilsa picture so I will refer to it as such. The ever reliable Jesus Franco makes a real sleaze fest with this film. I always wondered why this movie and Barbed Wire Dolls seem so similar (The ever frugal Mr. Franco shot it back to back along with The Wicked Warden).
A not so bright woman wants to know what happened to her sister. She decides to "break into prison" and search for some clues. Unfortunately she finds out some hard facts about her sister first hand. Jesus Franco co-stars along with his protégé Lina Romay (who was at the peak of her hotness) as a female inmate. Dyanne Thorne stars as "Ilsa" a.k.a. Wanda. Your average sleazy women in prison flick that has one wicked ending.
If you enjoy Ilsa the Wicked Warden then by all means watch Barbed Wire Dolls. An even sleazier Women in Prison flick with all of Franco's trademark weirdness and raunchiness straight from his bizarro mind scape. Great stuff and a must for all Ilsa fans.
Highly recommended.
Lina Romay was one hot woman. -
This outlier in the Ilsa franchise - in the version I saw, the Dyanne Thorne character wasn't even called Ilsa - is certainly one of the best. It is surprisingly light on graphic violence, but still has disturbingly violent scenes in which the carnage is intimated but not shown, and is still hard to watch. It probably has more nudity than all of them, however, and I don't remember much actual sex.
About those violent scenes. At one point, Thorne is torturing her pet slave Lina Romay by inserting needles into her breasts. She pulls covers over Romay and pushes them down, presumably jamming the needles into Romay's flesh and making her cry out. I thought I might join in. At another point, our protagonist (who has a massive bush) gets a douche from Ilsa with a syringe that is apparently filled with acid. Again, we don't see the penetration, but Franco makes it evocative enough to be disturbing. Apparently in the late '70s he still cared about his craft.
There is also a scene in which Romay instructs another girl to lick her "culo" clean. The girl apparently obliges, then runs to throw up. I wondered if I might join her in that also.
Speaking of Franco, the man himself once again inexplicably casts himself in this movie, despite his unphotogenic appearance and lack of acting ability. He plays a dodgy investigator who seems to be on Ilsa's tail, supporting a young woman who goes undercover in her prison-slash-asylum, but then seems to be in cahoots with her.
None of the women in the movie are that attractive except for Franco's exhibitionist girlfriend, the beautiful Lina Romay. One brags about having been a man previously. I never found Thorne that hot, personally. Her face is hard and she always seems older than she is. Perhaps that's how she got this role.
Of course, nobody cares about the plot of a movie like this. Thorne is the wicked warden who tortures her young female charges. They spend the entire movie either naked or only wearing a shirt with nothing underneath. There's some really sick torture, some sex, not much story, and the ending of the movie was the only point where I HAD to look away. The comeuppance is brutal and disgusting.
I say check it out. -
Witchfinder-General-66629 October 2007I am an admirer of Jess Franco, and one of the people to be of the opinion that this highly prolific Spanish cult director's repertoire includes quite a bunch of great films (such as "The Awful Dr. Orloff" of 1962, "The Diabolical Dr. Z" of 1966, "Venus In Furs" of 1969, "Count Dracula" of 1970 or "The Bloody Judge", also 1970, just to name a few). It is undeniable, however, that Franco has also directed a bunch of stinkers in his long and impressive career. This "Greta - Haus Ohne Männer" aka. "Ilsa, The Wicked Warden" of 1977 is one of the rather crappy films Franco has directed, although not quite the most dreadful one. This unofficial sequel to the infamous "Ilsa" series is admittedly better than the, overall quite similar, but more dreadful "Sadomania" of 1981. The weaknesses of the two movies are pretty much the same - they are both watchable for the sleaze at first, but they both get really really boring after some time (in spite of the constant sleaze). "Ilsa, The Wicked Warden" is not quite as pointless, however, and at least it makes some little efforts to remain interesting. As in "Sadomania", it is the sleaze that keeps you watching, but "Ilsa..." has a few other qualities, such as Lina Romay as one of the prisoners, and, of course, Dyanne Thorne, who enjoys quite a cult status among exploitation fans. Director Franco also has a small role himself, which is a bit bigger than his cameo in "Sadomania".
As mentioned above, this is meant to be a sequel to the infamous "Ilsa" series. Ilsa (Dyanne Thorne) is called "Greta" in this one, and Greta is the sadistic warden of a jungle prison camp for women. Not too surprisingly, things begin to get pretty damn sleazy from the first minute... and unfortunately also pretty boring. Nevertheless, this is not a complete failure. The plot is thin, but it is also quite wicked, and it contains some gruesome scenes, as well as some quite original ones. The constant sleaze and nudity might keep you watching, but over all, "Greta - Haus Ohne Männer" becomes pretty boring soon. It's not a movie that has to be avoided at all costs, but in case you are not a hardcore enthusiast of the 'Women In Prison' sub-genre, I would recommend to skip this one. -
I have seen all of the Ilsa movies several times and this one is by far the best. First, a warning: if you are easily shocked, offended, or disturbed, you won't make it through this (or any other Ilsa)movie. It takes a lot to disturb me, but this movie did the trick. If you love campy women's prison movies, this is also a must-see, though it is darker than most of them.Yes, this is an exploitation flick and does not try to hide this fact, but it has a plot, and characters you care about. A woman's sister is being held in a women's prison, so she goes 'undercover' to try to rescue her. The b*tch in charge of the prison is the most twisted, sick, evil, sadistic warden you will ever find in any women's prison movie--Ilsa, (or Wanda, depending on which version you see) the Wicked Warden. Her idea of a nice relaxing evening is using one of the female inmates for a pincushion, and I am describing the scene tactfully. Others she lobotomizes when they get out of line. The woman's plan to infiltrate the prison and her sister goes horribly awry when she realizes things in there are much, much worse than she could have dreamed of and there is no escape. The movie's ending is a total show-stopper, when Ilsa comes to one of the most fitting, vividly grisly, ugly endings that you will ever see. Not the most pleasant movie to watch--the first time I saw it, I felt sick for not turning it off and continuing to watch the horrible acts being committed. However, I've seen a lot of really bad horror/shock/exploitation films, and this one really stands out amongst the rest, with realistic characters, the courage to have a very downbeat ending, and no glamourization of the violence. The images in this movie will stay with you for a long, long time. For some people, that's a warning, for others, a strong recommendation. You think you've seen it all? You haven't, till you've seen this.
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MovieGuy0118 October 2009I thought that Ilsa The Wicked Warden was a good film by director Jess Franco. Greta is the sadistic warden of a female prison camp in South America. This terrible place is protected by the government. Greta has power over all the lives of the prisoners that are there. A girl manages to escape, but is eventually caught by one of the guards. Aby Phillips, the sister of the girl Dr. Arcos saw being abused persuades him to smuggle her into the asylum, where she is determined to find her sister,. Afther Aby arrives at the asylum she gets humiliated by the sadistic wardens and inmates. I fought that this was a good film by Jess Franco. It did contain a lot of strong violence and lesbianism in the film which might be too much for some people.
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Horst_In_Translation31 January 2017"Greta - Haus ohne Männer" is a co-production between Canada, Switzerland and West Germany that resulted in a German-language movie from 1977, so it has its 40th anniversary this year. The title already gives away that this is one of famous filmmaker Jesús Franco's collaborations with the infamous Erwin C. Dietrich and the outcome is a mix of violence, thriller, porn and horror I guess. The film runs for over 90 minutes and stars Franco's regular Dianne Thorne once again as an insanely sadistic warden of a woman's penitentiary, insane asylum actually, even if many of the inmates are only insane because of the way they are treated in there. Franco once again plays a supporting character, in the first third of the movie he actually has a lot of screen time as a doctor. Lina Romay is on board again as well, even if she is not half as stunning and memorable with her very short hair in here. And Tania Busselier has also worked with Franco on several occasions, she plays the good girl here.
This is the story of a young woman who tries to infiltrate the penitentiary to find out what they did to her sister. And she finds out a lot more than she bargained for. This is basically it in terms of the plot. There are major developments and character transformations and in terms of the story I would say this is better than the usual Franco movie, and certainly also better than the average Dietrich movie, but there are still moments when it feels really absurd the entire thing. And apart from some pretty hot sexual moments, there is also massive violence in here. The suffocation scene is kinda hard to stomach and I am really one who can take a lot usually, maybe because of the state the sister was in previously already. Anyway, this is not a film to watch when you are looking for great acting or a great story, but there is a whole lot of guilty pleasure material to it, also the final scene with the tearing-apart references, even depicting tigers adds some solid significance to the overall thing. I would not recommend the watch, but if you plan on getting deeper into Franco's filmography, then this one here may not be the worst pick to start with. -
Three things are certain in life: Taxes, death and the fact that Jess Franco makes horrible films. This was absolutely an abomination. Thats saying something for a making that has made his money by making soft core porn cannibal flicks and Ilsa is no different.
Man where I do start? Horrible acting, almost no script. Dyanne Thorne is back as Ilsa wearing an incredibly fake wig and she herself doesn't look like shes into it like in the other films.
She runs a prison camp and tortures other girls although in this case she now has a lesbian fun toy , a change from the other Ilsa flicks when shes interested in men.
The movie doesn't have almost no shock value, and the movie is basically a set of soft porn scenes, mostly taking place in the shower, and in Ilsa's "study".
The acting is horrendous, during one scene a prisoner gets shock treatment yet her reaction is absolutely pathetic, all she does is roll her eyes in disgust. LMAO.
The movie then ends with Franco pathetic trademark a stupid cannibal scenes that is fake and not gory.
Franco, is the one the worst wannabee horror directors I've seen. I've seen the comment on him calling him absolute pathetic but after seeing this movie and the one called "White Cannibal Queen", I can now confirm what those people have said about him. -
EVOL66627 September 2005WICKED 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
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The_Void1 November 2006Anyone 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!
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Stevieboy6669 September 2017Greta, Wanda or Ilsa the Wicked Warden, different names, same movie. This is a Jess Franco movie so within the first 2 minutes we have a bunch of naked women in a shower room, their substantial pubic hair almost hitting you in the face! This, an unofficial addition to the notorious Ilsa series, focuses more on sex & nudity (well, it is a Franco movie) than the violence of the other films. Having said that there's a very bloody fate in store for our Dyanne at the end. One other bonus is that we get to see a lot more of her ample charms than in previous outings. Released as Ilsa the Wicked Warden in the UK it's cut by 2m 31s.
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This movie is boring, you can no longer expect to make movies interesting only by showing actresses in the nude. It doesn't work anymore. What exactly people see in Franco movies is beyond comprehension. He really is a terrible director doing crap movies. For the reviewer who says he wants all Franco movies : don't do that to yourself I'm sure you don't deserve it. And besides remember he made a lot of them so beware ! It doesn't qualify as a Ilsa movie which is fair enough if you consider it's in fact not really one but it's only a tedious WIP film that has stupid dialogs and no plot. It just drags along to reach its end since the script is based only on this final scene. Too bad Franco directed it in such a ridiculous way !
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Being a fan of tasteless "Ilsa" series and Jesus Franco's sleazy filth I always wanted to see "Greta:The Mad Butcher".Thankfully I just bought uncut DVD of this film and wasn't disappointed.The film,in which starred Dyanne Thorne,was later repackaged as an Ilsa movie and there was in plans a fourth official film under the title "Ilsa Meets Bruce Lee in the Devil's Triangle",unfortunately it never got made.Thorne plays Greta del Pino,who runs correction centre for women somewhere in the jungles of South America.Women are tortured and degraded for her sadistic pleasure.However one of the inmates Abby leads the prisoners to revolt..."Greta:The Mad Butcher" is a sleazy and depraved exploitation pick that contains tons of full-frontal nudity and sleaze.A must-see for anyone into WIP cinema.
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BandSAboutMovies1 March 2022If you thought that Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS was the limit, this movie makes it feel as if Jess Franco tool that movie as a personal challenge to somehow create something innumerable times sleazier.
Considered the third movie in the series - even if it wasn't filmed as a sequel - and also known as Greta, the Mad Butcher, Ilsa: Absolute Power and Wanda, the Wicked Warden, this stars the women who is Ilsa, Dyanne Thorne, as Greta. She's running a psychiatric hospital for young women, which gives her plenty of opportunities to indulge her more, shall we say, psychosexual side.
Probably shot at the same time - who knows, maybe even the same place - as Barbed Wire Dolls, the heroine of this story is Abbie Phillips, whose sister died inside the walls of Greta's hospital, and now must infiltrate the hospital and find out why.
The amazing thing about this movie is that as wild as Ilsa has been in the past, she's now entering the ninth circle of voyeur hell where director Jess Franco and his muse, Lina Romay, reside. Lina plays a prisoner named Juana who keeps the other female prisoners in line as well as lined up for prostitution and pornography. Also, in one scene that might break your mind, she follows a prison toilet BM by forcing Abbie to be human toilet paper. Yes, this happens and yes, this movie played American theaters and I have no idea how.
Snuff movies, acupuncture gone wrong, scarred women being used by cruel men, Lina Romay no doubt looking as perfect as she ever will or ever did and being the meanest woman in the world in a manner so brutal that she can only devour - literally - the previous champion in an ending that is either going to flip your stomach, raise your fist in triumph or both and Franco pretty much running through the motions he did in so many other women in prison movies, except Franco through the motions is still way more magical and insane and upsetting and sleazy and can you endure this than anyone perhaps ever. -
Uriah4317 March 2015Although this movie goes by several different titles essentially it is the 4th (and last) film in the "Ilsa series". However, rather than going by the name of Ilsa, Dyanne Thorne instead assumes the name of "Greta" and has chosen to become a redhead rather than a blonde. But other than that she is her usual sadistic self and has once again eluded a certain death in order to become the head of a mental hospital deep in the jungles of South America. Unfortunately, unlike the previous films this particular movie isn't nearly as good as those which came before it. The acting was bad, the script was awful and the actresses weren't that attractive. Likewise, while there is plenty of nudity none of the scenes were really that appealing or erotic. That said if a person enjoys a raw and sleazy movie simply because it is raw and sleazy then this particular picture is definitely something to check out. Otherwise it is probably best to simply avoid it.