Ilsa: Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks (1976)

The Worst Film Ever

Highly Overrated But Still Good

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

What a bizarre sexploitation film. A mixture of torture soft porn, schlock horror and political intrigue.The pneumatic Ilsa who takes out her bazookas for just a few scenes works for an Arab Sheik's harem cum human traffiking prison camp. She helps train the kidnapped girls, and gets them patched up after they are tortured. There is a scene where the girls are repaired from their injuries, where the girls are fattened up and where girls are tortured. You have a scene of body parts to show what happens if you try to escape. You have an auction scene where girls are sold off.The American government send a naval officer get rid of the Sheik. You have the straight laced officer trying to teach the Sheikh of such things as democracy, human rights, fair trials, innocent until proved guilty. You can guess this was filmed in 1975, long before the 'War on Terror!Ilsa falls for the naval officer and for her troubles, the Sheikh gets a leper to ravish her!Dyanne Thorne has a hoot of a time playing the amoral Ilsa in a Nazi uniform aided and abetted by her two well oiled black henchwomen who truly can turn a man into a eunuch.It really is curious, not enough horror, laughable torture scenes, too tame and cheesy to be sexy. It might had raised eyebrows almost 40 years ago for shock value. These days when you have American women getting kidnapped in Europe to be turned into Human Centipedes then you can see how much these kind of films have advanced since then!

The cartoonish Ilsa (Dyanne Thorne) is the keeper of the Sheik's (Jerry Delony) harem, and trains the beauties kidnapped from around the world. She is just what you would expect in the role of a Nazi she-bitch.The Americans are sending a Henry Kissinger type (Richard Kennedy) along with a naval officer (Max Thayer) to try and overthrow the Sheik and get his oil. So, what else is new? Ilsa and her henchwomen, Satin (Tanya Boyd) and Velvet (Marilyn Joi) are ruthless in their methods and devise extreme methods of torture to get what they want.Despite what Ilsa tells the Sheik, it is apparent that she is becoming close to the naval officer. He becomes tired of her delay and devises punishment that was decidedly extreme.Of course, there is a bloody Palace coup after that. And, Ilsa gets her reward.The porn was decidedly soft-core.

HAREM KEEPER OF THE OIL SHEIKS, is a relatively decent follow-up to the classic SHE WOLF OF THE SS. This one has the mammoth breasted sadist running a slavery ring for some Sheik. Ilsa trains the girls to be good little sluts, and the expected sleaze begins...Not as powerful as the aforementioned SHE WOLF, HAREM KEEPER has a "lighter" tone and was obviously an attempt to cash-in on the probably unexpected success of SHE WOLF. It also seems the tone was intentionally lightened, probably to draw a larger audience. Not my favorite of the series, I prefer SHE WOLF and the under-rated TIGRESS OF SIBERIA, but this one is still decent. Still a classic exploit film and worth a look - 7/10

Dyanne Thorne is at her campy (and sultry) finest in this second installment of the Ilsa series, delivering juicy dialogue with tongue firmly planted in cheek. Kudos also go to Victor Alexander, who plays the degenerate Sheik El Sharif to the hilt, as well as C.D. Lafleur for his hilarious Henry Kissinger impersonation. Lest anyone should think this is a comedy, well, it is, sorta... It's also one of the most over the top sleaze fests you'll ever witness. As the old saying goes, they don't make 'em like this anymore. As Harem Keeper begins, we find Ilsa at the head of a white slave ring where her primary duty is to train innocent young girls for service in the lecherous El Sharif's harem. When she's not instructing recruits on proper "tongue" technique, Ilsa also busies herself adding to her stable of eunuchs with the help of her lesbian henchwomen, Satin and Velvet. Yes, Ilsa is your classic man-hater, but the frigid ice goddess soon melts in the arms of the studly American diplomat, who's actually a spy intent on overthrowing the sheik's corrupt government. But let's not let trivial details such as story get in the way of a great performance by Ms. Thorne, who shifts between wicked witch and giggly schoolgirl with ease. Marvel as Ilsa succumbs to her own lustful desires and falls under the spell of some good ol' fashioned "manpower!" Think of it as an adult comic book come to life, full of hardcore gore (at least by 70s standards) and softcore sex, and enjoy it for what is is - trashy exploitation at its best.