Truly Dreadful Film

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Dyanne Thorne returns as buxom bitch Ilsa, in 'Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks—the second in the infamous exploitation series that began with the sleazy and repugnant She Wolf of the SS. Where the first film made viewers feel decidedly uneasy due to the controversial 'Nazi concentration camp' setting, Harem Keeper manages a lighter tone due to its comic book premise and tongue-in-cheek execution, yet it still contains enough violence and nudity to keep fans of the first film happy.This time round the busty blonde sadist is to be found running a harem for evil oil sheik El Sharif, ably assisted by her two topless ball-breakers, Satin and Velvet. The buxom bitch has resorted to kidnapping beautiful women to ensure a steady supply of hot babes for the sheik; it seems that he has a nasty habit of getting carried away during sex and 'damaging' his ladies. Ilsa must train the newest additions to his harem, teaching them how to be subservient and willing to please; any resistance is punished with torture.Meanwhile, two guests have arrived at the sheiks home; Commander Adam Scott and his associate Kaiser are hoping to convince El Sharif to give up some of his oil which lies untapped beneath the desert. As a last resort, they intend to use incriminating recordings of the sheik, secretly gathered by their undercover spy, to blackmail him into cooperating. Little do they know that the sheik has already rumbled their plan and isn't going to make life easy for them.Ilsa, however, takes a shine to hunky Commander Adam and indulges in much rumpy-pumpy with him; when the sheik orders her to have Adam killed, she disobeys and leads a revolt against the despicable tyrant.There is a real sense of fun to this installment of the Ilsa franchise; director Don Edmonds injects huge doses of camp into the proceedings making this film less of a 'guilty' pleasure than the first. Of course, a strong stomach and hardened sensibilities are still beneficial for those who choose to watch—there is still plenty of cheesy gore and inventive torture in evidence to qualify the film as a genuine shocker: a man has his testicles pulled off by Satin and Velvet, a thief has his hand cut off, two women have explosive vaginal implants inserted into them (which are triggered during sex), flesh eating ants eat a woman's foot, and an enemy of the sheik is doused in oil and set on fire.It may be a different style of movie to the first one, but Ilsa Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheils is a more than worthy sequel and well worth checking out.

Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks starts somewhere in a Middle Eastern desert as a special delivery of three crates are made to the Palace of Sheik El Sharif (Jerry Delony as Victor Alexander) where he likes to use & abuse various pretty young women before selling them to other rich oil Sheik's in slave auctions, the sadistic Ilsa (Dyanne Thorne) in her own unique way makes sure they obey his every wish without question & are fully trained to please their new owners aided by her two lesbian assistants Satin (Tanya Boyd) & Velvet (Marilyn Joi). The three crates contain kidnapped women, Nora Edward (Sharon Kelly) the daughter & sole heir of a rich American businessman, Inga Lindstrom (Uschi Digard as Elke Von) an actress dubbed the 'new Scandinavian love goddess' & Alina Cordova (Haji as Haji Cat) an equestrian champion from Europe. It's up to Ilsa to convince them to obey the Sheik's every command, Ilsa does pretty much whatever she wants to them to make them comply. Meanwhile the Sheik is expecting visitors, two Americans named Kaiser (Richard Kennedy as Wolfgang Roehm) & Commander Adam Scott (Max Thayer as Michael Thayer) who intend to blackmail the Sheik into making him give up his land which is rich in oil. However their plans don't go as they had hoped...This Canadian American co-production was produced & directed by Don Edmonds & in my opinion is pretty worthless, surely this is the worst of the Ilsa films which lets face it are hardly brilliant anyway. This was the second out of four Ilsa film's following Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS (1975), the fact that Ilsa died at the end of the previous film doesn't seem to matter. The script by Langston Stafford is much lighter & campier in tone than the original, which is most definitely a bad thing. It has been stated that the filmmakers intended to make a much tamer film to obtain a lower rating & appeal to a larger audience, well that's fine but the finished product ended up being very disappointing as far as I'm concerned. There is no attempt at any sort of characterisation, all the women in this film are one dimensional, are given no background, personality or feelings & are simply there to be used, abused, treated like dirt & are nothing more than objects to please men. This is simply not an attitude that I can condone or take any enjoyment from. The exception is obviously Ilsa herself, but she is little more than the comic book villain & is there only to cash in on the Ilsa name. The sleaze & violence has little impact because of the overall tone & feel of the film, there is plenty of female nudity & (very) softcore sex scenes, there are a few lame torture sequences too like pouring flesh eating ants (?!) over someones foot, a thief has his hand chopped off, an exploding stomach & in the films most brutal scene someone is set on fire. The rest of the blood & gore consists of joke shop quality fake blood & stick on rubber scars. There is a few minutes of unexciting action towards the end when the prisoners fight back but like the rest of the film director Edmonds fails to create any sort of pace or tension. I was surprised at just how well made Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks is, the costumes, locations, sets, cinematography & general production values are much better than I would have expected. The acting was OK for this sort of thing I suppose but you have to be a bit suspicious when so many of the cast hide behind pseudonym's. In my opinion the worst & tamest of the Ilsa films that barely qualifies as exploitation, even Jess Franco's Ilsa, The Wicked Warden (1977) is better than this. Not even an exploding electric dildo can save it, one to avoid.

*SPOILER ALERT* *SPOILER ALERT*I can't say enough good things about Ilsa, (Dyanne Thorne). Her outrageous German accent and voluptuous body make this flick a stellar exploitation movie. "My name....is ILSA!" I want her to be my harem keeper. First I would need a harem though. Details, details.Ilsa isn't so much a character as she is a historical figure. Whenever there are strong women throughout history dominating other women for sadistic pleasure, they shall all be called "Ilsa". The Ilsa from the first movie was in Nazi Germany and was killed at the end of the flick. So clearly this is not the exact same Ilsa. The new Ilsa runs a harem for a depraved "Oil Sheik".Ilsa runs the harem efficiently, telling girls the right way to lick a body, disciplining traitors with flesh eating ants and presiding over topless kung fu fighting sessions. There are a lot of breasts in this flick. The harem likes to go topless. Ilsa also comes up with a plastic explosive that you place in a girl's private area that will detonate when having sex. Yes. Exploding vaginas. The sleaze was working overtime."Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks" promises nasty sleaze and does not disappoint. Every other scene had either blood or breasts or both. It's a great exploitation movie. I recommend it.

They don't make them like they used to. Thin comic book story line, dodgy dialogue delivered questionably, gratuitous nudity, sex, and violence. Nowdays it seems the world is too politically correct to produce work like this so people have to settle for blandness and mediocrity and the most accessible, least offensive "Product" wins. When did "Exploitation" get a bad name? Give me Ilsa any day. The cinematography shows a lot of promise from future Oscar nominee Dean Cundey. It seems Don Edmonds really can pick talent (Tarantino being another "find"). How about an Ilsa film which directly targets the fetish market Don? Quentin could Executive Produce it. At the least I think every action movie ever made could be improved by the inclusion of Satin and Velvet, Ilsa's bodyguards.