Ilsa the Wicked Warden.

Although said to be the third film in the series, it was not originally made as part of the Ilsa franchise. The main character’s name was Greta del Pino and the sexploitation romp was to be called Greta, the Mad Butcher or Wanda the Wicked Warden. Dyanne Thorne, who had previously appeared as Ilsa in She Wolf of the SS (1975) and Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks (1976), excepted an offer from Spanish director to play del Pino, the sadistic warden of what at first appears to be an psychiatric asylum for young women, a character that is Ilsa in everything but name. The company holding the film rights changed the title to Ilsa the Wicked Warden (1977) and most of the references to “Greta” were subsequently removed.

 

Normal amount of naked ladies....

Lovers of the naked form will not be disappointed as the film opens with a clutch of young ladies in the shower washing each other naked bodies one of whom escapes following a pre- planned shower room diversion. Scantily dressed with two guards tracking her, she is shot but manages to stumble on to a large house in the jungle (sorry I neglected to tell you its set in an unnamed country in South America). A sympathetic doctor who takes her in and tends to her wounds occupies the house. But he can’t stop the asylum guards from returning her to the clinic, shortly after she’s reported as dead. Doctor Arcos, played by the films director Jess Franco, wants to expose the practices and indifference to life that takes place at the clinic and call’s a press conference to garner support but without much luck. At the end of the conference he is accosted by Abbie Phillips (Tania Busselier) the dead girls sister who wants him to commit her to the clinic to allow her to work undercover to find out how and why her sister died. But the moment she arrive at the asylum she wishes she had not, immediately getting a taste of the brutal regime from its warden Greta del Pino (Ilsa).  

....and torture....

Produced in Canada it attempts to offer a little sophistication by inserting a political subplot but don’t worry it boasts the normal trademarks of an Ilsa movie: demented women, cruelty and barbaric torture, bad acting, with over the top fake accents and a really dodgy script plus some of the dialog is dubbed - but what more would you expect from this European grindhouse movie?

 

....and of course Dyanne Thorne as Ilsa.