Surprisingly incoherent and boring

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

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

"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.

"Ilsa, The Wicked Warden" is one of the very best of the Women-in-Prison genre.**SPOILERS**After several mysterious events, Abbie Phillips, (Tania Busselier) decides to go undercover in the Los Palomas Medical Clinic to investigate the strange reports that have been coming out of the facility. Immediately upon entering, the boss Greta, (Dyanne Thorne) tells her the rules of surviving, and issuing her a number for the others, throws her in with the other there. Attempting to cure her of her sexual deviance that she was sent there for, she finds that other inmate Juana, (Lina Romay) is actually a stooge for her and her different sadistic tendencies. After spending several weeks in the facility, she finds that the whole place is merely a prison for her to keep around other women for her own sexual desires, then turning them into illegal stars in secret snuff films when they've outlived their usefulness. Realizing that had happened to her own sister, who was in the facility, she goes out to help them others still trapped overthrow the prison and get out alive.The News: Though there isn't much new ground to this, it's still one of the better entries possible. Just like with most Women-in-Prison films, the main focus here is on the sleaze and nudity, which this one carries out with abundance. The film starts off with a full-on shower scene, inter-cut by another showing the warden in a bathtub taking a bubble-bath and washing herself down, and this is done for several minutes to open up the film, which is about the best possible way to do so. There's a later shower scene that is by far one of the single sleaziest parts of the film, where the new girl is forced to soap down another, including all of the body parts, and upon refusing to do so further, degenerates into a nude cat-fight in the middle of the shower. The fact that the uniforms are merely just a shirt barely covering the privates is another fantastic device for allowing nudity, as it results in it being flung open all the time or riding up to allow more. The strip-down and hose-off upon arrival generates more nudity, though the nature of the scenes and what's accomplished lead more into the sleaze category, and is simply a part of the film as well. The torture and S&M content is ferocious and brutal, with prisoners strung up on large chains or other devices and then furiously whipped with a large whip, or injected with a red-hot brand to the nether-regions, among other particularly disturbing scenes. There's also the wonderful scene where Greta sticks needles into the breasts of her lesbian lover, then lays on top of her to drive them in, which is mostly done through the use of close-up but carries out for so long that it's just and incredibly suspenseful and uncomfortable scene that really sticks out, more so since the participants are both nude for the duration. Aside from that, the film also works due to the pretty passable job Franco did on this one. There is some plot and some character development, an actual beginning-middle-end structure, and, most surprising, some unexpectedly solid camera-work, with very little of his characteristic zoom lens obsession. It's surprisingly restrained for the most part, non-characteristically reliant upon lighting and production design to create the mood. The trademark style still comes through in the odd scene, the best being the red filtered, out-of-focus tryst between the two lovers in a darkened room, with a glass purposefully placed to obscure the fumbling and groping. This is fantastic and really makes a case for the best directed scene in his career. The only flaws in here are the really confusing ending. We get this weirdness where the warden gets eaten alive by the inmates, and as the bunch of naked lesbians chow down on the camp commandant, the whole scene inter-cut with stock-footage of lions, tigers and so forth eating dead animal flesh. The purpose of what's going in is implied, but it's merely so outrageous that beginning to understand it becomes a lost cause, thrown in merely for more gore. The last, and most obvious flaw, is that, despite all the nudity and sadism on display, this now appears restrained in it's depiction of sex and violence. The film is decidedly tame and avoids showing anything particularly nasty, as even the scene in which the warden pierces her breasts with needles is restrained, with the camera cutting away from the actual violence to show the reaction on the face, showing relatively little in that scene aside from the moment when they press their breasts together. This is a little confusing, as why it decided to hold back on the one area it really could've worked wonders in to make it a classic, but as it is, these few problems are what hold this one down at all.The Final Verdict: About as sleazy as any other entry in the genre with a lot more going for it, this is a really nice upper-tier Women-in-Prison entry that really works. Seek it out immediately if you're a fan of any of the main creative cast, an avid follower of the genre or exploitation in general, otherwise steer clear of this.Rated UR/NC-17: Full Nudity, several strong sex scenes, Graphic Violence and Graphic Language

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!

You 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.