Greta - house without men
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Greta - house without men |
| Original title | Greta, la Tortionnaire |
| Country of production | Canada , Switzerland , Germany |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1977 |
| length | 90 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 18 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Jess Franco |
| script |
Erwin C. Dietrich , Jess Franco |
| production | Erwin C. Dietrich |
| music | Walter Baumgartner |
| camera | Ruedi Kuettel |
| occupation | |
| |
Greta - House without Men (original title: Greta, La Tortionnaire , alternative title: Ilsa, The Wicked Warden , A) is a German - US-American - Swiss co-production from 1977. The women's prison film made by Jess Franco became loose due to the US title for sexploitation film series about the sadistic warden Ilsa counted. However, the films only have parts of the plot in common and the main actress Dyanne Thorne .
action
The film is set in an unspecified South American state. The place of action is a reformatory for mentally disturbed offenders, which is run by the guard Greta. This rules the institution with a hard hand. Her sadistic torture methods include rape , lesbian BDSM practices, flogging and electroshock therapy , which leaves her victims as vegetative coma patients. She is supported by Pedro, who also earns money as a snuff filmmaker , as well as sadistic guards. In addition, she has made the inmate Juana compliant, who acts as her spy.
Inmate Rosa Philips managed to escape through a cleverly staged diversionary maneuver. She is able to escape her captors, but is seriously injured in the process. She escapes to the doctor Milton Arcos, but is picked up by the guards and taken back to the institution. Arcos becomes suspicious and informs the authorities. They find the volunteer Abbie Philips, sister of Rosa, who agrees to infiltrate the institution.
Once there, she is confronted with the sadistic methods. Juana has eaten a fool of her and uses every opportunity to humiliate her. When Abbie tries to fight back, she is put in solitary confinement. Back from solitary confinement, she manages to convince Juana through a woman with prisoner number 14 to ask about her sister. Juana actually does this in exchange for sexual favors, but informs Greta of the incident. This gets behind the plan of Arcos, which she has killed.
Juana brings Abbie to the now completely catatonic pink. There they are surprised by Greta, who takes Abbie with her and, contrary to the agreement with Juana, tortures them as hard as possible. Then Greta Rosa suffocates with a plastic bag. When a government investigative commission arrives, the prisoners behave in an exemplary manner. Juana, however, watches as the badly abused Abbie is handed over to the commission and gets a fit of anger. She incites her fellow inmates. Together they overpower Greta and eat her up while Pedro films the whole thing for his latest snuff film.
background
Since Erwin C. Dietrich, who distributed the products of the Canadian company Cinépix in German-speaking countries, had contributed a lot to the success of the Ilsa films, Cinépix fulfilled his wish and loaned him Dyanne Thorne for a film with director Jess Franco. The film has only several American titles in common with the series about the sadistic guard Ilsa. In fact, in 1987, the Ilsa films distribution company bought the rights to the film. For financial reasons, they decided to market the film as part of the Ilsa series and dubbed the film. Whenever the main character's name was mentioned, silence was played.
There are numerous titles under which the film was released. The following selection focuses on the German and English language film titles:
- Greta the Mad Butcher
- Greta the Torturer
- Greta the sadist
- Ilsa: Absolute power
- Ilsa the Wicked Warden
- Ilsa the Mad Butcher
- Wanda the Wicked Warden
In the German-speaking countries, the film was only released as a VHS version in Switzerland. For many years the film was only available as an import. DVD and Blu-Ray versions followed in Switzerland and Germany.
Reviews
In the work of the director Jess Franco, who is often characterized as a "dirty filmmaker", Greta - House Without Men is one of the better films. He is well crafted and had a higher budget than comparable films by Franco. Although he only belongs to the Ilsa series by name, he is heavily influenced by these films. Like most sex ploiters from the 1970s, the film uses explicit sex and violence scenes.
“In a country ruled by dictatorship, women are imprisoned in a clinic and sexually tortured and tortured by a cruel, perverted director in order to extort information about a revolutionary movement. The political background only serves as a pretext for a mixture of sadism, sex and concentration camp mentality. "
“Unfortunately, Franco couldn't add much to the well-known motifs, apart from the surprising conclusion. The political background only serves as a pretext for a mixture of sex, violence and the repulsive Nazi mentality "
“Ilsa, The Wicked Warden is among other things a film for sleaze fans , for beaver fur lovers and for fans of the women's prison film. First and foremost, however, it's pretty tough stuff. Greta - House without Men (OT) without KL background is almost 100% guilt free, but still a damn cynical work - which is reinforced by the naive, stupid dialogues of the German version - and because of its depressing Atmosphere not suitable as a party film. In addition, there is nasty torture, which is implemented very well in terms of FX, but slips back into the ridiculous through merciless overacting. "
Web links
- Greta - house without men in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Benedikt Eppenberger, Daniel Stapfer: Mädchen, Machos und Moneten , Verlag Scharfe Stiefel, p. 109
- ↑ Greta the Mad Butcher / Greta the Torturer / Greta the Sadist / Wanda the Wicked Warden / Ilsa the Wicked Warden / Isla: Absolute Power / Greta: House without men. 100misspenthours.com, accessed March 3, 2014 .
- ↑ Greta - House Without Men in the online film database
- ↑ Ilsa the Mad Butcher. (No longer available online.) DVD-fan.net, archived from the original on May 17, 2014 ; Retrieved March 3, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b Andreas Bertler, Harry Lieber: Hell on Earth. Lexicon of horror and power films . Bertler-Lieber Verlag, p. 196 .
- ↑ a b Johannes Limbrunner: Ilsa - The Wicked Warden. Filmtipps.at, accessed on March 3, 2014 .
- ↑ Greta - House without Men. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 3, 2014 .
