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.
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.