Written by: Langton Stafford
Starring: Dyanne Thorne, Max Thayer, Jerry Delony, Richard Kennedy, Uschi Digard, Colleen Brennan
As deplorable as Nazi atrocities may be ILSA: SHE WOLF OF THE SS was popular enough that it spawned a string of quasi-sequels. These sequels kept the title character but are most definitely not canon. HAREM KEEPER ignores the previous film (obviously since Ilsa was shot in the face and killed) but keeps many of the same themes, shifting them to a different country and a different time period. SHE WOLF involved mostly sex and violence and HAREM KEEPER is much the same, although quite a bit tamer. This was to help secure an R rating (SHE WOLF was refused certificate twice by the BBFC) however the film was still refused classification in the UK. But don't let that word 'tamer' disappoint you too much because there is still a decent amount of violence and a whole lot of nudity to enjoy here.
In her second adventure Ilsa (Thorne) is the keeper of the harem belonging to sheik El Sharif (Delony). She kidnaps women for the sheik to use as sex slaves, trains them to be obedient and prepares other women to be sold at auction to the various other sheiks and rich Arabs. She has recruited a trio of special women for the sheik (including two of Russ Meyers' chesty super vixens; Uschi Digard and Colleen Brennan).
Meanwhile a Dr. Kaiser (Kennedy) and his assistant Commodore Scott (Thayer) are on route from the US to the sheik's palace in order to try and free him of his underground stockpile of black gold. The Commodore has organized a woman to infiltrate the palace in order to gather dirt on the sheik in order to blackmail him into giving up his oil (the US using nefarious methods to gain oil? Unheard of!).
Similarly to what happens in SHE WOLF, Ilsa becomes very intrigued with the American despite knowing full well that he is the enemy. At first she sees him as somewhat of a fuck-toy but it's soon obvious that her feeling for him are more serious. In fact in contrast to her previous outing Ilsa is shown to have an almost soft side (although that doesn't prevent her from killing and torturing). Obviously the sheik won't stand for this 'sleeping with the enemy' bullshit and as you can imagine the shit quickly hits the fan. Cue torture, an uprising and lots and lots of naked women.
As you can see by the accompanying images this is an epic sleaze-fest. There are tits all over the place in every shape and color. Ilsa's lesbian henchwomen (named Satin and Velvet) spend much of their on screen time wearing next to nothing, even when involved in a fierce gunfight towards the film's end. The concubines also have their melons on display as you would expect. And yes even Ilsa gets her sweater-puppies out, although not as much as she did in SHE WOLF. I swear this is the most titties I've seen in one film. They sure don't make 'em like this anymore. Unfortunately if you're a fan of the gory scenes from the previous film then you might be a little disappointed with this one.
But that's not to say there isn't some decent gore. In fact there are some nice scenes like when a thief has his hand sliced off with a sword, or when one of the women in the harem has her foot eaten to the bone by an army of ants, and there is a brilliant internal-explosion scene which you really need to see to enjoy. Director Don Edmonds has done a great job of cramming this exploitation piece with plenty of sleaze but unlike SHE WOLF this has more of a sense of fun about it and is exceedingly more cheesy and camp. As a result this instalment isn't as shocking as the original but it is still a whole lot of fun and a great example of the magic that was 70s exploitation cinema. Not 5 minutes goes by without a little blood or a whole lot of boobage and this is an exceptional sequel (or sort of-sequel) to the original classic.
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