Ilsa, la tigresse du goulag

Dyanne Thorne returns for the fourth and final movie in the Ilsa series but she doesn't exactly go out on a high.

Ilsa once again tortures, maims and torments innocents for her own peverse degenerate and evil reasons, all while under the guard of loyal troops whom she keeps in check with her womanly wiles. Arguably all four movies have the same plot, if not they are remarkably similiar.

The previous movies weren't great and this isn't the worst of the bunch, but it's a shame to see a franchise end on a very underwhelming note.

The plot is certainly not polished, the cast are hit and miss, Ilsa never really comes into her own like previous additions and in many respects it feels like it's been downgraded from an exploitation flick to something desperate and unnecessary. Sure you have the customary nudity and quite graphic sex scenes but they feel tacked on, almost pornlike and have no purpose in advancing the plot.

Dyanne Thorne does her best once again but I'd say this is for fans of the series only and even then you're likely to feel a bit let down.

The Good:

Great practical effects

Dyanne Thorne

The Bad:

I still don't get the Ilsa timeline (Or lack thereof)

Much of the technology is plain silly

Very weak finale

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

An electric whisk to the groin is truly the next level of torture

One day someone needs to explain to me what Ilsa is and how she keeps returning throughout different generations

This is part of the Ilsa series (I think it's number 3). Apparently, the owners of this film would not sell the rights when the rest of the Ilsa movies were re-released on DVD a while ago. As a matter of fact, the only reason I have it is a friend of mine gave me a VHS copy of it that seems to be vintage (I don't even know if it has been released on DVD or another VHS run in a long time. Finding it may be kind of rare). It has its moments, but isn't as good as the rest of the Ilsa movies. It's basically the same type of story (Ilsa is sadistic and has sex a lot), and wasn't as coherent as the Ilsa stories (which sends it down in my opinion). I think that the writers put two different Ilsa stories they were working on together and decided to release it to make a quick buck.

The plot is that Ilsa is the Commandant of a Gulag in Siberia during the tail end of the Stalinist period. Ilsa enjoys two things, torture and sex (for those of you who have seen the other Ilsa movies, this should come as no surprise). She sets out on "re-educating" an author who has been sentenced there for writing criticisms of the Bolsheviks, but finds that he is a tough nut to crack. All hell breaks loose after Stalin dies and the guards have to destroy the gulag and escape. After this, things get goofy. Fast forward to 1976. The writer is now working as a security guard for the Soviet men's hockey team while they're at the Montreal Olympics. He is recognized at a brothel by Ilsa (who is now the head of an organized crime syndicate) and kidnapped. Ilsa decides to go through round two with the torture, but uses some new technology.

All in all, it was kind of lack luster. The biggest problem was that the script was really weak (the major weakness should have come out through the description of the movie). I also learned from this film that there are two identical lakes in Siberia and Quebec (they used the same damn hole in the ice in two separate scenes). Dyanne Thorne's performance is pretty much the same as in her other Ilsa movies, but this film just didn't live up to the rest. Sure, there's a lot of sex and torture, but somehow it really doesn't soothe the palate. I gave it a 3 because it did have some fun parts.

Like the proverbial cat with nine lives "Ilsa" (Dyanne Thorne) is back and she has returned to the vocation for which she is best qualified--as the warden of a Soviet prison in Siberia known as "Gulag 14". Further, considering that the year is 1953 and Joseph Stalin is the leader of the Soviet Union, Ilsa pretty much has a free hand to do whatever she wants to the prisoners. That said, true to her nature, that means this movie will consist of plenty of torture and brutality along with a few sex scenes involving the beautiful Dyanne Thorne. Unfortunately, unlike the previous two films in the series ("Ilsa, She-Wolf of this SS" and "Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks") none of these scenes were as polished as in the two preceding movies and as a result this particular motion picture failed to achieve the same standards. In my opinion, it was unnecessarily raw and sleazy and lacking in both eroticism and depth. I have rated the movie accordingly. Followed by the 4th (and last) film in the series, "Ilsa, The Wicked Warden".

I don't see what the big deal is here...Almost all the other reviewers seem to hate this film, and I don't really get it. After the goofy, uninspired HAREM KEEPER, and the pretty dull sleaze-fest WICKED WARDEN, I was pleasantly surprised with TIGRESS. It's no masterpiece by any means, but this one had some inventive torture and a decent amount of tits-and-ass. This one has the mammoth-mounded Ilsa playing baby-sitter to a bunch of Russian traitors in the first half of the film, and a Canadian whorehouse madam in the second half. Yes, the story is definitely a little disjointed, almost playing like 2 different films, but I think this one had a good balance between sex and gore, and enough sleazy humor to make it an all-around worthwhile and entertaining entry. Definitely worth checking out if you like the series (or sleazy exploit cinema in general), but you may have a hard time finding it - I don't believe that there is a DVD release as of yet (at least not in the States), so start scouring those old mom-and-pop video stores. Regardless of what the other guys say, I like this one - 8/10

The first half of the movie is set in Gulag 14 in Siberia.Here,Ilsa(Dyanne Thorne)devises grotesque tortures for the prisoners,feeds their pieces to her pet tiger,and gets friendly with the guards.For the second half,it is 24 years later and she is running a chain of high class whore-house with the emphasis on torture."Tigress" is pretty lame-not as nasty as previous installments-and also quite dull.There's some gore,plenty of soft core sex and silly dialogue to keep the viewer entertained,but this is nothing in comparison to "Cannibal Holocaust","Forced Entry" or even "Ilsa-She Wolf of SS".However if you consider yourself a fan of low-budget sleaze you can give this film a look.5 out of 10.