Earning significant popularity in the 1970s, Exploitation films began to branch out in several directions. You had subgenres like what was called Blaxploitation (such as 1972’s Super Fly and 1974’s Foxy Brown), Cannibal films (including 1978’s Slave of the Cannibal God), Sexploitation films (like 1975’s Russ Meyer’s Supervixens), Nunsploitation (like 1971’s The Devils), as well as Nazisploitation (including 1976’s SS Experiment Love Camp). Some more strange than others, you also have hybrids which meshed together with flickers of other subgenres, and this is explicitly evident in 1976’s Isla, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks.
A follow-up to 1975’s Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS (which fell under Nazisploitation), Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks shifts to a Sexploitation/Women-in-Prison mixture while pivoting out of Europe into the Middle East. Capitalizing on the events of the time, some would say the new plotline for Isla, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks (written by Langston Stafford), was inspired by the 1973 oil crisis, when Arab members of OPEC imposed an oil embargo and cut production. Part of the US recession at the time, the embargos led to price increases, gas shortages, and long lines of gas stations, among other issues.
With all of this in mind, Isla, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks, takes this piece of reality at the time and turns it into a wild, often unsettling feature film of sadism and sexual slavery. With Don Edmonds returning as director after working on Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS a year earlier, there was also the versatile Dyanne Thorne reprising her role as the ruthless Ilsa. A character Thorne played twice more thereafter, in 1977’s Ilsa, the Wicked Garden and Ilsa, the Tigress of Siberia; her portrayal of the character is the focal point in each story and synonymous with her acting persona.
Ilsa, who is unforgiving and domineering, is a character not to be crossed and a potent female antagonist. Loosely based on Ilse Koch (the wife of a real-life commandant at the Buchenwald concentration camp during World War II), in Isla, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks, the fictional Ilsa acts as a manager of a harem, controlling and training sexual slaves for the despicable Sheikh El-Sharif (played by Jerry Delony). El-Sharif, only concerned with his own pervert pleasures and seeking any means necessary to achieve them, is in control of a massive amount of oil reserves. In an economic crisis, the USA sends a diplomat (portrayed by Richard Kennedy) and a military officer (played by Max Thayer) to strike a deal and tap the oil reserve. However, what they find is a realm of sexual decadence and horrendous enslavement.
Full of disturbing subtext, some of which includes sexual torture, imprisonment, forced surgeries, and more, in truth, Isla, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks is probably one of the more politically incorrect films you might ever see. Clearly not something that would attract critical praise or widespread commercial success, it is unquestionably a cult film that stands out in the Exploitation cinema genre. Theatrically released in March 1976, the film did make it to VHS (which are now collector’s items for cult film fans), with DVD releases in the decades to follow. Now, years later, Isla, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks, finds its way to 4K Ultra HD for the first time.
Title number 41 in Kino Lorber’s Kino Cult collection, the 2-disc 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray release of Isla, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks, arrives on November 25, 2025. Giving you the film in a substantially improved format with balanced color and clarity, there is also some extra content. The feature film is available solely on the 4K disc, but the Blu-ray disc also includes the 4K transfer, along with audio commentary from Dayne Thorne and interviews with Don Edmonds. Also featured is a nice slipcase with newer art, and a reversible cover with the original film art on one side.
Overall, if you are a fan of outrageous cinema that is bold and crass, there is a dark sense of humor amid Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks. Brought to life with this high-quality restoration edition, Cryptic Rock gives Kino Lorber’s 4K Ultra HD release of Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks 4 out of 5 stars.
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