Olga's House of Shame

This is the 3rd movie in the infamous Olga series starring Audrey Campbell and it's a classic sickie! The pseudo mondo narration and the Wagner-like music gives the film an unique edge. It's low budget but nicely shot (handheld camera, dogme-style!) in glorious b/w and Miss Campbell is captivating in a twisted sort of way. This torture/bondage fest must've been pretty shocking in 1964. John Waters went to filmschool in New York around that time and said it influenced him more than any Eisenstein movie! Waters was expelled within a year in a reefer scandal. Michael Medved was right: THESE FILMS ARE UNHEALTHY! Producer George Weiss also backed another trash classic, Ed Wood's "Glen Or Glenda"! "Olga", an anti-PC masterpiece, and "Love Camp 7" are the obvious inspiration for the wonderful "Ilsa" movies and countless others. Jess Franco and Joe D'amato fans should defintely check in at this House Of Shame!

OLGA'S HOUSE OF SHAME (1964)

0 (of ****)

I love mindless perversion as much as the next red blooded guy when it's done right. This is just a terrible film, not even enjoyable for a sexploitation flick. Women are unconvincingly abused with not even the slightest attempt to make it look real. No dialogue, just narration - much of it unintentionally funny but not enough to waste your time.

Olga's House of Shame (1964) 1/2 (out of 4)

If you're looking for a plot then you're going to be looking for a while but we've basically got Olga (Audrey Campbell) escaping and then starting up her prostitution racket again.

This is the third film in the series and I must say that it's not a very a good series. Yes, I know some fans enjoy these pictures but to me they're on the same level as something like THE BEAST OF YUCCA FLATS. What does that film and OLGA'S HOUSE OF SHAME have in common? For the majority of the running time they were shot silent and there is some really awful voice-over dialogue that keeps us informed as to what is happening.

This has always been a cheap way for low-budget filmmakers to save money but it just doesn't work and I think it looks especially ridiculous in something like this. There are all sorts of problems with this movie including the fact that nothing shocking happens until around the forty-five minute mark. At this point we finally get a bit of torture and this continues throughout the rest of the movie but by the time it starts the viewer is already dead from boredom.

These type of "roughies" were popular at one time and it seems they gained a bit more popularity once Something Weird Video started to release them. I love sleaze as much as anyone but this film here is just pure boredom to sit through.

This is the third entry of the 'official' Olga series with Audrey Campbell playing the lead character. The addition of a bit of a plot makes this quite an improvement over White Slaves of Chinatown and the character began to grow on me a little bit. I am starting to see why Campbell ended up becoming a sexploitation icon but the film still failed to live up to the hype that has been bestowed on the series over the years.

Some improvements in this film were a cool location for Olga's lair (an abandoned ore mine), cinematography that was much more interesting with a number of clever shots and some great looking black and white photography, and the addition of another main female character named Elaine. This character would go on to star in the next film in the series entitled Mme. Olga's Massage Parlour that has apparently become lost over the years. I thought that Alice Davis (aka. Judy Young) was perfect as the young protégé of Olga. That being said, some of the more annoying elements of the first film were still present including the terribly repetitious use of "Night On Bald Mountain" and the voice-over.

Sexploitation fans will be happy that this contains the most nudity of the series, there is a belly dancer, and the requisite torture scenes are plentiful but relatively tame in comparison to what was to come with the many knock-offs in the 70's. If you are only planning to see one Olga movie in your life, this is probably the best one to check out.

Olga's House of Shame is not a good film by any measure. And it must be said us moderns-with such vast depths of pornography at our fingertips-will find little titillating in Olga's House of Shame. Indeed these days its S&M aspects could probably sneak into a CBS primetime serial without anyone batting an eyelash. The "punishments" are hilariously poorly executed to the point that they feel almost charming. Pointy instruments are moved within six inches of grimacing women, whipping never seems to make contact, and although Olga looks good strutting around in her jodhpurs, the film made me doubt she could even dominate a conversation.

But that's what makes Olga's House of Shame so fun! If the film was more realistic, you'd instead feel sad knowing that there are men who enjoy watching women get sexually abused (even if it is just simulated for the screen). Because this film is so bad though, you are free to enjoy the ride.

And what a ride it is! Olga's House of Shame is a very loosely connected sequence of scenes involving the titular Olga dominating her "girls" when they disobey her. The film uses a classic Mondo-style narrator to present these. Dear god do I love this narrator! This would not be the same film without him cheerfully describing all the "punishments" Olga will be dishing out. He's always just a little too interested as well... The whole thing is like one big wink at the camera as if to say, "hey we know this is some real sick stuff here, but you're into that aren't ya?"

Nor would the film be the same without its soundtrack. Classical music blares as Olga works over her girls with tongs and brands and whatnot. The music is bafflingly out of place, and yet I simply cannot imagine the film any other way. Now every time I hear "Night on Bald Mountain", I will think of my dear Olga!

I have little doubt that I am a terrible person for laughing my way through Olga's House of Shame. For lovers of sexploitation though, Olga's House of Shame is a classic. And deservedly so.