DVD Release
Olga Triple Feature (1964 – 1969)
R1 / NTSC DVD
Something Weird Video / 2003
Director: Joseph P. Mawra
Writers: Joseph P. Mawra, George Weiss
Cast: Audrey Campbell, Marlaina Abbie, Alice Davis, Joel Holt
Review by James Garfield
Mafia-affiliated dominatrix Olga (Audrey Campbell) runs dope-peddling and white-slavery rings. That’s all there really is to these three vintage sexploitation movies, and there is little variation between the films. White Slaves of Chinatown features Chinatown as Olga’s stomping grounds, and was shot without sync-sound. The minimal narrative progression has a group of women being groomed as prostitutes. We get a lot of narration explaining Olga’s business arrangements and setting up the next bondage-and-discipline set piece: fingers crushed in clamps, Chinese water torture, cigarette burns, whippings, etc. The soundtrack endlessly repeats a snippet of Chinese music for the first half and Mussorgsky’s “Night on Bald Mountain” for the second—perhaps to torture the viewer. “Bald Mountain” is back for Olga’s House of Shame, but we also periodically get a scene with sync-sound dialogue. The rest of the time, our old friend the narrator is back (Olga herself also gets a few words in, usually aimed at the characters onscreen). This time, Olga runs things from an abandoned ore mine, and some location work in the surrounding woods breaks up the claustrophobia. “Plot” features Olga learning of someone among her prisoners plotting to overthrow her, and by film’s end she has trained the prisoner into becoming a second-in-command. Olga’s Dance Hall Girls is an unofficial entry in the series, with neither Audrey Campbell nor any of the behind-the-scenes people of the previous films involved (no credits are given beyond cast). Here, Ersatz Olga recruits housewives for a dancehall-cum-escort service that actually fronts for a satanic cult.
The Olga films have become legendary as the earliest major example of sexploitation filmmakers turning to S&M for subject matter, and for Campbell’s memorable incarnation of headmistress Olga, an obvious forerunner of Dyanne Thorne’s iconic Ilsa. Their historical value, unfortunately, is greater than their entertainment value. Not that they are bad films; director Mawra had a truly singular style that, for awhile at least, fascinates. The copious narration comically brings educational films to mind. Chinatown cuts periodically away from the violence to night footage of Chinatown, and, bizarrely, a shot of rotating Chinese toys in a shop. The lack of sync sound makes the violence near-comical; without us hearing slapping, screams, etc. the abuse looks quite obviously staged, with Campbell brushing or tapping her victims. This DVD edition has trailers for all the Olga films, even Olga’s Girls, the rights to which are apparently owned by Synapse films, and the now-lost Madam Olga’s Massage Parlor.
The Olga films today come across as curiosities, best watched for novelty/historical value rather than the expectation of a terrific movie.
