![BOY OH BOYD](/images/headline/6764.png) If you think I look good this way wait until you see me with motion, sound, and character development. ![](/images/postimg/boy_oh_boyd.jpg)
Above: an excellent photo of U.S. actress Tanya Boyd, who rose to fame in ’70s blaxploitation movies, particularly 1976's Black Shampoo and Ilsa: Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks, two of the wilder movies of the period. Most of her career afterward consisted of television appearances, including a 650-episode stint on the soap opera Days of Our Lives, but she's always been a favorite of ours for her film work. In terms of blaxploitation performers, she was never as famous as Pam Grier, but she was just as fearless.
![HEAT OF THE MOMENT](/images/headline/6060.png) The temperature goes up but everything else goes down hard in low budget action flick. ![](/images/postimg/heat_of_the_moment_01.jpg)
We're drawn by cool promo posters, but even though there's nothing special about the cheap-ass art for the 1976 blaxploitation flick Black Heat, we had to watch it anyway because we love low budget vintage cinema. It's like panning for gold. Usually you end up disappointed, but occasionally you find something shiny and nice. Black Heat stars Timothy Brown, who we last saw in an epic disaster called The Dynamite Brothers, aka Stud Brown, that probably should have ended his cinematic career. But here he is two years later still riding the blaxploitation wave. He plays Kicks Carter, an L.A. cop trying to get to the bottom of illegal activities at a fancy hotel, keep his partner's born loser girlfriend out of gambling trouble, and make time for romance on the side.
Considering the bad luck Brown had with The Dynamite Brothers we'd love to tell you Black Heat is a major step up in his career. It isn't. It's terrible. The only spark is provided by co-star Tanya Boyd, who you may remember from her eye popping turn in Black Shampoo. Anything she's in, we'll gladly watch, because as far as heat is concerned her dial goes to eleven. But she about covers the positives here. Well, her and the fact that the movie features one of our favorite sights from ’70s cinema—the car that goes over a cliff with a dummy in the driver seat. It's a good metaphor for the film—basically driverless, destined to crash and burn. Black Heat premiered today in 1976. ![](/images/postimg/heat_of_the_moment_02.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/heat_of_the_moment_03.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/heat_of_the_moment_04.jpg)
![HAREM SCARE 'EM](/images/headline/5656.png) The queen of sexual torture takes her talents to the Middle East. ![](/images/postimg/harem_scare_'em_01.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/harem_scare_'em_02.jpg)
Today is the day we finally complete the trifecta of Ilsa movies with Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks, for which you see two Japanese posters above. The movie premiered in the U.S. in March 1976, and opened in Japan today that same year. The Japanese titles of Western movies are sometimes like lists of ingredients. The translation of アラブ女地獄 悪魔のハーレム is “Arab hell devil harem.” Even with that clear warning, Japanese audiences—who aren't fazed by much—must have said, “These Yank filmmakers are fucking crazy.” Which is to say that the Ilsa trilogy is among the most irredeemable sexploitation cinema ever produced, the type of stuff that will never, ever be made again, at least not in the U.S., where every instance of cinematic nudity is a political event. Generally, we decry that, but only when it keeps realistic and healthy sexual interactions from being shown onscreen. Harem Keeper is not healthy. Not on any level.
But we digress. This was the second installment of the Ilsa trio, and all starred Dyanne Thorne. She reprises her role as the cruel dominatrix Ilsa, and this time she's in charge of a sheik's harem. She rules this desert roost with utter cruelty, indulging in random acts of corporal punishment, and assisting her boss as he derives both income and pleasure from auctioning kidnapped women to wealthy pervs. Ilsa and the sheik discover that their little set-up has been infiltrated when they catch a spy sent by the granite-jawed Max Thayer, who later himself arrives on the scene and is quickly a prized guest in Ilsa's bed. We could get into the major subplot involving war with a rival sheik, but suffice it to say that the entire plot is just an excuse to string together set pieces featuring vile faux-violence and silly faux-sex. How low does the movie sink? At one point Ilsa uses her incomparable creativity to implant a harem girl with an explosive diaphragm that will detonate during intercourse. It's no electrified dildo (see installment one), but it's close.
Yes, Ilsa is cruel as hell, but it's nothing excellent sex won't cure. That's right up Thayer the Layer's alley. He works his way to Ilsa's creamy center, at which point she decides to switch allegiances and betray her sheik. Will she get away with this outrage? Well, we've already mentioned there were three Ilsa movies and this was the second, so theoretically, she gets away with it. On the other hand, she died at the end of the first movie, so you never know. Regardless, without putting too fine a point on it, this is a terrible movie. But the participation of porn actress Colleen Brennan, nudie model Uschi Digard, and blaxploitation beauties Tanya Boyd and Marilyn Joi as Ilsa's usually-topless enforcers, make this worth a guilty watch. Just don't let anyone know you did it, or you might lose your job, your friends, your family, and even your cat—and cats generally don't give a fuck. But that's how bad this flick is. We have a ton of promo images below. Some came from an interesting French-Canadian website called Cinepix. You can check it out here. ![](/images/postimg/harem_scare_'em_03.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/harem_scare_'em_24.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/harem_scare_'em_28.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/harem_scare_'em_25.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/harem_scare_'em_12.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/harem_scare_'em_05.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/harem_scare_'em_06.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/harem_scare_'em_07.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/harem_scare_'em_08.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/harem_scare_'em_21.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/harem_scare_'em_33.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/harem_scare_'em_34.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/harem_scare_'em_13.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/harem_scare_'em_30.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/harem_scare_'em_09.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/harem_scare_'em_36.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/harem_scare_'em_31.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/harem_scare_'em_15.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/harem_scare_'em_16.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/harem_scare_'em_35.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/harem_scare_'em_32.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/harem_scare_'em_14.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/harem_scare_'em_26.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/harem_scare_'em_04.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/harem_scare_'em_10.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/harem_scare_'em_11.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/harem_scare_'em_29.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/harem_scare_'em_18.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/harem_scare_'em_23.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/harem_scare_'em_17.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/harem_scare_'em_20.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/harem_scare_'em_19.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/harem_scare_'em_27.jpg)
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The headlines that mattered yesteryear.
2003—Hope Dies
Film legend Bob Hope dies of pneumonia two months after celebrating his 100th birthday. 1945—Churchill Given the Sack
In spite of admiring Winston Churchill as a great wartime leader, Britons elect
Clement Attlee the nation's new prime minister in a sweeping victory for the Labour Party over the Conservatives. 1952—Evita Peron Dies
Eva Duarte de Peron, aka Evita, wife of the president of the Argentine Republic, dies from cancer at age 33. Evita had brought the working classes into a position of political power never witnessed before, but was hated by the nation's powerful military class. She is lain to rest in Milan, Italy in a secret grave under a nun's name, but is eventually returned to Argentina for reburial beside her husband in 1974. 1943—Mussolini Calls It Quits
Italian dictator Benito Mussolini steps down as head of the armed forces and the government. It soon becomes clear that Il Duce did not relinquish power voluntarily, but was forced to resign after former Fascist colleagues turned against him. He is later installed by Germany as leader of the Italian Social Republic in the north of the country, but is killed by partisans in 1945.
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