| Dyanne Thorne | |
|---|---|
| Born | October 14, 1932 Greenwich, Connecticut, USA |
| Other names | Lahna Monroe / Rosalee Stein / Diane Thorne / Penni Walters |
| Ethnicity | Caucasian |
Dyanne Thorne (born October 14, 1932, in Greenwich, Connecticut, USA) is an American actress, nude model for pin-up magazines, and former Las Vegas showgirl. She is best known for starring in four "Ilsa" sexploitation movies that influenced the Nazi exploitation film genre.
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Thorne first appeared as "Lahna Monroe" in the 1964 sexploitation film Sin in the Suburbs from grindhouse director Joseph W. Sarno. Her co-star, Audrey Campbell, would soon star as the dominatrix Olga in a series of "roughie" films (Olga's House of Shame, et al.). Thorne continued to make exploitation films and sex comedies such as Love Me Like I Do (1970) and Wam-Bam, Thank You, Spaceman (1973) before attaining notoriety as Ilsa, a cruel Nazi dominatrix similar to Campbell's Olga. Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS (1974) was a surprise hit that spawned three sequels and a flood of imitators, creating a Nazi exploitation film subgenre.
The first Ilsa movie was filmed on the prison camp sets left behind from the Hogan's Heroes television series.[1] Thorne's Ilsa is a brutal buxom commandant of a German prisoner-of-war camp during World War II. She sexually and physically abuses her male and female prisoners and uses them for diabolical medical experiments. The film, which was banned in Germany, was notorious for its level of sadism and for portraying Nazi cruelty as sexual actions.
Despite the fact that Ilsa was killed at the end of the film, she was resurrected for a sequel, Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks. This was set in the Middle East in an unspecified post-war time period. This was followed by Ilsa, the Tigress of Siberia with Ilsa as the sadistic and over-sexed leader of a Russian gulag in 1953. The last film, Ilsa, the Wicked Warden takes place in a corrupt Latin American "banana republic". Here, Ilsa is the bisexual warden of a women's prison. Directed by Jess Franco, this film falls into the women in prison genre with no connection to Ilsa's Nazi past.
Credited as Diana and not Dyanne, she and her husband were credited as the Bride and Groom in Franc Roddam's segment "Liebestod" from Tristan und Isolde in the film Aria (1987).
Her last and also most mainstream feature film role was as James Belushi's transsexual father in the 1987 film Real Men (a point James Belushi happily stressed to his friend by grabbing her breasts).
Contrary to some publications, Thorne did start but not complete her degree in Anthropology. Instead, during 10 years of simultaneous acting, she has earned a Ph.D. in Comparative religion.[2]
Today she and her husband Howard Maurer (both had roles in five of the same movies) are ordained ministers, who own an alternative wedding business in Las Vegas, Nevada. They conduct scenic outdoor weddings as an alternative to a traditional wedding chapel.[2][3][4][5][5]