In this third installment of the “Olga” series, our heroine adds jewel smuggling to her repertoire of dope pushing and white slavery. As the vicious Olga (Audrey Campbell) expands her criminal empire, she also encounters more resistance as a string of once-trusted partners turn traitor in an effort to steal the successful racket out from under her. The result is exactly what fans of the series expect, a barrage of torture scenes featuring soldering irons, floggings, spankings, and even an electric chair. As with its predecessors, Olga’s House of Shame is a silent black and white film with narration to explain the action, but even with direct commentary it’s difficult to keep track of the characters and Campbell (who is occasionally caught laughing out loud at the absurdity of it all) has all the menace of a kindergarten teacher, even when wielding a machete.
After having been run out of New York City’s Chinatown, brothel owner Madame Olga moves her ring of prostitutes and criminals to a deserted ore mine and starts over.
Produced by George Weiss and directed by Joseph P. Mawra and starring Audrey Campbell as the sadistic white slaver Olga,
This highly influential New York grindhouse film launched the new wave of “roughie” sexploitation. Designed to be the opposite of the colorful “nudie-cuties”, roughies added sex and sadism to film-noir crime-dramas in stories about depraved psychos who abduct women, white slavery rings, prostitution and drugs.
This film has all of those elements. The first full-length feature to show fetishes such as sadistic adult spanking, human pony training, and various S&M devices and practices used to control slave girls.
The producer George Weiss is best known for producing Ed Wood’s “Glen or Glenda?”
Weiss added risque fetishistic bondage and whipping scenes to Wood’s dream sequence. Weiss unleashed Olga’s House of Shame (which he also co-wrote), White Slaves of Chinatown, Olga’s Girls (all from 1964), Mme. Olga’s Massage Parlor (1965) and Olga’s Dance Hall Girls (1969). Weiss has a brief role as a doctor in White Slaves of Chinatown. Although tame by today’s standards, the series was shocking and unique in its day. Underground filmmaker John Waters cites Olga’s House of Shame as a major early influence.
William L. Rose, the cinematographer, went on to direct several roughie films with whipping and spanking scenes such as Rent-a-Girl (1965), Pamela, Pamela you are… (1968), and The Girl in Room 2a (1973).
Official Trailer
Extra
Choice clips (and trailer) from “Olga’s House of Shame” (1964) third, and best, in the exploitation series starring Audrey Campbell.
Part 2 of 3
Theater trailer for “Olga’s Girls” (1964), sequel to the boring “White Slaves of Chinatown”. Here diabolical S&M style torments are actually shown on screen for the first time. As the narration says: “Disgustingly true. No symbolism, just realism.” The stylized sadism, whipping and breast torment looks mild today, but was a sensation back then. A new wave of roughie exploitation films would copy this formula countless times.
Next are “Olga’s Dance Hall Girls” (1969) with an occult theme, and the phony “Mondo Oscenita” (1966). “Mondo” claims to consist of shocking scenes banned from other pictures. The trailer shows it has parts from “Olga’s House of Shame” (1964) and other sexploitation films that were not censored.
Part 3 of 3
Highlights from “Olga’s Girls” (1964) directed by Joseph P. Mawra. This film, and its sequel “Olga’s House of Shame”, are the Rosetta Stone of “roughie” sexploitation in the ’60s, as well as the fetish film industry that came of age in the ’80s. For the first time in a feature film, albeit an underground grindhouse flick, kinky S&M practices (bondage, whipping, spanking, breast torment, etc.) were openly displayed as the main attraction.
Full Movie
