Tag Archives: 1936

RIP Dyanne ‘SS-Ilsa’ Thorne (1936 – 2020)

Dyanne Thorne was an American actress best known for her film Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS (1974).

Unidentified documentary on the career of Thorne

I actually saw that film.

Ilsa conducts sadistic scientific experiments designed to demonstrate that women are more capable of enduring pain than men are, and therefore should be allowed to fight in the army. Ilsa is also portrayed as having a voracious sexual appetite for her male prisoners, whom she then castrates and kills.

It plays with the tropes of male anxiety of sexual inadequacy and the fear of castration.

Her character was very loosely based on that of Ilse Koch.

RIP Henri Belolo (1936 – 2019)

Henri Belolo was a French music producer and songwriter active during the disco era.

He co-created The Ritchie Family, the Village People.

In the course of my research following his death, I found that Belolo was co-responsible for a horrifying version of “Aquarela do Brasil” by the Ritchie Family, and for the kitsch classics “Y.M.C.A.”, “In the Navy”, and “Go West” by the Village People.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2HQJbpWT8w

However, it is Break Machine’s record “Street Dance” (1983) which I want to bring your attention here. A personal favorite, of however questionable taste it may appear to be.