The Dutchess herself, still as stunning as ever.
Much has been written over the centuries about the war between the sexes but for one very special woman that war ended long ago with men offering her their complete and un- conditional sur-render.
Previously Balladeer’s Blog featured an interview with that woman – Dutchess Von Stern, whose charisma and icy beauty have enabled her to literally enslave men on-screen and off. Even Christian Grey would find himself subdued and defeated by this iron-willed icon of Power Exchange Lifestyles.
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More regal and violent than Dyanne Thorne’s on-screen character Ilsa, Dutchess Von Stern has sauntered across the screen in FemDom films that helped define the genre. The owner of a real-life stable of willing and happy male servants, the Dutchess first made her mark in the 1980’s.
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The years have been incredibly kind to this self-made aristocrat, who flaunts the same kind of long-lived loveliness as figures like Joan Collins and Raquel Welch. Balladeer’s Blog presents a look at the 1980’s films of the Dutchess and examines the way their combination of horror and sensuality blazed a trail that made Dominatrixes the mainstream pop culture figures they are today.
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The following films came out in the 1980’s but virtually no two sources give the same year for each one.
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DEEP SPIKES – This film marked the first time the elegant Dutchess would work with frequent co-star Mistress Destiny. The story was a direct followup to the erotic/ horror movie All-American Super Bitches, which featured Dutchess Von Stern, Baroness Silver Charles and other women as Dommes torturing their enthralled male subjects at a secret underground establishment.
The Dutchess and the Baroness reprise their roles from the previous film as does cult figure David Christopher, a thrill-seeker who ended up getting much more than he bargained for in that prior installment. Now trapped in a new life as a servant and torture toy for Dutchess Von Stern and Baroness Silver the battered and subdued man suffers even more abuse this time around.
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A new wrinkle now is that the women – joined by Mistress Destiny – have taken to kidnapping men off the streets, breaking them and selling them as slaves to other females in their secret Matriarchal subculture. Dutchess Von Stern’s screen presence blows away the other two ladies and makes her THE star of this film, no mean feat given the blonde Mistress Destiny’s own beauty and massive bustline.
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BENEATH HER SPIKES – The emphasis is on pure torture in this third film of the series. Dutchess Von Stern, clearly the reason Deep Spikes was so successful, is at the center of things this time around as she and her sidekick Baroness Silver Charles subject their captives from the previous film to more punishment than you would think the male body could stand.
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The combined horror/erotic elements are at their height in this cinematic tale which features NO stuntmen: the actors took all the torment the viewer sees unfolding on screen.
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VAMP’S BLACKMAIL – Dutchess Von Stern at her absolute hottest stars as a Dominatrix hired by a male attorney to blackmail his wife. Instead she turns the tables on him by overpowering him, torturing him and leaving him in a defeated heap for his colleagues to find.
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The Dutchess next seeks out the man’s wife and initiates her into the ways of Female Domination. When the hapless attorney returns home after his humiliating day he discovers that his wife has joined forces with the sultry Dominatrix and that his nightmare is just beginning. This is a nice blend of Russ Meyer with the Ilsa movies and a little Last House on the Left thrown in for good measure.
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DOUBLE DOMINATION – Two self-styled “studs” decide to try experimenting with some action featuring a Dominatrix and contact Dutchess Von Stern. After seeming to play along and chaining up the cocky macho men our heroine quickly disabuses them of the notion that this will be in any way “fun” for them.
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Holding the whip hand (literally) the Dutchess proceeds to take over the men’s lives, jeopordizing their jobs, financial standing and all else, forcing them to become her literal slaves instead of the cutesy role-playing they assumed was in store. Nightmarish yet plausible enough to be true, this would have made a nice general- release horror film with the more graphic torture sequences cut.
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EBONY GODDESSES – The talented Dutchess Von Stern showed off her directing chops with this taboo-breaking classic. The lovely lady shines behind the camera in this erotic horror story of a private detective searching for his missing brother. It turns out his brother has been abducted and reduced to slavery by an underground ring of exquisitely beautiful African-American women.
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These wealthy and powerful ladies have taken the concept of Karmic Justice to the next level by running a market that sells white men to other African- American women to be used as servants, torture toys or snuff toys as their buyer sees fit. As our protagonist gets closer to the truth he can kiss his freedom and the rest of his life goodbye since he’ll never escape his tormentors’ clutches.
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Dutchess Von Stern also appeared in the following 1980’s erotic horror films but was not in the lead role:
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BIZARRE SORCERESS – The Dutchess is one of the ensemble cast in this medieval-era movie about witchcraft and torture games among the nobility. The movie comes to life when our lady is on-screen but becomes a snoozer when she’s not.
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AMAZON ISLAND – The search for an heiress who was lost at sea leads to an island run by domineering jungle-women. The hapless men searching for the heiress discover she is one of the amazon women who will be torturing and enslaving them. Ilsa meets Cannibal Holocaust … kind of.
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DEEPER SPIKES – Dutchess Von Stern and Mistress Destiny do a light R-Rated lesbian kissing scene in this erotic horror film which finds the lethal ladies doling out the usual pre-Hostel torture to their captives. Unfortunately this movie features the Dutchess and her colleague inflicting punishment on a few women as well as men and I can’t stand seeing women getting abused in films. (Call me sexist if you want.)
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LOTTA TOPP IS THE COLLECTOR – The Dutchess co-stars with Lotta Topp, one of the first women to get those basketball-sized breast implants that would become all the rage as the 1990’s arrived. The two ladies work as debt collectors for a sadistic loan shark, which lets them unleash their most creative and painful tortures on male gamblers who can’t pay up. Think of it as Ilsa Joins The Sopranos, directed by Quentin Tarantino.
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And so many others! WANT MORE OF THIS INCREDIBLE LADY? SHE RUNS A SITE OF HER OWN AT: http://clips4sale.com/5388
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© Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog, 2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
