Sie tötete in Ekstase

Dr.Johnson conducts revolutionary experiments with human embryos he keeps in jars around the lab.When medical committee rejects his findings and orders him to stop his work,the doctor becomes depressed and commits suicide.His beautiful wife decides to seduce and kill three men and one woman 'responsible' for his suicide.Of course,two of the potential victims include Howard Vernon and Jesus Franco himself."She Killed in Ecstasy" is a pretty good Spanish horror film.The photography is excellent and easily captures the natural beauty of the lead actress,Soledad Miranda.There is plenty of nudity,but the film is quite tame.Still there is a really hot lesbian scene between Soledad Miranda and Ewa Stromberg,who was also in "Vampyros Lesbos".So if you are a fan of Jesus Franco you can't miss this film.7 out of 10.

This was only my second Soledad Miranda film, and it took me a while to get to it after being somewhat underwhelmed by EUGENIE DE SADE (1970), perhaps her most acclaimed collaboration with Jess Franco.

Anyway, I found SHE KILLED IN ECSTASY (which I watched via quite a satisfactory VHS dub) to be generally enjoyable and, typically of this period in Franco's career, rather good to look at (despite its obvious 'cheapness'). This, in fact, was one of the criticisms I leveled at EUGENIE DE SADE when I posted my first impressions of it on the 'DVD Maniacs' Forum: after the relative aesthetic beauty of THE DIABOLICAL DOCTOR Z [MISS MUERTE] (1965), EUGENIE…THE STORY OF HER JOURNEY INTO PERVERSION (1969), A VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD (1971) and, to a lesser extent, LUCKY THE INSCRUTABLE (1967), I had found the leap into extreme realism (in the film's ambiance if not the plot's logical progression, which I had discussed with Francesco at the time) rather too jarring – BUT I'm digressing here, so back to the topic at hand…

SHE KILLED IN ECSTASY is aided immeasurably by its great pop soundtrack, with which I personally had no problem whatsoever. [Another brief parenthesis here: Francesco had told me that some of the same music is also featured in another notable Franco/Miranda collaboration, VAMPYROS LESBOS (1970), which I have yet to watch…so that's surely a point in its favor already!] The film is essentially a remake of the superior if more traditional MISS MUERTE, but with a few interesting plot changes: here, the controversial doctor is the husband and not the father of the leading lady, making for an even more intense revenge scenario; the girl, then, commits the murders herself this time around rather than relegating them to a subordinate a' la Miss Death; finally, even though in this case the deadly weapon is nothing more complicated than a dagger, the visual depiction of the 'murders' themselves (due, no doubt, to the more tolerant censorship prevalent in the late Sixties) is a lot more vicious. Similarly, a lot more eroticism is allowed here too, some of it purely gratuitous, but most effective during the lesbian sequences featuring Miranda and Ewa Stromberg (whose relationship, I felt, echoes the rather moving one between Maria Rohm and Margaret Lee in Franco's masterpiece VENUS IN FURS [1968]).

For the true Franco fan, the film's cast has been wonderfully assembled, beginning with Soledad Miranda herself, of course: though her performance is slightly overstated by the end, here she is perhaps even more compelling and seductive than in EUGENIE DE SADE (though I still think that one is the better film overall); regulars Howard Vernon, Paul Muller and Ewa Stromberg – not forgetting Franco himself – as the stuffy and arrogant doctors who condemn the girl's scientist husband, all of whom are subsequently helpless to resist her 'attentions' when she confronts them!; Horst Tappert as the rather lethargic (yet amusing) Police Inspector, who never even thinks of interrogating Mrs. Johnson (the name of Miranda's character) when the bodies start piling up and fails even to prevent her own suicide! Actually, the only actor who failed to convince was Fred Williams as Dr. Johnson, whose lengthy brooding and subsequent hysterics after he is expelled, tended to bog down the film's first half!

As such the film's pace is rather uneven: initially slow moving and fairly dull, where I really wanted the Williams character to die so that his wife's revenge plan could be put into action! Sure enough, it picks up speed from then on with the girl actively, almost nonchalantly, stalking her 'prey' (in alternately lush and common surroundings, at first in public and then privately), yet always allowing – or, we might say, compelling – them to make the first move towards their own demises! The ending, unfortunately, is somewhat hurried and quite poorly staged – though, in hindsight, its foreshadowing of a real-life tragedy (Soledad Miranda's own death in similar circumstances occurred before the film was even released) leaves a definite impact which, I would argue, goes far beyond Franco's own wildest expectations for his film!

Needless to say, I look forward now to seeing more films featuring this enchanting actress (her other work with Jess Franco above all), particularly VAMPYROS LESBOS and, in view of its thematic similarities with MISS MUERTE and SHE KILLED IN ECSTASY itself, the hopefully upcoming NIGHTMARES COME AT NIGHT (1970).

Jess Franco is not known for telling a great story, but he sure knows how to show flesh and he shows it very well in She Killed in Ecstasy.

Dr Johnson is happily married to a beautiful woman (Soledad Miranda). He is conducting experiments on human embryos that he keeps jars in his lab. When he shows his findings to a medical board, they are outraged by what he is doing. They call it blasphemy and immoral. They strip him of his medical license and destroy his lab. This drives him over the edge and he commits suicide. His wife distressed decides to take revenge against the doctors who ruined his life and killed him. She speaks to her dead husband's corpse and promises to get those who did him wrong. She seduces all the doctors including a woman to get her revenge. She finds they are not as moral as they appear to be.

She Killed in Ecstasy is Jess Franco's follow-up to Vampyros Lesbos and features many of the same people who worked on Lesbos, including the late Soledad Miranda as Ms. Johnson. She is breathtakingly seductive as the woman who will do anything to avenge her husband's death. The film has a faster pace than Franco's usual offerings and not to hard to take, as the film does not run to long, plus Soledad's body is easy on the eyes.

This has gotten a renewed life, following the "Vampyros Lesbos Sexadelic Dance Party" CD, which includes music from "Vampyros Lesbos", "Devil Came From Akasava", and this remake of "The Diabolical Dr. Z". Basically, a young scientist is barred from continuing his experiments in mixing human and animal DNA by the local medical board. He goes home, mopes, and eventually commits suicide. His wife, the lovely Soledad Miranda, is quite upset, and proceeds to use her femininity to lure the doctors responsible into sexual situations, before disposing of them. There is a lot of Cornell Woolrich's "The Bride Wore Black" here, juiced up to 60's level sex and sleaze. Franco pops in as a scientist, and it's interesting to see Howard Vernon playing the same role he played in "Diabolical Dr. Z". Other than the flaky psychedelic Jazz soundtrack, this is one of Soledad Miranda's best films, and she tackles her role mucho gusto. Franco's notorious Zoom overuse is toned down here, and he keeps it moving along nicely. Not as twisted as his 70's takes on similar material, but more well done than much of his catalog.

Jesus Franco has made so many movies that it's almost inevitable that he will occasionally get one right. This is one of those movies where his bizarro and repetitive plots, his pan-and-zoom-happy cinematography, and his obtrusive jazz score all manage to gel for a pretty dumb but thoroughly enjoyable movie. It helps, of course, that this was one of only four films he made with the incredible Soledad Miranda before her untimely death in the early 1970's. There's no denying that Franco's regular collaborator (and wife), Lina Romay, was a very sexy actress in her prime and has become something of a legend in her own right, but she is a pale shadow of Soledad Miranda, who was if anything even more beautiful and had a kind of class and talent that none of Franco's later actresses could ever hope to emulate.

The plot is about as simple as you get--this is yet another Franco knock-off of "The Bride Wore Black" with Miranda avenging herself on the scientists who drove her husband to suicide by censuring his morally dubious embryo research. Of course, this involves getting them all in bed (including the one woman, who is naturally a lesbian). This makes for some interesting (and sometimes disturbing) scenes--a nude woman being smothered with a see-through plastic throw pillow, a single trickle of blood running down Miranda's bare thigh after she stabs one poor guy in the back (while he is apparently licking the lint from her belly button), and, perhaps most disturbing of all, Howard Vernon, Dr. Orloff himself, in the altogether(shudder!). Like any good Franco movie this film is deliciously perverse. Miranda's murderous campaign against these hapless souls is every bit as morally questionable as her husbands grisly experiments. She manages to achieve an uneasy combination of touchingly sympathetic, voraciously sexy, and frighteningly psychotic. Her last two victims (one of who is Franco himself) realize exactly who she is and know she is going to kill them, but they can't resist her anymore than a male praying mantis can resist the female who is going to rip him apart and eat him.

Is this is perfect movie? Well, no. The whole premise is completely ridiculous and it has the most unconvincing fatal car crash in cinema history near the end. But it sure is a lot of fun to watch.