Director: Frank Hollmann (aka Jesus Franco)
Script: Jesus Franco
Cast: Susan Korda (aka Soledad Miranda), Fred Williams, Paul Muller, Howard Vernon, Ewa Stroemberg, Horst Tapport
Running time: 80.5 minutes
Year: 1970
Certificate: 18
The late, great Soledad Miranda returns for her third collaboration with Jess Franco, following Vampyros Lesbos and Count Dracula (both the same year). Here she plays Miranda who lives a happy life with her partner Dr Johnson (Fred Williams). Unfortunately, her beau has attracted severe criticism from his medical peers due to his seemingly unethical research into human embryos, resulting in him being struck off the doctor’s register and therefore unable to continue his experiments and even to earn a living. Johnson comes down with a severe case of depression leading, firstly, to him sinking into a catatonic state, then snapping out of it long enough to slash his own wrists, the correct way, to commit suicide.
Obviously this turn of events leaves Miranda devastated, but also really angry; angry enough to kill those who wronged her lover and life partner. So, she goes about seducing the three men and one woman who effectively ruined her life by encouraging her beloved to end his. Two of her victims include Howard Vernon and Jess Franco himself, playing quite a substantial role for a change.
As with Vampyros Lesbos, She Killed in Ecstasy is pure exploitative Euro trash and its dream-like nature is notable for lacking any supernatural pretence. Unless, of course, one views the sublime Soledad as super-natural, of course! After all it’s her erotic presence that drives the film forward, even when the ‘plot’, such as it is, is going nowhere fast. However, all the murder set pieces (mmm, we know a film called that…) are well constructed and memorable, even if it means seeing a half-soaked Howard Vernon mostly naked! The only murder that really doesn’t work is the suffocation by inflatable pillow, which really seemed to stretch reality, in my opinion.
Once again musicians Manfred Hubler and Siegfried Schwab pull out all the stops to give us another awesome and very memorable soundtrack, which binds the mind with its funky grooves. These underlie some incredible locations, in particular the house of Johnson and Miranda, which is an incredible piece of architecture, I have to say.
For a film directed by Jess Franco, I have to admit to finding my viewing of it quite an emotional one as towards the end you really start to empathise with the main character and care about her future. This is made more poignant when you realise that the lead actress, Soledad Miranda, would be dead within a year or so of shooting it.
Franco makes excellent use of the arresting locations and his cast, who are all on good form, especially Soledad, although I did think that her frequent emotional highs, as with her partners, didn’t leave her much scope for more subtle nuances, performance-wise. Fred Williams just appears to over-act in most of his scenes.
There are also one or two elements that made me chuckle; namely the scene where Dr Johnson returns home to find his partner very upset surrounded by his broken laboratory, which consists of several pieces of lab-ware, all very carefully laid out on their shag-pile carpet, with not a breakage in sight! Clearly Jess had the pieces out on loan and wasn’t allowed to damage any… Additionally, I had to have a giggle when Vernon’s professor character, when about to ‘do the dirty’ with the lovely Miranda, pauses to pray – God clearly wasn’t listening since the prof soon has his privates removed by the vengeful vixen.
Unavailable for quite some time, except as blurry German dupes, Severin have really done a great job with remastering the film, as they did with Vampyros Lesbos, and it looks and sound great.
Extras include:
Ecstasy in Rage – Interview with Stephen Thrower, author Of Murderous Passions: The Delirious Cinema of Jesús Franco (42 mins) – Thrower gives a very thorough breakdown of the film and provides a lot of interesting information and observations. He posits that there are plenty of similarities with Franco’s earlier film The Diabolical Dr Z and comments on the fact that actor Fred Williams looks ‘too alive’ to make the necrophilia scene as disturbing as it should be. He also notes that one of Franco’s friends was an architect who let them use the very distinctive La Menzanara, an iconic building sat up on a coastal hill-top.
In The Land of Franco Part 13 (21 mins) – Stephen Thrower continues his quest to track down the various locations used in Franco’s films. He chats to the son of one of Franco’s producers who shows him his store of posters from the Franco movies and even presents him with one. They also find the chateau that was used in Exorcismo and additional locations from Faceless and Kiss me, Killer.
Jess killed In Ecstasy – Interview with Writer/Director Jess Franco (17 mins) – Franco claims the film is loosely based on a French play, talks about his architect friend Riccardo Boffil and says that he really likes the film. He talks about the effect that Soledad’s death had on him and that he’s not really bothered by the honours bestowed on him latterly as he doesn’t really rate himself as a filmmaker, although he claims that cinema is the most beautiful thing to happen to him.
Sublime Soledad – Interview With Soledad Miranda Historian Amy Brown (20.5 mins) – Amy provides an in-depth account of Soledad’s life and career, especially her early career in musicals. She even appeared in a Spaghetti western called Sugar Colt. She believes that had she lived Miranda could have become Spain’s answer to Brigitte Bardot.
Paul Muller on Jess Franco – Interview with Frequent Franco Star (6.5 mins) – Muller says that he enjoyed working with Jess, but there was never a proper script used in any of the eight films that he made with him. He found Franco to be a well-educated and kind man who never forced his actors to do anything.
German Trailer (2.44 mins) – This claims the film ‘exposes the abysses of the human desires…’
