Dr Johnson (Fred Williams) has been experimenting with embryos to make them stronger, more disease resistant people. But the medical board, in the shape of Drs Walker (Howard Vernon), Donen (Jesus Franco), Huston (Paul Müller) and Crawford (Ewa Ströberg) rejects his research, brands him a menace and bars him from continuing his work. Johnson's laboratory is smashed up and he falls into a deep depression, eventually killing himself. Johnson's young wife (Soledad Miranda – here billed as Susann Korda) then takes it upon herself to avenge her husband. One by one she seduces the four members of the board – none as upstanding and moral as their public front suggests – and murders them. Then, with her revenge complete and the police on her tail, she drives her car off a cliff: "My love, we will be united in death. Not long now, I will be with you."
In essence a remake of his earlier The Diabolical Dr Z , 1970's She Killed in Ecstasy was one of the last in a series of films Jesus Franco directed under the Frank Hollmann pseudonym for German producer Artur Brauner.
Sadly, it was also the last to feature the great Soledad Miranda, with the Portuguese/Spanish beauty dying as the result of an automobile accident a few months later.
As it is, Miranda's committed, credible performance is probably the best thing about the film. It is not that writer-director-cinematographer Franco is off-form in any way, more that the usual kitsch/trash elements – Hubler and Schwab's celebrated acid lounge jazz score, the costumes and production design – tend to undercut the otherwise deadly serious, grim, nature of the piece.
There's simply a real problem with tone from the get go, when images of deformed foetuses in specimen jars, redolent of Nazi atrocities, are offset by bright pink titles and that music, horribly inappropriate here however enjoyable it might be in another context.
Perhaps nothing could have been done about the look of the film. It is, after all, an ultra low budget early 70s production – some indication of its cheapness coming from the recurrence of some of the props from Vampyros Lesbos – that we are looking at through Eurotrash eyes. But more of Bruno Nicolai's choral music, which Franco plays over some of the more emotionally intense scenes, would definitely have helped.
On at least one occasion, however, Franco does bring the kitsch and horror elements together successfully: Mrs Johnson, wearing a blonde wig, allows herself to be seduced by Dr Crawford (who has been told to look out for a brunette) and, in the midst of their lovemaking, smothers Dr Crawford with a transparent plastic pillow, thereby being able to better observe and savour her demise.
A respectable failure, then.
Second Sight's Region 2 DVD presents She Killed in Ecstasy in 1.66:1 anamorphic widescreen, enhanced for 16:9 televisions with the original German audio and optional English subtitles. While never a reference disc, the print and transfer are pretty good and a testament to the restoration and remastering work that has been undertaken.
The extras comprise the original German trailer for the film, which emphasises the role of Horst Tappert as the police inspector rather than the fact that it's a Franco film, and a small stills gallery.
Another worthwhile disc for the Franco enthusiast.
Copyright © K H Brown 2002-2005
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