She Killed in Ecstasy (1971) Horror Revenge

She Killed in Ecstasy (1971) -Unlike my last review this one does not have a great opening. An attractive woman comes down some stone steps to look at a beautiful ocean. Her voice over leads into a recap that will bring her to this place. She is Mrs Johnson (Soledad Miranda) a woman at a turning point in her life, about to do something she can not come back from. How did she arrive at this point? She and her husband Dr. Johnson (Fred Williams) were a happy couple, in love and moving through life in love's dream. He a successful doctor working on improving the species through hormone therapy and she, well his very attractive lover. He recently presented his life's work to the board of doctors who will fully instate him making his life perfect.
 Unfortunately the panel did not see his work as groundbreaking; in fact his work, which included experimentation on nearly grown fetuses, is seen as criminal. Dr Johnson is barred from performing medicine permanently. It is a devastating blow, while he tried to defend himself the panel's commentary on what is moral and acceptable in medical experimentation is clear and he returns home a broken man. Staring off into space and mumbling he ends up in a horrible depression eventually taking his own life. We come back to Mrs. Johnson standing on the shore of her private island and swearing revenge on the panel of doctors who she believes took her husband and their perfect life from her.

Beautifully filmed in Calpe, Alicante, and Valencia Spain the print I saw was in good shape and the locales when in frame were nice. Cinematographer Manuel Merino capture the location well and there are some nice angle captures in this film.  German with English subtitles the film has some passages where it seemed the emotion was trying to be captured but then other times the dialog read was a bit stilted. The music a weird mix of groovy beats from the seventies and more serious tones is noticeable from the very beginning of the film.
  Soledad Miranda was excellent as the grieving widow seeking revenge. Very attractive she manages to show her grief and anger behind her eyes. It is not a reach for us to believe that each doctor she seduces and kills would want to be with her. There is a fair amount of partial nudity in this film as with most every movie made by director and prolific Euro-Sleaze auteur Jesus Fanco. Miranda who was on the cusp of a long career as Franco's "it" girl sadly died a couple years after this film in a car crash in Portugal. It is said she was on her way to sign a long term contract with Franco.

  The character of Mrs. Johnson is indeed over the edge of crazy. When she finds her husband dead she does not call the police, no instead she lays his body in the bed and grieves. In fact all through the film no one knows that he is dead except her. She returns to spend time with him after her kills and each time she does it seems a bit sadder. You would think that maybe she is not bat-shit but after the first kill when she violently stabs her knife into the man's penis cutting it off (we learn later from the useless cop) we see the wild in those beautiful eyes. The character is a strange one to start with, a woman who does not appear to work. In a couple with no friends. Who live out on an island where there are no neighbors.That I suppose would drive anyone insane.  SPOILER! The ending where she has the least convincing drive off a cliff I have ever seen, she does so with the body of her man in the seat next to her. A side comment on that drive, it is a hill that runs down to the beach and sure it is not an easy ride down but to think it actually causes her death is silly. END SPOILER

  I think about this film are that I thought is was well put together. Refreshingly cogent for a Franco film it does not go off on any strange tangents as some of his work does. Sure there are things that are a bit strange but maybe interesting also. Prof. Walker (Howard Vernon) likes his sex rough and to be called names while it is happening, which ends up being a great scene for Mrs. Johnson as she can fulfill his needs while really meaning some of the things she is saying. A more common Franco cliche is that the woman doctor Crawford (Ewa Stromberg) is a lesbian, there is a really pretty framing of the two bodies as she makes love with Mrs. Johnson. A stranger less believable sequence where she is following Doctor Houston (Paul Muller) and he a tall man seems genuinely scared of her. This is not so believable when you see the slight Miranda.
 There is quite a bit of social commentary in the film, the primary being the doctors being against Mr Johnson's research and the use of human fetuses in doing testing. It is heavy handed but appropriate for the setup of the film. Then there was this great bit spouted by Dr. Walker about the youth at the time. Paraphrasing he that today's youth (1971 mind you.) can not be fit into a schema, because they will not take orders and execute them without question. They claim to be searching for a better world with protest against war, demonstrations and riots, and drug use. They distort their reality and thus do not fit into the reality of structure they will have to fit in at some point in their lives.
 Overall this is not a bad film, constructed well enough with week but passable characters. The plot is a simple revenge story that is executed with varying amounts of cohesion. It is not the most compelling or memorable film I have seen but it is not a failure either. I think it gets a recommendation but I think some people will find it a bit slow. So if you are an excitement seeker you may want to avoid this one.
Rating (5.0) 5.0 and up are recommended, some more recommended than others
 

Nightmare Castle (1965) - Horror Ghost

Nightmare Castle (1965) - Amanti d'oltretomba is an Italian made ghost revenge story with the wonderful Barbara Steele in the lead as both Muriel Arrowsmith and later her sister Jenny. In this film Muriel who is married to Dr. Steven Arrowsmith (Paul Muller) but is having an affair with the stable guy David (Rik Battaglia). When Steven discovers them things go horribly wrong. There is this great scene where Stephen is pretending to go on a business trip and leaves the house. Muriel has a unique way of letting David no the coast is clear, she plays a particular song on the piano. This song becomes a theme in the film, the music by Ennio Morricone is excellent. A prolific and I can say famous movie composer Morricone is known for other features such as, "A Fistful of Dollars", " The Good, the Bad and the Ugly", "L 'anticristo", "Exorcist II: The Heretic", "The Mission", and "The Untouchables". Here the music is just so well done and ties a "not the best film" together smoothly.

So Muriel and David go to the green house for a bit of hanky panky until confronted by Steven who circled back to the house. Steven knocks them out and when they wake they are chained to a wall. The sadistic husband tortures them some talking about how they will pay for a long time for the disloyalty. We learn she is the one in the family with money and she tells him she changed her will so her sister is her heir instead of him. Steven not to be persuaded attempts to bargain with her but she will never agree. There is nothing left to do but torture the two to death. Did I mention he is a sadistic bastard. He sure is with his acid drips and electric beds. So Muriel is dead and you will be thinking boy he just screwed himself. Strangely although later it makes sense he takes the hearts of the two and puts them away in his lab for safe keeping.

He set up catching them with the help of the old maid Solange (Helga Line) and his plan with her was to give her youth again and fuck her I think. Or was it to fuck her and give her youth again. He is a scientist after all and that is what they do. Anyway they together have a plan to use the sister, drive her insane or get her to give up her fortune to them. The sister has been under the care of a doctor and so they think these things are possible. Steven goes to fetch her from the asylum.

Muriel is cremated and become potting soil for a plant, I am not sure what happened to David. When Steven and Jenny arrive it is again Barbara Steele this time as a blond. Solange is still the maid but much younger and more attractive. To her surprise, Steven has found a way to get what he wants. He married Jenny before returning. Since we do not really know how much time has passed or how the authorities let it be that Muriel is dead, we just have to accept that this is all okay. It is just how it is.
Steven now has the plan to make his new wife insane by slowly loosening her mind with some sort of drug he is going to drop in her drinks. When she is committed he will have control of her money and the now young Solange to screw every night, seems like a plan.

Then the movie leaves us thinking, Jenny has some strange experiences and we are left to decide what is going on. Are the drugs she is being given making her hallucinate? Is there a ghost in the house trying to warn her of something? or Is Steven setting up some stuff to drive her to crazy a bit faster.We can eliminate the last thing soon enough when Jenny finds Muriel's Music, she starts to play and suddenly she is playing as if she knows it by heart. On top of that she is drinking alcohol, the same kind her sister liked. She seems to be possessed. Solange and Steven in the other room get suspicious when the playing stops and go looking for her. Her scream brings them to the cellars where she faints in front of them. So their plan is working and since they did not see her in the possessed state they believe the drugs are doing the job. She can't remember anything from the incident and Steven reassures her there are no spirits in the house.

He invites her doctor to the house to hopefully get her committed as soon as possible. Dr Dereck Joyce (Lawrence Clift) works with her trying to get her to remember things only Muriel would know. She remembers in the greenhouse the scene of Muriel and David in the beginning of the film.

When Jenny again hears the beating heart before an episode she won't remember. Good thing too because she so comes on to Derek. Meanwhile we learn that the work Steven is doing in his lab has to do with keeping Solange young by transfusing her with his former wife's blood. But it is not working as long as it did before and the maid wants Jenny's blood for the procedure. Not wanting to give too much more of the film away from here it really does turn into a ghost story. The Spirits of the dead and the tell-tale hearts kept in the lab do their best to foil the plans of the evil doers. There are some really decent special effects for such an old film and the outcome was satisfying enough.

Rating (5.8) 5.0 and up are recommended, in the Zombiegrrlz rating system I say Rent it!