She Killed in Ecstasy

More Eurosleaze, and ramp it up to ten with the godfather of the genre, Jess Franco. Apparently filmed less than a month after Vampyros Lesbos, his muse Soledad Miranda plays the vengeful wife of a doctor who kills himself. She goes after the four board members, one of whom is Franco himself, who barred her husband from practising after they rejected his research on human embryos.

It’s all here in spadefuls: full frontal nudity, bloodletting, lesbian sex, necromancy. Franco knows how to linger and he holds on to frames much longer than really needed, but that is his oeuvre. Miranda is pretty good and certainly more coherent than in her role in The Bare Breasted Countess.

The soundtrack is pure kraut lounge gold, with its jaunty horns and psych sitar. It fills in the gaps in the narrative and works well for the most part.

Franco really was the most hardworking director in the 70s, and this was his third film in 1971. He was admired by Christopher Lee, who made two Fu Manchu films with him and said that Franco really understood the character of Dracula when he cast him in the role, with full moustache, in 1970.

Certainly worth checking out and, although Franco’s work can be indifferent, this one was very nearly on target.