Ecstasy [Extase] [Ekstase] *** (1933, Hedy Lamarr, Aribert Mog, Zvonimir Rogoz) – Classic Movie Review 6860

The young Viennese-born Hedy Lamarr (then billed under her real name as Hedy Kiesler) shocked the world when she appeared (discreetly) nude in director Gustav Machatý’s straightforward 1932 Czech erotic love story. The story is over-plainly told but, like its heroine, the movie is certainly good-looking.

Lamarr plays Eva Hermann, a young woman who gets married to the much older Emil (Zvonimir Rogoz), but her new husband is not satisfying her and she goes back to her horse breeder father (Leopold Kramer) and divorce papers are issued. But one day while swimming in the nude in the countryside, she meets Adam (Aribert Mog), the virile young engineer of a road construction gang, so she spends time with her young engineer lover and winds up falling in love with him.

Hedy Lamarr in the original lobby card for Ecstasy.

The nude scenes are of course very tame by today’s standards, as Lamarr swims and runs through the countryside naked, but they caused the film to be banned by the US government. It was not released in the United States until 24 December 1940, when it went on to a limited run without the Hays Code seal of approval, and played mostly in independent art houses, with substantial cuts in some states.

It is thought to be the first non-pornographic movie to include a nude scene and show sexual intercourse and female orgasm (showing only the actors’ faces).

Lamarr’s real-life Austrian arms manufacturer husband Fritz Mandl tried unsuccessfully to buy and destroy all existing prints of Ecstasy, spending $280,000 to suppress the film, but it turned out that even Benito Mussolini had a personal copy and refused to sell it to Mandl! Hitler hated it and it was banned in Germany too.

Also in the cast are Aribert Mog, Zvonimir Rogoz, Leopold Kramer, André Nox, Jaromir Rogoz, Ladsilav Bohac and Pierre Nay.

Ecstasy (aka Ekstase or Extase), is directed by Gustav Machatý, runs 87 minutes, is produced by Elektafilm, distributed by Slavia Film, is written by Gustav Machatý and Frantisek Horký, based on a book by Robert Horky, is shot in black and white by Jan Stallich, Gerhard Huttula and Hans Androschin, is produced by Frantisek Horký and Moriz Grunhut, and is scored by Giuseppe Becce, with Art Direction by Bohumil Hes.

Ecstasy was filmed in three language versions—German, Czech, and French. Czech: Extase, French: Extase, German: Ekstase.

Lamarr left Mandl, taking only her jewels, and headed for England, where she attracted the eye of visiting MGM movie mogul Louis B Mayer.

The remarkable 5′ 7″ Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler was known as ‘The Most Beautiful Woman in Films’. Her extraordinary story is told in the 2017 documentary feature Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6860

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