Intensity	Stupidity:Nudity Ratio 8:8	Budget Medium

Odd, the movie's title appears to be Ecstasy. Do you suppose some unscrupulous lout changed the name?

As our movie opens we get to see Val (Tiffany Bowling, Kingdom of the Spiders) in bed with her husband, Peter (Frank Luz). Their lovemaking in interrupted by a phone call from the husband's producer telling him that his last movie won the film critic's award. Soon the producer and the husband are taking a meeting in the kitchen to discuss their next project while Val's photographer friend, Annie, talks her into doing some nude pictures. The husband wants to film a script that has a lot of sex in it, but the producer says he can't get the money unless Val plays the lead. Apparently Val is a good actress with a couple of successful movies under her belt. The producer and photographer leave and Val informs her husband that she wants to have sex here and now, and the producer walks back into the room (coutis interuptis as a running joke). After much cajoling by the husband, Val agrees to do the movie. Peter talks with Melinda (the writer) and insists that she will be involved in the movie to its completion. Val expresses her displeasure at the choice for her costar, but when the filming starts she has sex with him on camera. Later she sneaks into his hotel room and they have sex again. Unfortunately Rich sees her sneaking back out. Script changes eventually cause the writer to walk off the set which leaves Peter free to further change the script which soon reflects the marital problems facing the couple. While the movie heroine is well and truly dumped on, Val decides to stay with her husband and apparently lives happily ever after.

Julie Newmar (who plays Melinda despite the fact that IMDB has her character named Belinda) was about 50 when this film was made and clearly had had significant plastic surgery which not only removed the lines from her face but any chance of showing any expression except vague surprise. Still she gives a better performance than the other actresses in the movie. Let me give you an example. At one point we find out that in their five years of marriage, Peter has never given Val an orgasm. She has had them before (and it is hinted that she still is capable of having them) but just can't with Peter. Soon after this revelation, Peter states that he knows his wife is satisfied in bed and Val turns away and screws her face up in a configuration we have come to learn is her way of showing extreme distress. This is not some subtle little telltale here, we are talking silent movie era pantomime. As I have inferred, this will not be the only time we will see Ms. Bowling ACTING!

Britt Eckland (Wickerman) plays the photographer who convinces Val to pose for some nude pictures and then does the still photography on the set. At one point during filming she tells the director "I've got a blimp". In this instance a blimp is a sound proofing enclosure for a camera. Saying this is a little like the sound guy mentioning that he has tape. I guess the writer threw it in to remind us that we were on a movie set. At any rate Britt is Val's best friend and the person she tells her troubles to. We find out that Britt's Annie is sexually adventurous and has had sex with women before, which causes Val's husband to become jealous. Britt does a pretty good job acting but her character is not given enough to do. She is mostly a sounding board for Val's whinnying and spouts much the same advice as Melinda. She doesn't suggest to Val that she leave Peter and even runs interference for Val at one point to try to head off a confrontation between the two, so she does come across as a family friend.

Tiffany Bowling plays Val as an exceedingly shallow and fragile character. She seems to want people's approval more than she wants what is best for her or her career. When asked to pose nude, she initially demurs but soon has taken her shirt off. When Peter asks her to be in the movie, she lets herself be talked into it and then as the movie gets more and more demeaning she just goes along with it. At least until the lesbian scene when she puts her foot down and says "after this, no more sex scenes". We never get a real handle on Val's character. As the movie's central character we expect a lot out of her. She really should be shown to change and grow as a result of her experiences, but in the end she seems the same person we met in the opening credits. Occasionally there are hints of strength within her but these are quickly lost in the next confrontation with Peter. In the end Val stays with Peter and they try to work out their sexual problems. So the movies ends exactly as it starts with Val and Peter in bed having sex. There is also a scene after her photo shoot with Annie that Val lets Peter know that she wants to have sex in no uncertain terms. This makes it a little hard to think that their marriage is nearly perfect except for that sex problem.

Which brings us to Peter. Initially we see Peter in a pretty good light. He won a critic's award, which his producer calls "prestigious" but not marketable. He asks Annie to be the still photographer on his next movie and even befriends Melinda (the character that wrote the script) and insists that she needs to help guide the film from a women's perspective. But as we spend more time with him, we start to realize that he is an asshole, and not one of those loveable assholes who is a jerk but still fun to be around. First of all he pushes Val in to doing the movie. This is borderline okay because as we've already seen Val needs a little pushing. But once Val has signed on, he ignores her misgivings about her costar, Rick. When they shoot the first scene of the movie, Val and Rick are supposed to flirt and a little bit more. Instead they have sex on camera and Val has an orgasm. Does our director yell "Cut" or "Val, what the fuck are you doing!"? No. He rewrites the script to include the footage and views it at the dailies the next day with Val and other people from the film. He does not even look up when Val goes running from the screening room until it is too late to catch up with her. When the screenwriter tells him that the scene was clearly not what she had written and ruined the flow of the script, she is brusquely informed that scripts are more of a "plan" and subject to change as the movie progresses. Not surprisingly the screenwriter walks off the set. Peter takes over the script writing duties at this point.

So, what about the original script for the movie within a movie. As near as I can tell, it was about a woman who had great affection but no passion for her husband. The husband was an artist and she brokered his work. During the course of selling his paintings, she meets a man who is purchasing art for some collectors in Europe and is aroused by him. Flirting soon leads to something that is not quite sex, but close enough to feel guilty about. She then struggles with the mixed feelings of guilt, passion, loyalty and betrayal. Melinda hints that the break with the husband was painful, but handled honestly. Eventually, the character leaves the husband and finds happiness and sexual fulfillment with the new guy. Nothing is really fleshed out but we lead to believe that this is the story of a woman who faces a difficult time and comes out of it as a better person.

After filming the first scene (you know, the one where his wife has actual sex with another actor on set), Peter decides to drop the part of the script that would have shown the painful decision making and just cuts to the chase. There is an improvised scene where we find out the artist's paintings are not selling well (actually not selling at all). They argue a bit but the guy takes it reasonably well. Then the art buyer stops in at the shop again with an invitation. Val's character packs her bags, lies to the husband and jets off to Europe. As Peter starts to distrust Val, he writes nastier sex scenes for her. Soon she is left tied up in a bed by her lover for another man to have sex with. Then after her lover pretty much tells her that she needs to have sex with one of his female clients in order to sell a painting, she says no, so he drugs her and leaves her naked on the bed for the lesbian client. Val reaches her limit at this point and makes her "after this, no more sex scenes" comment. Peter is clearly manipulating the script to abuse Val. The lesbian scene was added after he accuses her of having sex with Annie. Not being content with merely humiliating her, Peter brings his masterpiece home with this final scene. The husband shows up and confronts the two. He informs them that the police are on their way to arrest the lover who has been trafficking in stolen paintings. After the cops haul away the lover, the husband looks at Val's character and thanks her for leaving him. He tells her that she had been smothering him and that now that he sees he doesn't need her, he doesn't want her. He exits stage right and the camera closes in on Val's dazed, confused face and Peter calls cut and wrap. Just in case we don't get the subtle twist here, one of the actors congratulates Peter by saying "that's the only way it could end". Really? The only way? What about the ending where the woman actually gets to choose her own destiny? You know, the one where the woman leaves the relationship where she wasn't happy and moves on to one where she is happy? Remember that ending?

Written better and given to better actors, this movie could have been much more interesting. When Val storms off the set after the lesbian scene, Peter should have come to the realization that he was screwing up both the movie and his relationship. The last scene could have ended with the lover going off to jail, but instead of having the husband treat the wife like shit, there could have been a more ambiguous ending. We don't need to know if they stayed together or not, only that their relationship had changed. The other major thing that the movie would need is some inkling as to why Val would even want to stay with Peter. He isn't nice to her, he isn't nice to Annie or Melinda, he barely seems to tolerate his producer and is willing to subjugate his art so that he can punish his wife with it. Gosh, no wonder the girls swoon over this guy. There are moments when it seems like Peter wants to work things out and it is not like Val is blameless, but I have a hard time seeing why they are together. Oh well, maybe after Peter and Val work out that little "sex problem" thing, they can start to work on that "Peter is an asshole" thing.

Worth seeing? No. While it is true that Monique Gabrielle does show up long enough to smile and take her clothes off, she has done so in better movies like Evil Toons.

Got a comment or different opinion? Send a message.