Ecstasy (Czech: Extase; French: Extase; German: Ekstase) is a 1933 Czech erotic romantic drama film directed by Gustav Machatý and starring Hedy Lamarr (then Hedy Kiesler), Aribert Mog, and Zvonimir Rogoz.
It is perhaps the first non-pornographic movie to portray sexual intercourse and the female orgasm, although never showing more than the actors' faces.
Emil, a fastidious and orderly older man, carries his happy new bride, Eva, over the threshold of their home.
She can no longer bear to be Emil's wife in name only and returns to the estate of her father, a wealthy horse breeder.
She has a swim in the nude, leaving her clothes on her horse, which wanders off to find a stallion locked in a nearby corral.
Adam, a virile, young engineer working in road construction in that area, happens to look up and see Eva trying to catch her horse.
She forgets to take it with her the next morning but the young lovers promise to meet in town at the local hotel the following evening.
While traveling to town, Emil notices Adam admiring the pearl necklace and instantly recognizes it as that belonging to his ex-wife.
That night, Emil sits alone in a hotel room while a fly tries futilely to get out through a closed window and several others are shown trapped in flypaper.
Meanwhile, downstairs, Adam is arranging flowers as he waits in the hotel restaurant for his lover, Eva, to arrive.
[3] The original prepared script (two previous versions were cancelled[4]) was in Czech, so Lamarr was useful in translating from German to French.
From Dobšiná, short shooting trips of one or two days were made to other places: Topoľčianky (scenes with horses), Khust, Carpathian Ruthenia, and railroad construction Červená skala – Margecany.
[4] By that time the distribution rights had already been sold in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Switzerland, Belgium, France, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and other countries.
At the preview in Prague, sitting next to the director, when she saw the numerous close-ups produced with telephoto lenses, she screamed at him for tricking her.
A similar story was told by Adina Mandlová, who was forbidden to accept the role by her then-boyfriend Hugo Haas.
Joseph Breen called the picture "highly – even dangerously – indecent" in an inter-office memo to Will H. Hays,[7] and told the producers: I regret to have to advise you that we cannot approve your production Ecstasy that you submitted for our examination yesterday for the reason that is our considered unanimous judgment that the picture is definitely and specifically in violation of the Production Code.
Some state censor boards such as New York approved the film but most others either only allowed it with restrictions, demanded substantial cuts, or in the case of Pennsylvania, banned it altogether.
[7] Lamarr's first husband, the wealthy arms dealer Friedrich Mandl, reportedly spent $280,000 ($5.23 million in 2023 dollars)[9] in an unsuccessful attempt to suppress the film by purchasing every existing print.
[11] The French version featured actors André Nox as Eva's father and Pierre Nay as Adam.
The US version also added songs by Denes Agay and Emery H. Helm with lyrics by Henry Gershwin and William Colligan.