I, Marquis De Sade (with Bonus Featurette Hollywood Beauties)

Don't judge this film by the DVD cover artwork
The cover model in the DVD artwork doesn't represent the actual film contained here. I, MARQUIS DE SADE actually resembles the kind of adults-only films typically released by Something Weird Video. In this show, a scholar who's translating the French writings of the evil Marquis begins to experience sexual fantasies. One of them does involve S&M, but most of the fantasies are soft-core nudie images rather than violent episodes. Some of the women are larger sized, which is somewhat different from other films of the era. There's not much plot, other than the various sexual fantasties about women.

The film was thought-lost for decades before being "uncovered" in a Scandinavian country. The B&W image is letterboxed at 1:66-1, and the print quality is pretty good for a film of this vintage and rarity.

Director Richard Hilliard made some nudie films on the east coast between stints as the cinematographer for cult horror director Del Tenney. Although not a "lost...

Soft Sixties S&M Debacle
As noted by the previous reviewer - the packaging of this release of "I, Marquis De Sade" (1967) is a bit deceptive. The color images and modern fetish fotos on the front & back box cover make this appear to be a much slicker product than it actually is. The 'real' film is in B&W (a nice clear print!) and is a typical 1960's bit of soft core sexploitation product - alluding to 'shockingly daring' subject matter, but not really delivering on the hype.

The plot concerns a guy (his last name is 'Marquis'!) who is translating a work of the Marquis De Sade from French to English and he begins to be affected by the perverse philosophies of the 'father' of sadism. Upon learning that he has terminal cancer he decides to live out his fantasies and embarks on a series of De Sade inspired 'adventures' - most of which involve the opposite sex. Some of his 'fantasies' are literally fantasies and he dreams of tying women up and whipping them, flying through the air, and such. He...



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