Deadly Sanctuary (1969) Marquis de Sade: Justine (original title)

Director:

Jesus Franco

Writer:

Harry Alan Towers
(more)

Release Date:

3 April 1969 (Italy)

Genre:

Drama | Horror

Tagline:

An erotic fantasy horror from the tortured pen of The Marquis de Sade.

Plot:

A woman named Justine is (willingly) used and abused by all manner of perverts, freaks and sexual deviants. |

Plot Keywords:

Literary Narration | Prostitution | Women In Prison | Masochism | Evil Nun

Cast

Klaus Kinski	...	Marquis De Sade
Romina Power	...	Justine
Maria Rohm	...	Juliette
Rosemary Dexter	...	Claudine
Carmen de Lirio	...	Madame De Buisson
Akim Tamiroff	...	Du Harpin
Gustavo Re	...	Derroches
Mercedes McCambridge	...	Madame Dusbois
Serena Vergano	...	Prisoner
José Manuel Martín	...	Victor
Mike Brendel	...	Pierre
Harald Leipnitz	...	Raymond
Horst Frank	...	Marquis de Bressac
Angel Petit	...	Jasmin
Sylva Koscina	...	Marquise de Bressac
Howard Vernon	...	Clement
Jack Palance	...	Antonin
Rosalba Neri	...	Florette
Claudia Gravy	...	Olivia
Gérard Tichy	...	Comte Courville
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Luis Ciges	...	(uncredited)
Jesus Franco	...	White turbaned host in theatre (uncredited)

Directed by
Jesus Franco		(as Jess Franco)

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Marquis de Sade		novel "Justine ou les malheurs de la vertu" (uncredited)
Harry Alan Towers		(as Peter Welbeck)

Produced by
Harry Alan Towers	....	producer

Original Music by
Bruno Nicolai

Cinematography by
Manuel Merino

Film Editing by
Nicholas Wentworth

Art Direction by
Santiago Ontañón

Production Management
Juan Estelrich	....	production supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Ricardo Franco	....	assistant director

Camera and Electrical Department
Javier Pérez Zofio	....	camera operator (as Javier Zofio)

Production Companies

• Aica Cinematografica S.R.L
• American International Pictures (AIP)
• Corona Filmproduktion
• Etablissement Sargon

Distributors

• American International Pictures (AIP) (1970) (USA) (theatrical) (dubbed)
• Constantin Film (1969) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Another World Entertainment (2009) (Denmark) (DVD)
• Blue Underground (2002) (USA) (DVD)
• Butterfly Film und Videovertrieb (2000) (Germany)
• Cidif (Italy)
• Monterey Home Video (1986) (USA) (VHS)
• Transvídeo (Brazil) (VHS)
• Video Search of Miami (2009) (USA) (DVD)

Also Known As:

"Marquis de Sade: Justine" - Italy (original title)
"Justine" - USA, West Germany (TV title)

Runtime:

90 min | Argentina:95 min | Italy:105 min (Italian version) | Spain:124 min (uncut version) | UK:124 min (2002 video release) (uncut)

Country:

Italy | USA | West Germany | Liechtenstein

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Norway:16 (1969) (cut) | West Germany:18 (nf) | Canada:16+ (Quebec) | Argentina:16 | Finland:(Banned) | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Barcelona, Cataluña, Spain

Company:

Aica Cinematografica S.R.L

Trivia:

Reportedly Franco's most expensive film to date.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Perils and Pleasures of Justine (2004) (V)

Worth viewing, but it's not the film Franco intended

'Marquis de Sade's 'Justine'' (1968) is easily Jess Franco's most accomplished film, esp. from a technical standpoint, backed by the biggest budget he would ever have. Rich, brilliant colors, skin aplenty, a few perversities, and strange performances from Klaus Kinski, Jack Palance and Mercedes Mccambridge make for an entertaining but relatively tame Franco outing. To boot, Jack Palance's performance ranks as possibly the most bizarre ever seen on film. The dvd includes a revealing 20-minute 'making of' documentary featuring an extensive, contemporary interview with director Franco, and he doesn't hold back. Franco states that Palance was sauced during the entire shoot, drinking red wine all day, each day, starting around 7a.m.

Kinski's role (as de Sade) was originally handed to Orson Welles, but once Welles read the script, he claimed that he simply could not play the part because it included scenes of erotica. In reality, Welles would have had to do a scene with several totally naked women, and this may have made him uncomfortable and nervous. Interestingly, the de Sade character has no lines, and Kinski's scenes are just a bunch of cutaways of him sitting/pacing in a prison cell, mentally tortured, trying to write 'Justine'.

Franco intended to create an explicitly nasty, masochistic film faithful to de Sade's writing; however, according to Franco, he was forced into a watered-down, `Snow-White-lost-in-the-woods' direction because of the producer's decision to cast Tyrone Power's daughter, Romina Power, in the title role. `She was a passenger, wandering around,' Franco scoffed. `She was like a piece of furniture. It was as if I was making Bambi 2'. The role was intended for Rosemary Dexter, who appears in the film in a lesser role.

Franco's version of 'Justine' is not as grim or as depressing as Chris Boger's 'Cruel Passion' (1977), starring Koo Stark, but it's also not as nasty or as perverse. Too bad for Franco fans. --- david ross smith