Derived from a novel by the Marquis De Sade, this is a prime example of Jess Franco having a chance to do something good and outrageousand blowing it altogether.
Sisters Justine and Juliette (Romina Power, Maria Rohm) go their separate ways after the death of their parents. Juliette spends her life chasing degradation and growing rich. Justine pursues virtue only to suffer at the hands of one pervert after another including Jack Palance who gives the overacting job of his careerand for Palance that covers a lot of territory. She also crosses paths with Mercedes MacCambridge as a whore-mistress imprisoned for murder. Franco regular Howard Vernon hams it up in one scene. Akim Tamiroff, Sylvia Koscina and Rosalba Neri also co-star in this mess. Franco himself appears as an emcee in what passed for a strip joint in the 18th Century. He may be flawed as a director but here, he manages to out-act most of the cast.
Up to a point, DEADLY SANCTUARY is accurate in terms of its dim world-view. Crime DOES pay, good guys DO finish last and if the good don't die young, it's only so they can put up with a ton of crap while they're still alive. The preaching at the end, about how Juliette's life is empty but Justine will get her reward in heaven, is an unfortunate carry-over from the novel JUSTINE itself.
Good news: Klaus Kinski plays the Marquis De Sade. The bad news is that his screen time is brief. He's taken to prison in a four-minute prologue, and the rest of the movie is punctuated by shots of him scrawling with a quill pen and expounding, in badly-dubbed voice-over, on the misfortunes of virtue. His visions of bondage and torture in the prologue are the most enthralling parts of the film. Most people who had Kinski under contract as France's favorite nobleman would have written a whole film around him, turned him loose and let him do some real damage. Not ol' Jess and producer Harry Alan Towersand some fool even misspelled Kinski's last name in the end credits.
Redeeming qualities include rousing (for Franco) crowd scenes, a violent prison break, eye-catching costumes and a great Bruno Nicolai score. However, despite outbursts of sadism and occasional shots of nipples the size of hob-nails, the main effect of this flick is to cure insomnia. And it's not even Franco's worst...
Sisters Justine and Juliette (Romina Power, Maria Rohm) go their separate ways after the death of their parents. Juliette spends her life chasing degradation and growing rich. Justine pursues virtue only to suffer at the hands of one pervert after another including Jack Palance who gives the overacting job of his careerand for Palance that covers a lot of territory. She also crosses paths with Mercedes MacCambridge as a whore-mistress imprisoned for murder. Franco regular Howard Vernon hams it up in one scene. Akim Tamiroff, Sylvia Koscina and Rosalba Neri also co-star in this mess. Franco himself appears as an emcee in what passed for a strip joint in the 18th Century. He may be flawed as a director but here, he manages to out-act most of the cast.
Up to a point, DEADLY SANCTUARY is accurate in terms of its dim world-view. Crime DOES pay, good guys DO finish last and if the good don't die young, it's only so they can put up with a ton of crap while they're still alive. The preaching at the end, about how Juliette's life is empty but Justine will get her reward in heaven, is an unfortunate carry-over from the novel JUSTINE itself.
Good news: Klaus Kinski plays the Marquis De Sade. The bad news is that his screen time is brief. He's taken to prison in a four-minute prologue, and the rest of the movie is punctuated by shots of him scrawling with a quill pen and expounding, in badly-dubbed voice-over, on the misfortunes of virtue. His visions of bondage and torture in the prologue are the most enthralling parts of the film. Most people who had Kinski under contract as France's favorite nobleman would have written a whole film around him, turned him loose and let him do some real damage. Not ol' Jess and producer Harry Alan Towersand some fool even misspelled Kinski's last name in the end credits.
Redeeming qualities include rousing (for Franco) crowd scenes, a violent prison break, eye-catching costumes and a great Bruno Nicolai score. However, despite outbursts of sadism and occasional shots of nipples the size of hob-nails, the main effect of this flick is to cure insomnia. And it's not even Franco's worst...