De Sade * (1969, Keir Dullea, Senta Berger, Lilli Palmer) – Classic Movie Review 9033

Director Cy Endfield’s 1969 biographical historical drama De Sade [Das Ausschweissende Leben des Marquis De Sade] is a flop American co-production bid by American International Pictures with Germany to make a popular European art movie, with Keir Dullea as the sexually perverted Marquis de Sade involved in a battle of wits with his depraved Abbé uncle (John Huston).

The arty swinging Sixties sex scenes fail to shock or titillate, and the self-indulgent chat produces longueurs in what is initially an intriguing exercise. Unbelievably, the acting is even more primitive than the screenplay, with Huston outstandingly ripe and rotten. Indeed, it fails to whip up a good time.

In 2000, Quills became a successful attempt to tell De Sade’s story.

It runs 113 minutes but the US cut version runs 92 minutes.

Also in the cast are Lilli Palmer as Mme de Montreuil, Senta Berger as Anne de Montreuil, Anna Massey as Renée de Montreuil, Uta Levka, Herbert Weissbach, Barbara Stanek, Susanne von Almassy, Friedrich Schoenfelder, Heinz Spitzner, Sonja Ziemann, Christiane Krüger and Max Kiebach.

De Sade [Das Ausschweissende Leben des Marquis De Sade] is directed by Cy Endfield and Roger Corman (uncredited), runs 113 minutes or 92 minutes, is made by American International Pictures, Central Cinema Company Film and Trans Continental, is released by American International Pictures (1969) (US), is written by Richard Matheson and Peter Berg, is shot in Pathécolor by Heinz Pehlke, is produced by Samuel Z Arkoff, James M Nicholson, Louis M Heyward and Artur Brauner, is scored by Billy Strange, and is designed by Jürgen Kiebach.

Roger Corman unofficially replaced Cy Endfield as director and John Huston worked as a consultant to the producers when Endfield departed the project. Michael Reeves had been approached to direct after the success of Witchfinder General.

Alex Von Richtofen, descendant of the World War One flying ace, was first assistant director. Corman filmed the flying ace’s story in 1971 as The Red Baron.

It was shot in the studio at Bavaria Studios, Bavariafilmplatz 7, Geiselgasteig, Grünwald, Bavaria, Germany, and in CCC-Atelier, Spandau, Berlin, Germany.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 9033

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