Movie Review: Eugenie… The Story Of Her Journey Into Perversion (1970 – Blue Underground 4K)

In a near Olympic-level of horniness, Mistival (Paul Muller) practically gives his daughter to the comely Marianne (Maria Rohm) in exchange for a lil’ of that ol’ sexual fucking.

Now Marianne has plans for that daughter, Eugenie (Marie Liljedahl) by name, which include spiriting her away for a stay at her family’s remote island estate with Marianne’s half-brother Mirvel (Jack Taylor) in tow.

Before you can say “Surely, things will not turn sexual in this scenario.”, things turn sexual in this scenario as those sinful semi-sibs introduce our naive heroine to all manner of kink biz six ways to Sunday!

Why are they doing all this? Why to prepare Eugenie for the arrival of that Pervert’s Pervert; Dolmance (Christopher Lee)… will she retain a shred of innocence after this ordeal, or will she give in to every dark desire?

Taking the original tale Philosophy in the Bedroom, penned by the legendary Marquise de Sade in 1795, director Jess Franco along with writer/producer Harry Alan Towers give the proceedings a mod make-over that makes the film a real visual knock-out!

Loaded with colorful, exotic locales, late ‘60’s chic fashions (equally colorful in some cases), and copious nudity; Eugenie (or Philosophy in the Bedroom as it’s called on the slip-sleeve of this 4K Blue Underground release) is a stunningly effective blend of late ‘60s decadence filtered through 18^th century perversion… it’s all plastic, orgies, and evil cults… a true phantasmagorical spectacle through and through… and that’s before you factor in the sequence where Sir Christopher Lee reads from the works of the Marquis himself as his sex cult fucks around him (which he unbelievably claimed he was oblivious to during production)!

And, while the aforementioned Lee is certainly his normal excellent self… no matter how the cast tries to distract him… the rest of the players are more than up to the titillating task at hand, chief among them Liljedahl, who makes for a sympathetic heroine, and her journey from innocence into dark territory is quite convincing.

And as with the previous year’s Justine (which yours cruelly reviewed right here), composer Bruno Nicolai provides a jazzy score that’s as wild as the feature it accompanies!

Speaking of accompaniment, the special features assembled here are choice indeed and kick off with a new audio commentary courtesy of film historians Nathaniel Thompson and Troy Howarth that takes us through the film’s production and legacy via scholarly analysis and entertaining anecdotes, as well as the film’s French trailer.

Of additional note, the 4K transfer utilized here contains a crystal-clear presentation which features excellent image quality; with natural film grain, vivid color (which makes those red-gel colored sequences and crazy fashions pop), natural skin tones, and rich blacks.

Disc two of this release features a Blu-ray version of the film, as well as the bonus features mentioned above… but there’s more to entice the curious!

Additional features found on disc two include archival interviews with Franco, Towers, Liljedahl, Lee, film historian/Franco expert Stephen Thrower (who speaks on the film’s place in Franco’s oeuvre as well as it’s production), and Taylor (who provides first-hand details of the film’s production as well as looking back on his career), as well as a newly expanded photo and still gallery.

Psychedelic, surreal, and gloriously (pseudo) Satanic-sexual; Jess Franco’s Eugenie is an off-kilter masterpiece that should be experienced by those that love things psychotronic and sexy in equal measure!