Plaisir à trois

Plaisir a trois (1973)

*** (out of 4)

Martine (Alice Arno) is released from a mental hospital a year after castrating a man. She returns home to her husband Charles (Robert Woods) and the two immediately start plans to seduce and murder their neighbor's daughter Cecile (Tania Busselier).

Also known as HOW TO SEDUCE A VIRGIN, this Jess Franco film is about as weird, perverted and twisted as you'd expect. It's loosely based off the de Sade story and it's one that the director had visited before and after. I've always been a fan of Franco's whenever he adapted this story because it usually meant the director could go full force into the perversion that the material needed.

What impressed me most here were the actual performances by the entire cast. Both Arno and Woods are flawless as the evil couple and the coldness that both actors bring to their parts really helps the film. Busselier is also extremely good and believable as this virgin that the couple try to bring into their web. You've then got Lina Romay doing a very good job playing a mute, which is the type of role she was always great at. Howard Vernon and Alfred Baillou are also good in their small supporting roles.

Franco made over a dozen films in 1973 so it was one of his busiest periods. The director delivers a very professional looking film and a film that certainly contains a dark sense of humor and some perverted material. This certainly ranks as one of the director's better films. It looks extremely good and Franco manages to paint a twisted tale of seduction, murder and perversion.