Fun for Three (1974) User Reviews

Fairly typical Franco sleaze.

[BA_Harrison · 4/10 · 1 January 2020]

I searched for Plaisir à trois purely so that I could tick it off in my copy of The Aurum Encyclopedia of Horror, but all I could find was a French version of the film with no subtitles. Still, this being a typically trashy Jess Franco sadean sleaze-fest - 99% nudity and sex and 1% plot - it was easy to get the general gist of things.

Alice Arno plays Countess Martine de Bressac, who returns home after spending a year receiving psychiatric treatment for castrating one of her lovers. It's not long before Martine is back to her old ways, adding new exhibits to her torture dungeon: prostitutes that she and her husband Charles (Robert Woods) paralyse and subsequently display as human trophies. After spying on their sexy neighbour Cécile (Tania Busselier), Martine and Charles lure the young woman into their world of perversion.

Here's a catalogue of the sleaze on offer...

With the help of her manservant Mathias (Franco regular Howard Vernon), Martine picks up a hooker, draws her naked, then takes her to her dungeon to flog her.

Cécile rolls around sexily on her bed while Martine and Charles get fruity with each other (this happens twice).

The countess flogs mute sex-slave Adèle (Franco muse Lina Romay).

Martine shares a bath with Cécile.

The characters play a game where each must perform a sexy act: the countess does a striptease, Adèle makes out with a mannequin, Cécile has a lesbian romp with Adèle, and Charles humps Cécile (a scene that verges on hardcore).

The film ends with Charles, Martine and Adèle taking Cécile to the dungeon, where the tables are turned on the countess: instead of adding Cécile to her collection, Martine finds herself being administered with the paralysing injection instead.

With a notable lack of underwear, loads of full frontal female nudity, a hunchbacked dwarf, crash zooms aplenty, a jazzy lounge soundtrack, and some really bold fashion choices from Charles (purple suede suit with yellow shirt, and a two piece that looks like it's made from floral upholstery material), this is bound to please avid Franco fans but will probably bore most people silly.

As for it being horror... I really don't think so.

3.5/10, rounded up to 4 for IMDb.

How to Seduce a Virgin

[BandSAboutMovies · 6/10 · 28 February 2022]

How to Seduce a Virgin is another Jess Franco trip into De Sade, as Countess Martine de Bressac (Alice Arno) emerges from a sanitarium - 18 months after castrating a lover - with no intention of giving up on the left hand path, soon discovering a young woman who she wants to destroy just because she can.

Yes, The Philosophy In the Boudoir inspired many of Franco's movies and this one, well, this one goes all the way. All the way to remake Eugenie, which had been a success for Franco before and the theory, one thinks, could have been to make a more horror-themed version of the same story.

Martine's husband Charles (Robert Woods) soon joins her in the basement of bodies preserved at the exact moment of death and shows him the girl they must corrupt, Cécile (Tania Busselier).

Despite the warnings of the gardener Malou (Alfred Baillou), Cécile soon joins into the sexual games of the Bressacs, including the embrace of the mute girl Adele (Lina Romay) who lives with them. Yet the game has changed, as Adele, Cécile and the Count end up draining the Countess of her life, leaving her as one more exhibition in the terrifying hidden room and as they leave behind their home, only Malou is left to stare at the cold eyes of the lost lady that he has served so many decades.

The original ending predated Maniac by several years, as the preserved corpses came back to life and attacked the Countess. There's also a moment where Cécile is drugged and wakes up to become a mannequin which is the kind of weirdness that I keep watching Jess Franco's filmography for.

One of Franco's Better Pictures

[Michael_Elliott · 30 April 2016]

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.

One of Franco's better films

[augustian · 8/10 · 11 October 2016]

This film is based on the writings of Marquis de Sade, a writer who would be visited several times by Jess Franco. Alice Arno plays Martine de Bressac, a countess who has spent some time in a mental institution but has now been released into the care of her opportunistic husband, Charles. Almost at once, they revert to their old ways, kidnapping and torturing a would-be model. For their next sadistic game, Charles suggests seducing Cecile, (Tania Busselier) the virginal daughter of a couple living across from their apartment. Everything goes according to plan but like any good thriller, there is a cunning twist.

Jess Franco captures perfectly the increasing sexual excitement of the two plotters as their plan comes to fruition, utilising their mute maid, Adele (Lina Romay). One scene shows Martine being fondled by Charles as they spy on Cecile writhing on her bed until Martine and Charles call upon Adele to join them in their ecstasy. There was a bit too much time showing Cecile but then this is probably what Franco does at his perverted best. Everyone seems to be in on the countess's sadistic perversions. Only the diminutive gardener, another fine casting by Franco, shows any sign of humanity, but even he has his demons. This film could have been made by Hammer, but Jess Franco takes it to a new level.