Do you wanna hear about a movie with a really shitty ending? Have you ever heard of Alex de Renzy's Femmes de Sade (1976)?

Starring: Ken Turner, John Leslie, Monique Starr, Abigail Clayton, Joey Silvera, and Annette Haven.

This paragraph may be a little frivolous, but I desperately need to share this story for a sense of catharsis. I'd written 5 or 6 paragraphs for this review before Blogger had a different idea and decided to erase everything and save a draft copy. Hopelessly, I tried to undo, or redo with no effect. So, after running through every expletive that my brain was capable of conjuring and verging on a mental breakdown, I've hack-jobbed this here article. Aided by the sounds of British post-punk band Wire; specifically their second and third albums, Chairs Missing and 154, here we are with review 2.0.

Unlike the two notorious Shaun Costello movies I previously covered, which I'd seen several times, Femmes de Sade was a title that managed to elude me for years. It became one of those titles I'd read about, remember that I'd forgotten to check it out - only to forget all about it again... and again, and again - ad nauseam.

Being close to 50 years old there are themes and creative choices found in Femmes de Sade that haven't aged well, but I don't mean to say that as a negative; the same can be said for almost any film from an earlier time, let alone a mid '70s roughie, when sociopolitical factors were worlds away from that of today. In truth, Femmes and its contemporaries epitomise the excesses of XXX filmmaking; pushing and testing the boundaries of acceptability in the burgeoning business of pornographic film.

Lensed in sunny 1970s San Francisco and distributed by SF legends, Artie & Jim Mitchell, Femmes De Sade is still something of an early effort from filmmaker Alex de Renzy. He would later go on to find success with Babyface (1977) and Pretty Peaches (1978), both of which are now acclaimed XXX classics.
With the exception of Ken Turner, Femmes de Sade boasts a cast brimming with major players from the Golden Age of Pornography - all of whom appear uncredited. The plot doesn't really have much relevancy to the work of Marquis de Sade, other than the fact it concludes with a S&M / B&D party. Instead, it is comprised of several vignettes framed by a central narrative, not unlike those found in anthology films.



It opens with an introduction to two minor characters who don't appear again until the very end. Joey (Joey Silvera) is getting paroled after a short while in the clink, waiting at the gates is his girlfriend Ellen (Abigail Clayton). Unfortunately for the two lovers another con is getting released the same day, a degenerate 7ft monster-man with a scarred visage named Rocky de Sade (Ken Turner). He's served a three years and six months stretch, presumably for second-degree murder or manslaughter.

The couple get ready to drive off, but they're stopped by Rocky when he literally steps into the backseat of Ellen's convertible. Troubling the two for a ride, he invites himself along on their trip. Joey, Ellen, and Rocky head off to a secluded cabin for some fun. The couple are eager to make up for lost time and head inside while Rocky sits in the back of Ellen's car sipping a can of beer, spilling most of it down his chin like a mindless idiot.
This sex scene with Joey and Abigail is surprisingly erotic; both performers look really into it, giving credence to their respective roles.

The tender moment of their reunion is cut short when Rocky makes an appearance, he wants a piece of Ellen. Joey protests and as a result gets the shit kicked out of him and thrown down a hillside. Rocky brutally assaults Ellen, but Joey crawls back in and tries to stop the attack only to feel the force of de Sade's boot against his face.



The narrative leaps to another couple in a different part of town, Johnny and Royce, as they hurry through a busy street blazing with neon. They pass a couple of barkers for sex shows & strip joints; bygone facets of an almost forgotten era.

Royce (Monique Starr) appears to be a hooker, who's later picked up and dreadfully abused by Rocky. Johnny (John Leslie) is a sex shop / storefront theatre owner who has multiple fantasies about his customers and his friends. Overhearing the titillating conversations between his customers and those of his friends, Johnny begins to imagine himself in those scenarios, and it's these short fantasy vignettes which fill a significant portion of the movie's runtime.

From what scant information I could find the Kearny Cinema, situated at 1030 Kearny Street, was used for interior/exterior shots and up until 2011 it was still using that name. It looks as though there's still a sex shop open at that location now called Secrets Boutique. Right across the street at 1033 was the Peekarama / Copenhagen - recently brought back into the public consciousness by the Vinegar Syndrome sub-label of the same name.



There's several amusing scenes with Ken Turner as Rocky roaming the seedy Frisco streets, eventually he picks up a hooker. She starts to blow him, but he doesn't like the way she does it so the reprobate leans all the way forward and shows her how to do it by sucking his own ding-a-ling. A neat party trick.

"No not like that, you gotta do it like this"
"Jesus! That's really far out I don't believe it!"

The hooker and Rocky take it in turns until the perverted fuck blows a wad into his own mouth. He then tries to get the poor chick to eat herself out, almost breaking her back in the process. She collapses and begins to cry, like the absolute scumbag he is, he sits down with a cigarette and chuckles to himself.



"C'mon honey, let's go get juicy" - Royce (Monique Starr)

Rocky walks into Johnny's store just as his pal is giving him invitations to the "Blood and Mother's Milk 1st annual Leather Ball". Rocky takes an invite for himself, Johnny confronts him and tries to get it off him, but he gets shoved back by Rocky.
"Jesus, did you see the size of that guy? Did you see the look in his eyes?"

The most disturbing scene is when Rocky picks up Royce. He puts a collar on her under a condition: "no hurting". While he's screwing her doggy style, the sick fuck lights a cig, flips her over and burns her breast. He viciously beats her before sticking a glass bottle up her ass. He beats her again until she's out cold after hitting her head off the headboard. The scene is so ferocious and cold, it's an upsettingly real depiction of sexual violence.

Later, Royce tells Johnny about the giant creep who beat her up, stuck a bottle up her ass and robbed her. Realising he knows who she's talking about, Johnny concocts a plan to fuck-up Rocky de Sade once and for all at his pal's S&M party.



Rocky arrives at the party, ready to have the time of his life, dressed as an executioner - a look that's completed with a prop axe. During the party several guests have collars attached to them; Rocky, baited by what he's seen has a collar attached to his neck with about half a dozen chains attached to it. He's lowered to the ground where his legs are restrained, the crowd grows and gathers around the ensuing performance. Royce, acting as the de facto leader, appears with the rest of the women violated by Rocky throughout in the movie; beginning a campaign of humiliation against their tormentor. A dildo is passed through the crowd and finds its way to Royce's hands. With the help of Joey, the gals lift Rocky's up legs high, Royce drives the dildo into Rocky ass several times. The chicks and Royce then squat over their victim and in unison unleash torrents of amber while Rocky curses them "Ugh! Bitch, dirty bitch!"

The sequence is remarkably well shot with the camera at such an angle and framed in a way you can view each stream of piss befalling the horizontal Rocky.

The partygoers whoop, cheer and applaud. The three gals move away and Royce squats over Rocky once more, dropping a deuce right onto his pubic area; a hand reaches in from the crowd and smears it up and down his torso. The crowd goes bananas. Rocky appears to be unconscious or catatonic whilst the revellers and the house band circle his supine form, gleefully dancing and singing: "Goodbye Rocky, so long so long. Goodbye Rocky, that's what you get, goodbye Rocky, you're full of shit!"
I wasn't lying when I said it was a shitty ending.



Ken Turner's performance as Rocky is nothing short of disturbing, made so by what I can only describe as a dedication to the role. There's an uncanniness in the way the miscreant talks, moves, and generally carries himself. The character isn't played for laughs, or with a pantomime energy either. I think Ken's own lack of charisma bleeds through into his performance, it's a far-cry from a Jamie Gillis or George Payne roughie villain. What makes Rocky so repulsive is that he's too close to the real thing, a chilling representation of a sex offender and all-round wrong'un. The dialogue he spews is mind-blowing, I find it difficult to believe all those lines were written specifically for him, he has to be liberally ad libbing these absurdities for his character. Rocky is the walking-talking embodiment of what Gen Zers would call "toxic masculinity".

Monique Starr gives a standout performance as Royce; she's gorgeous and seems to have only been in a handful of other features; a super hot chick with sass, piercing eyes, and a shaved snatch.

John Leslie is entertaining as Rocky's foil. A likeable character with a wacky and vivid imagination when it comes to sexual fantasies and revenge.



Femmes de Sade is a riot. A bonafide filth fest and yet, despite the subject matter, manages to remain fun and playful. What Alex de Renzy lacks in storytelling and character development he makes up for with cinematography. Femmes is evidence that de Renzy had an eye for it. Scenes are gorgeously photographed; from angles to framing, there's a lot of examples I wish I could have used as screenshots here.

One of Johnny's fantasies is a gang bang taking place in the engine room of a merchant ship. During the scene there's a ridiculous explosion of oil that completely douses the performers. Turk Lyon, the poor bastard, can barely keep it out of his eyes, even John Leslie holds his hands up to his face at one point to try and avoid the onslaught. To make the scene truly believable and all the more immersive (note: sarcasm), there's a constant sound effect of a motor ticking over with other industrial sounds mixed in. Although the scene is only about 5 minutes long the noise wears thin within the first 90 seconds.

In perhaps the most non-P.C. scene of an entirely non-P.C. film, John Leslie frolics with two East Asian women in a hot tub, before screwing them made-up in yellowface. The "look" is completed with eye "make-up" and a Fu Manchu moustache. The same hot tub location can also be spotted in Fred J. Lincoln and Sharon Mitchell's A Place Beyond Shame (1980), where two people bonk on a motorcycle.

I've been wondering how to recommend this, for fans of what exactly? But, if you've found you way here then you already know what you're gonna get yourself into. So, I implore you to go-ahead and check out Femmes de Sade, and be sure to tell everyone you know about how shitty the ending is!