Poor Cecily (1973). Paradise Cinema

Poor Cecily (Aka Lady in Trouble)
1973
USA
Director: F.C. Perl
Cast: Angela Field, William Quinn, Sandy Dempsey

After the death of her uncle, Cecily (Angela Field) is shipped to France to reside in the house of the people who cleared her uncle's debt for her. On her way she is approached by a young man on the boat, Anthony, who's advances she spurns.

Whilst in France she is seduced by the lady of the house, Charlotte, during which Cecily sees Charlotte's leering husband and flees. Trying to keep their secret the husband chases Cecily from the castle with a pistol, the strain resulting in the husband suffering a heart attack. Cecily positive that she will be held responsible for this flees.

Stumbling onto the property of the Countess Quaid and being caught while observing an alfresco menage e trios, Cecily is forced into service in the castle to escape being imprisoned for trespassing. Here she finds Anthony is in service to the countess also. During one of the castle's regular orgies, she decides to make her escape.

Caught in her attempted flight back to England, Cecily is imprisoned amongst several women who are in the process of being tortured for supposed witchcraft. After a little torture herself, she is transported back to the castle of the pervy Countess Quaid. Where for six months she is used and abused as a sex slave for the entertainment of the countess and her wealthy friends.

Finally Cecily is granted her freedom, just after being released she comes across Anthony and they ride off into the sunset together.

Very loosely based on the Marquis De Sade's Justine, Poor Cecily is not a straight adaptation of the De Sade novel. The character of Cecily is more like a hybrid, part Justine, part Juliette and part Fanny Hill.

Cecily is a little hypocrite, more likely to be lampooned by De Sade than written about with any sympathy. On her first night in France she engages in a lesbian encounter with Charlotte, which she enjoys, and actively participates in. Later whilst viewing the ménage à trois, she is compelled by her desire to watch, whilst verbally claiming she is disgusted. And in the orgy scene, during which she escapes she claims that it is the most disgusting sight ever to greet her eyes. Now surely she is over any desires she previously had, and standing firmly by her re-discovered morals.

Either this was a very bad film print or it was very badly shot, unfortunately it looks like the latter, even though there has been some obvious print damage. The colours are sometimes too bright and sometimes dull and blurry, the lighting is mostly bad, and almost all of the exterior shots are from a stock footage library, and the soundtrack has an annoying buzzing on it.

Poor Cecily is an interesting curiosity film, but probably only for erotica or De Sade completists. I'm not sure if it would have even seen the light of day or video or DVD had it not been for those diligent folks at Salvation films, for which I am glad, as I am a bit of a De Sade completist myself.

Available in the UK Uncut from Salvation Films. < CORRECTION>A fellow fan of this movie tells me this is untrue. He found a copy out there where a dungeon sequence goes on for 20 minutes. the sequence in the Salvation films sequence is only four minutes. SO there is a longer uncut version out there. The reason for this mistake is probably because Salvation may have submitted an already trimmed version to the BBFC in the UK, and that is why their site lists it as UNCUT. 11.8.2004, G. Pistachio