At an orgy with several young prostitutes, Louis begins to get very rough in his play and explains some of his philosophy to the women, leading to the first in a long series of imprisonments.

de Montreuil is forced to pay Rose for her silence, and to send Louis back into exile at La Coste.

Louis continues to pursue Anne, and after an elaborate orgy where he is whipped into unconsciousness, he flees to Italy with the young woman.

Deciding to look one last time, the old man closes his eyes as the scene cuts back the middle-aged Marquis arriving at La Coste.

Roger Corman worked on the script with Richard Matheson but was worried about being unable to show the fantasies, and disappointing the audience if they did not.

Corman later claimed that AIP did not pay him what he felt he was owed for his work on the film, contributing to him leaving the company.

It successfully reduces one of the most fascinating figures of world literature to the role of not-so-straight man in a series of naughty tableaux vivants.

"[10] Variety called it "a dramatically compelling, creative and artful film" but warned, "True sado-masochists will be disappointed" because "the orgy scenes are silly, not obscene or erotic.

"[11] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film half of one star out of four and wrote, "Titillation is the name of this celluloid garbage, but even members of the bit and bridle set will be turned off by Keir Dullea ripping open pillows and pouring wine over harlots.

"[12] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times reported that the film was "not all that great as a skin-flick" and called Huston's performance "curiously energyless" and Dullea "incredibly phlegmatic.

"[13] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post described the film as "rather dull" and "a dreary theatrical pageant," with Dullea giving a "ludicrous" performance that "resembles nothing so much as Johnny Carson doing a take-off on de Sade.

An intellectually ambitious script by Richard Matheson mingles with some hideously tinted slow motion orgies; John Huston's magnificently decayed Abbé and Keir Dullea's own variety of mental torment play well against each other but in the end fail to clarify very much about de Sade and his obsessions.

A novelization of Richard Matheson's screenplay was written by Edward Fenton under the pseudonym he almost always employed for media tie-in work, Henry Clement.