'Justine or the misadventures of virtue', also released as Deadly Sanctuary)[1] is a 1969 erotic period drama film directed by Jesús Franco, written and produced by Harry Alan Towers, and based on the 1791 novel Justine by the Marquis de Sade.

It stars Romina Power as the title character, with Maria Rohm, Klaus Kinski, Akim Tamiroff, Harald Leipnitz, Rosemary Dexter, Horst Frank, Sylva Koscina and Mercedes McCambridge.

The film is set in 1700s France where Justine (Power) and her sister Juliette (Rohm) are orphans in Paris.

Juliette takes Justine to a friend, Madame de Buission, a brothel owner who requires the girls to work as prostitutes in return for accommodation.

Juliette and a fellow prostitute named Claudine kill Madame de Buisson and one of her clients, stealing her gold and making their escape.

A man named Du Harpin agrees to let Justine stay for free if she serves as his maid.

While she is asleep, Du Harpin places the amulet in Justine's belongings to frame her, out of spite for her having refused to steal it for him.

They fall in love and live happily until the police arrive at Raymond's home, searching for Justine, and she must escape again.

[4] Following Franco's desire to make an erotic film, Towers began writing a script based on Justine ou les malheurs de la vertu.

[5] Rosemary Dexter was originally intended to portray Justine, but only appears briefly in the role of Claudine.

[6] Robert Firsching for Allmovie gave the film two stars, referring to it as an "uneven adaptation of the Marquis de Sade's notorious Justine".

[6] "... a lavishly appointed costume drama leavened with lashings of kinky sex, tantamount to Tony Richardson’s Tom Jones with full frontal nudity.