Adventures in Alternate Titles: a 1970 film based on the work of the Marquis de Sade. On this package’s cover and the movie’s title card, we’re told it’s called Marquis de Sade’s Philosophy in the Boudoir.

However, the disc’s menu, IMDB and prior releases refer to it as Eugenie, with the subtitle …the story of her journey into perversion. Whatever the case, the tale offers the expected erotic overtones.

Wealthy Madame Saint Ange (Maria Bohm) reads stories by the Marquis de Sade and these light an erotic flame inside her. She covets the teenaged Eugenie (Marie Liljedahl) and sleeps with the girl’s father (Paul Muller) to get him to agree to let her take Eugenie to her private island.

There the innocent Eugenie receives a sexual education far beyond the norm, as a variety of sadomasochistic activities occur. Along the way, matters take an even darker turn and these events leave Eugenie in a dire situation.

When a story bills itself as a “journey into perversion”, one expects some weird, wild stuff. Does Eugenie deliver the goods?

Not really. Although the film toys with the sadistic sexual activities made famous by the Marquis, it never offers anything especially titillating or outrageous.

In essence, Eugenie brings dull, tedious character scenes occasionally punctuated by various sex sequences. Eugenie remains dull as dishwaster, and none of the other roles become compelling either.

If the movie delivered something intriguing in terms of its themes or sexual content, then it might overcome these issues. However, Eugenie holds back too much to become involving.

Granted, I get that censorship/ratings issues restricted how graphic Eugenie could become. Nonetheless, the end result can’t compensate in any ways.

A better-made movie could create some tension and strong character dynamics. Instead, Eugenie seems to think some occasional light sex and nudity will do all the heavy lifting.

Admittedly, Liljedahl looks awfully good naked. A remarkable beauty, she becomes a visual highlight.

But Liljedahl can’t act her way out of the proverbial paper bag, and no one else picks up the slack. Even the legendary Christopher Lee – who plays a small role – fails to add zing to the proceedings.

Perhaps Eugenie boasted more of an erotic punch in 1970 than it does in 2023. Whatever the case, the movie now plays as dull and tedious.

Eugenie appears in an aspect ratio of 2.40:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. This was a watchable Dolby Vision image.

For the most part, sharpness appeared fine. While the movie lacked terrific delineation, it usually seemed pretty accurate.

That said, sporadic soft shots emerged. Some of these made sense in terms of stylistic choices whereas others did not, so the scenes that lacked good definition could perplex, though they appear to stem from the source. Even the audio commentary mentions the odd lapses in accuracy and notes that these came from the original photography.

No issues with jagged edges or shimmering occurred, and I saw no intrusive edge haloes. Print flaws remained absent, and grain felt natural, albeit heavy.

Colors tended toward a natural palette, with an occasional emphasis on reds. The hues boasted a fair amount of pep and range, and HDR gave them added emphasis.

Blacks were fairly deep and dense, while low-light shots boasted reasonable clarity. HDR added range and impact to whites and contrast. Nothing here dazzled, but the result appeared largely fine for the movie’s vintage and budget.

The flick’s DTS-HD MA monaural soundtrack also showed the restrictions related to the movie’s age, but it still worked fine. Speech remained intelligible, though an awful lot of dodgy looping meant the lines rarely sounded natural.

Effects failed to present much life, but they lacked problematic distortion. While the music didn’t boast great vivacity, the score and songs still showed decent pep. This was an acceptable soundtrack for an old genre flick.

On the 4K disc, we find a trailer as well as an audio commentary from film historians Nathaniel Thompson and Troy Howarth. Both sit together for this running, screen-specific look at the source and its adaptation, story/characters, cast and crew, production notes and related thoughts.

Thompson and Howarth offer a solid chat, though one that suffers when compared with their discussion of another de Sade/Jess Franco film, 1969’s Justine. During that discussion, we get tons of info about de Sade and Franco that would feel redundant if addressed here.

This limits the subjects Thompson and Howarth can touch on, so we end up with a more limited – and less compelling – scope for Eugenie. Nonetheless, while this track doesn’t match with the excellent commentary for Justine, it brings enough to the table to merit a listen.

The commentary and the trailer also appear on the included Blu-ray copy along with additional extras. Perversion Stories runs 17 minutes, 32 seconds and brings comments from director Jess Franco, writer/producer Harry Alan Towers and actors Christopher Lee and Marie Liljedahl.

“Stories” covers the movie’s roots and development, cast and crew, and production notes. The new perspectives help expand on what we learn in the commentary

Stephen Thrower on Eugenie spans 18 minutes, nine seconds. Thrower wrote a biography of Franco and here discusses the source and its adaptation as well as general thoughts about the film and its genre.

Inevitably, Thrower echoes some of what Thompson and Howarth told us. Nonetheless, he gives us a different perspective that allows his chat to bring some worthwhile material.

Finally, Jack Taylor in the Francoverse gives us a 24-minute, 43-second interview with actor Jack Taylor. He tells us about aspects of his career and Eugenie in this enjoyable interview.

In addition to the film’s trailer, we find an Image Gallery with 148 stills that mix production photos, ads, and other publicity elements. It becomes a good compilation.

Note that the package includes a new Blu-ray and not the original release from 2015. I didn’t review the 2023 BD because Blue Underground didn’t release it outside of this 4K set.

Despite the promise of stimulating erotic content, Eugenie winds up as a slow bore. While its lead perks up the film due to her beauty, the film fails to offer anything intriguing. The 4K UHD comes with generally positive picture, adequate audio and a mix of bonus materials. Even with the ample charms of its lead actor, this becomes a tedious movie.