There’s an argument to be made suggesting a strong comparison between famed sexual deviant the Marquis de Sade and Randle McMurphy, the protagonist of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”

Yup. The father of S&M and that tragic, lovable bad boy of Dale Wasserman’s play (based on Ken Kesey’s novel and, a short span later, a major motion picture starring Jack Nicholson), now getting a respectable community theater run in Fountain Hills.

You see, both de Sade — as evident in The Shakespeare Theatre’s recent production of “Marat/Sade” — and McMurphy were bright rogues at some point in their histories locked away in psychiatric institutions. Both used their talents and fellow inmates as alternative therapy: For de Sade, it was staging an ultraviolent, kinky original play; for McMurphy, it was playing poker with nudie cards and throwing a booze bash. Same difference.

Fountain Hills Community Theater’s production of “Cuckoo’s Nest,” directed by Robyn Allen and starring an entirely able community cast, manages to hit most of the right comic and dramatic chords fans of the grand Nicholson flick would expect — save for the shocking twist at the end. Allen could have milked the moment for more dramatic heft.

The Fountain Hills show largely plays it safe, though, softening the harsher sides of the story. It’s perhaps best illustrated by its Nurse Ratched, Jan Clevenger, who’s supposed to be an ex-Army nutcracker, but, thanks to Clevenger’s piercingly kinder countenance, threatens to reveal a gentler side.

Though Clevenger’s Ratched butts heads with McMurphy in all the right parts, by the play’s climax, we wonder if he’s going to attack her per the script or, sensing her heart of gold, give her a big sloppy hug.

That’d be too weird even for the Marquis de Sade to handle.