Paranoia

It's tempting to look at this movie and think: What on earth is Carroll Baker doing in this piece of junk? (One becomes a lot less judgmental after reading Baker's autobiography and finding out this film came along at a time when Baker was in somewhat dire financial straits.)

It's still a piece of junk. "Paranoia" is a nasty, amateurish, inept thriller that tries hard to be sexy, but is more embarrassing than erotic. I don't know how it plays in Italian, but the (partly dubbed) English dialogue is as ghastly as the direction (somebody take away Umberto Lenzi's zoom lens!). There is one intriguing, identity-blurring moment when Baker playfully dons a dark wig that makes her look so much like co-star Colette Descombes, it's spooky. (Yes, of course it's a rip-off of "L'Avventura," but in this film, you take whatever you can get.) The movie's ending is beneath "Contempt."

(Interestingly, Baker in her memoirs mistakenly identifies her character as a divorcée instead of a widow, and never mentions the movie by name, either by its American title, "Paranoia," or its oh-so-charming Italian appellation, "Orgasmo.")

Once again we have some disparaging IMDB user comments for a euro-or-otherwise-foreign-source film that does not conform to the user's safe, comforting criteria for narrative structure, sound (in this case the dubbing -- which is actually not bad), or subject matter.

This film is an extremely entertaining psychological thriller with Carrol Baker excellent as a rich American widow getting away from it all at a secluded Italian villa. Enter smart aleck down on his luck playboy, Lou Castel, who has some golddigging motives behind his slick hipster seduction techniques and has no qualms about how he gets what he wants. He encourages Baker's character's incipient alcoholism and dubious self-esteem, brings in his supposed 'sister' to help drag Baker even further into a maze of sick mind games, drug addiction and group sex, all culminating in a descent into near-madness and self-destructive depravity.

I won't give away anymore, suffice to say that the film delivers on its swinging sixties, Euro sleaze ambience and psychological suspense thriller credentials in spades. Director Umberto Lenzi's work has been, at best, uneven and he's churned out his share of crap. However, he made some quite good giallos and crime pictures in the sixties and seventies and this is one of them (other good films by Lenzi -- SPASMO, SEVEN BLOODSTAINED ORCHIDS, ASSAULT WITH A DEADLY WEAPON, to name only a few).

Unfortunately this film is ofen confused with another okay but not-quite-as-good Lenzi film that was also released briefly here in America under the same PARANOIA title (but is more commonly known, especially on video, as A QUIET PLACE TO KILL).

This Italian/French co-production was the first of four collaborations between Hollywood star Carroll Baker (Baby Doll) and director Umberto Lenzi (Cannibal Ferox), and gave Baker a second chance at stardom after work had begun to dry up stateside. Here she plays Catherine, an American widow whose oil tycoon husband has recently died in a road accident (leaving her $200 million richer). She decides to relocate to Italy, where she meets a younger man named Peter (Lou Castel), also an American. The two soon become lovers. Their relationship is volatile but passionate and Peter moves into Catherine's luxurious villa. A short while later Catherine is surprised by the arrival of Peter's attractive sister, Eva (Colette Descombes). However, she likes having the youngsters around and Eva moves into the villa as well. But the initial fun turns into a physically and sexually abusive three-way relationship, one that sees Catherine's existing drink problem compounded by a forced addiction to drugs. Realising she is now a prisoner in her own home she tries to retake control of her life and escape.

This is often referred to as a giallo, although it doesn't really fit the term as we use it today (there's no mysterious, faceless stalker, no bloody injury, no string of people being bumped-off - in fact there are no deaths at all until well into the third act). It's better watched as a psychological thriller. The performances of the three leads (plus Tino Carraro as Catherine's lawyer) are all good, but the story is pretty unoriginal. It also paints Catherine as pretty annoying, even unpleasant at times, leaving it hard to care what happens to her. Credit though for an double-whammy ending that I never saw coming. Some topless and rear nudity and very softcore sex. 6/10.

This movie is not for everybody. Fans of the director Umberto Lenzi's cannibal films might be disappointed that no one is eaten alive, no women are hung up by their breasts via ridiculous-looking special effects, and no innocent animals were slaughtered in real life for their amusement. Instead you have a clever suspense movie that is well-photographed, well-acted, directed with panache, and, dare I say, even a little bit classy. Others may find actress Carroll Baker a bit on the voluptuous side compared to the poster children for anorexia and bulimia that pass for actresses today (and you may very well be blinded by her tan lines). But this is THE Carroll Baker, for christsake! The sex and nude scenes are pretty are tame by today's standards, but were very risqué for the time. This was a groundbreaking film that helped usher in both the Italian gialli and the free-spirited European sex films of the 70's.

The plot of this movie is somewhat similar to the recent film "Swimming Pool". A somewhat older, recently-widowed woman (Baker) is staying alone in an isolated Italian villa owned by her sleazy lawyer when she is seduced by a local gigolo and his "sister". At first, the diabolical pair just get her to loosen up and enjoy life again, but then they start to blackmail her and torture her (and possibly the viewer) by playing the same song over and over again until she starts to go crazy.

I liked almost everything about the movie (even the strangely catchy song), but the America version has this ridiculous deus ex machina ending-- because, of course, the evil-doers MUST be punished. Maybe if this is ever released on legitimate DVD, someone will dig up the European version (maybe put both on the same DVD like they did with "Delerium"). Oh well, whatever, check it out.

Carroll Baker plays a woman who falls for the wrong guy who torments her along with his demented sister so that they can drive her mad. For a giallo film, it's only a slightly more stylized classic gaslighting thriller, but there's enough sex and nudity to remind you that you're watching an Italian thriller.