dbdumonteil Both Carroll Baker and Jean Sorel began their career with great directors: the former was Lucky enough to be directed by George Stevens ,Elia Kazan (who gave her her lifetime role "baby doll" ),John Ford.The latter was best remembered for his movies with such luminaries as Duvivier,Bunuel and Visconti:but even in these works ,his good looks went against him and his male co-stars easily outclassed him.Besides,he resembled Alain Delon and there was no room for both of them.More than Clouzot's "LES Diaboliques" which anyway inspired hundreds of thrillers ,it's Clement's classic "Plein Soleil" (aka "purple noon" ) ,which put Delon on the map ,that provides the movie with two of its more important scenes:the murder on the boat ,and even more the final shot which is a complete ripoff.That said ," paranoia " is probably the most satisfying of all Baker's soft porn extravaganzas :unlike "Cosi Dolce Cosi Perversa","or "Il Diavolo A Sette Facce" ,this one has a relatively firm screenplay ,with several unexpected twists ,and a few good scenes of its own:Constance's lesbian side ,the flash forwards (Maurice killed by the harpoon) and chiefly the film which scares the criminals (a great moment of suspense).The cinematography is more painstaking than in your average B movie and there's a good use of the wide screen which takes advantage of the location.Maurice utters a few words in his first language ("Charmante N'Est-Ce-Pas?"),and there are soft erotic scenes .Miss Baker is not very credible as a racing driver(!) but she's really a babe.NB:in the eighties,CB made a Volte face and went back ,for a while ,to great cinema: in "ironweed" ,she was convincing as Jack Nicholson's wife.

Darkling_Zeist Another splendid gialli from the master of sexual intrigue Umberto Lenzi. Many say that this is inferior to his 'Orgasmo' (1969) but it many ways I find it to be of equal merit. Righteous lounge-core soundtrack and another winning performance from one of the true divas of gialli, Carrol Baker. Yet again, Baker suffers at the hands of a scheming; cock sure male; this time a particularly suave and dashing Marc Porel; a man seemingly born to wear pastel v-neck sweaters. His preference for Val Donican's wardrobe does little to mute his excellent performance as a Machiavellian, libidinous, uber-playboy, which is exemplary; making the twist-laden 'a quiet place to kill' a must see for Lenzi-Gialli-Baker fans.

lor_ The other IMDb reviewers have done a fine job evaluating this Umberto Lenzi thriller, and I'll chime in with just a few comments.With Joe D'Amato of all people as cameraman, this low-budget European B movie looks sumptuous, with excellent driving scenes (pegged to star Carroll Baker introduced as a race car driver) and consistently attractive Majorca locations befitting a jet set backdrop. The only crappy scene for me was the mandatory (and now dated/unwatchable) visit to a discotheque where Baker and many extras are shot in low angle montages attempting to do the frug and other dance steps.While Lenzi dangles DIABOLIQUE as a red herring plot gimmick, the real ripoff here is from an equally distinguished source, René Clément's PURPLE NOON. Long one of my all-time favorites, that classic Patricia Highsmith movie presented the thriller format in sundrenched, always bright & beautiful settings, probably the best such example of that approach since LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN in the '40s.SPOILER ALERT: Lenzi adopts the same against-the-grain (no Gothic or gloomy visuals) look and carefully imitates the key elements of PURPLE NOON's suspense. The murder takes place on a yacht, and the final twist of the film, the "return of the repressed" frisson moment, is identical, as the incriminating corpse is dredged up from Davy Jones Locker not as part of the official search but rather accidentally from another search instigated by the guilty parties.Side note: In the '80s I was motion picture editor in NYC at Variety newspaper and I once asked our Rome correspondent Deborah Young about Italian directors' personalities, since she dealt with them on a one-to-one basis daily. She responded with a surprise for me, stating that Umberto Lenzi was the classiest of the lot, a true gentleman. Having been exposed in America to drive-in and 42nd St. showings of his often lurid and exploitation-oriented films I was surprised, but it was another lesson in the dangers of equating one's work (and its artifacts) with the creator's personal attributes.

MARIO GAUCI To begin with, when I acquired this, I was under the impression it'd be the 1969 Lenzi/Carroll Baker giallo released in English-speaking countries as PARANOIA and originally given the lurid title ORGASMO; I watched that film, which was quite decent (and had a jaw-dropping final twist, to boot), during the 2004 Venice Film Festival – with the genial elderly director in attendance! This one, then, was released in Italy as PARANOIA and, to confuse matters even more, its English title was very similar to the director's follow-up effort (and which I'll get to presently), UN POSTO IDEALE PER UCCIDERE – translating to AN IDEAL PLACE TO KILL – which was itself retitled OASIS OF FEAR for export purposes! For the record, Lenzi made eight giallos in all: none would perhaps rank among the genre's finest offerings – though, with this, I'm only half-way through them (having checked out KNIFE OF ICE [1972] and SPASMO [1974] as well, the latter also at Venice as part of a night-long marathon!). Anyway, the film turned out to be something of a disappointment: the plot recalls Henri Georges Clouzot's classic DIABOLIQUE (1955) but, given rather indifferent treatment, it's not particularly engaging in this case. Incidentally, both stars – Carroll Baker again and Jean Sorel – would appear in a number of giallos over the years: the two, in fact, had already made THE SWEET BODY OF DEBORAH (1968) together and, while the former would make four for Lenzi alone, the latter appeared (among others) in two of Lucio Fulci's best films…one of which, ONE ON TOP OF THE OTHER aka PERVERSION STORY (1969), was also partly inspired by the aforementioned Clouzot thriller! Perhaps the most determining factors in PARANOIA's lack of stature are its positively underwhelming credentials (the film is an Italian/French/Spanish co-production); that said, the glossy look – particularly in the beautiful widescreen print I viewed – and Gregorio Garcia Segura's bouncy lounge score easily emerge as its most pleasing (and durable) assets.After a fairly dreary first half, the narrative gets pretty complicated, though the many plot twists aren't exactly surprising: one I liked, however, was when the scheme of playboy Sorel's two wives to get rid of him backfires, he's quick to take matters into his own hands and dispose of the current spouse (which would leave him tremendously wealthy) there and then! Even so, a third woman enters the picture soon after – the daughter of the deceased (gorgeous if perennially sullen Marina Coffa) who, then, conspires with him to oust his ex (Baker) by elaborately framing her for Sorel's 'murder'! The frenzied climax, in fact, sees the distraught heroine's car plunging from a cliff (she's being chased by the police when Sorel's phantom suddenly 'haunts' her) – but Baker has the last laugh after all as, in the search to find his 'missing' body, the corpse of Sorel's second bride literally turns up to incriminate him! Mind you, the film's still quite watchable – as much for the reasons already stated as for Baker's frequent nude scenes