Paranoia (1970)

Director:

Umberto Lenzi

Writers:

Marcello Coscia (screenplay)
Marcello Coscia (story)

Release Date:

1973 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Plot Keywords:

Giallo | Male To Female Footsie Playing | Footsie Under The Table | Murder | Part Of Trilogy

Cast

Carroll Baker	...	Helen
Jean Sorel	...	Maurice Sauvage
Luis Dávila	...	Albert Duchamps
Alberto Dalbés	...	Dr. Harry Webb
Marina Coffa	...	Susan Sauvage
Anna Proclemer	...	Constance Sauvage
Hugo Blanco
Lisa Halvorsen	...	Solange (as Liz Halvorsen)
Manuel Díaz Velasco	...	Miguel
Jacques Stany	...	James
Rossana Rovere	...	Nurse
Calisto Calisti	...	Doctor
Alfonso de la Vega	...	Chauffeur
Miguel Beltrán
Gaspar Forteza	...	1st Cop

Also Known As:

A Quiet Place to Kill (UK) (USA)
A Beautiful Place to Kill
Un tranquilo lugar para matar (Spain)
Una droga llamada Helen (Spain)

Runtime:

94 min | Spain:88 min

Country:

France | Italy | Spain

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Filming Locations:

Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain

Company:

Día P.C.

Trivia:

Final part of a trilogy also including Orgasmo (1969) and Così dolce... così perversa (1969).

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Death Proof (2007)

The Other Reviewer Has Made The Usual Mistake

The film reviewed here by the other reviewer is actually "Orgasmo", which was released in the US in 1969 as "Paranoia". This particular "Paranoia", the one reviewed here, was actually released here in the US as "A Quiet Place to Kill". Both films 1) star Carroll Baker, 2) were directed by Umberto Lenzi, 3) were shot in and around 1969, 4) contain some of the same music on the soundtrack, and 5) share the same title "Paranoia" except on opposite sides of the world. So, I guess it is easy for some people to confuse the two films.

The two films, however, are quite different, considering all of their similarities. This "Paranoia" finds Ms. Baker playing a down-on-her-luck race car driver, of all things, who accepts an invitation to her ex-husband's fancy villa courtesy of the ex-husband's new wife. As both women share a love-hate relationship with this man, it is not long before the current wife is pulling the ex-wife into a plot to murder the man. However, they are not the only ones with murder on their minds.

"A Quiet Place to Kill" succeeds mostly due to the good work of Carroll Baker and Anna Proclemmer as the ex-wife. The impossibly good-looking Jean Sorel is on hand as the husband/ex-husband, and Sorel can be good when he wants to be, but here he seems cheesed off in just about every scene, resulting in a totally one-note performance (perhaps the many bathing suits he was forced to wear were too tight). Lenzi adds some odd camera angles and some sense of style in the mix, probably to give this film a different look and feel than "Orgasmo", and he succeeds to a degree. So don't expect anything new, just a sun-splashed, deceit-ridden thriller with familiar faces and a familiar plot, which is nevertheless fun to sit through.

Oh, and don't confuse "A Quiet Place to Kill" with Lenzi's later film "An Ideal Place to Kill" which stars Ornella Muti, Ray Lovelock, and Irene Pappas in a role Lenzi later stated he wished Carroll Baker had played. Besides "Orgasmo" and "Paranoia", Baker also made "So Sweet, So Perverse" and "Knife of Ice" with Lenzi, with "So Sweet" and "Orgasmo" being superior to the other two.