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27 reviews in total

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12 out of 13 people found the following review useful:
Dirty!, 8 March 2002
Author: Moshing Hoods from Peterborough, UK.

This is nasty stuff. Surprisingly strong for a 1972 movie, Polselli's over-complex and contrived giallo happily depicts what other people would only dare hint to in a number of jaw-droppingly misogynistic scenes of sexual violence. In one remarkably unpleasant scene, a black gloved killer masturbates a female victim as he strangles her. I find it surprising that movies like NEW YORK RIPPER are so infamous when extreme stuff like this and GIALLO A VENEZIA exist. It's quite amazing that these films were made at all, let alone had a cinema release!

Focusing away from the violence, this is actually a pretty well made and tight giallo. Whilst a lot more sleazy than some of the classy entries into the genre, Polselli hits the viewer with some relatively innovative scenes and camera-work. The plot is hilariously winding- I won't give too much away, but fans of the more ridiculous giallos will not be disappointed. There is also a definite undercurrent of black humour, particularly in some of the scenes of violence. I think it is safe to say that the misogynistic humour will be left misunderstood by most.

Unfortunately, DELIRIUM fell victim to distributor re-cutting in a big way. The American version is hugely different to the original Italian release, losing a lot of violence, gaining some new footage, and asa result suffering quite marked changes to the plot itself! The different versions are really quite different, and I'd advise any giallo collector to check out both. By all accounts, the French print of the movie is the most complete "uncut" form. Definitely worth a look for fans of giallos and of good, honest cinematic scum.

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13 out of 16 people found the following review useful:
Not exactly a movie for the kiddies..., 22 October 2002
Author: Troy Ros (Rastacat1@hotmail.com) from Northfield, MN

Not exactly a movie for the kiddies, I would consider 1972's Delirium to be some what of a grade B Giallo. The production is okay, the acting not bad, the dialogue average, but the violence is over the top with several grisley murder scenes. There is also way more nudity than your average Giallo.

There are two versions, the American (85 minutes) and the European (102 minutes). The American version starts out with the main character, Herbert Lyutak, getting wounded in Vietnam. The movie mixes stock footage from the war with newly filmed scenes in a pretty ungraceful job of editing. But we

do learn that Herbert was born in Hungary and immigrated to the US in 1961 and joined the army in 1962. He has done three tours of duty in Vietnam and is a decorated, model soldier. He has been wounded and is being taken away in a helicopter. He is looking at a nurse and she changes into another woman who we soon find out is his wife, Marcia, played by the lovely Rita Calderoni (The Reincarnation of Isabel, Nude for Satan). Right after the credits we get to see Herbert pick up a girl in a bar and drive her out to a remote spot, chase her into a stream and then strip her and beat her to death. It's a pretty violent scene and not for the squeamish. Of course that could apply to almost every murder in this movie.

The European version really is quite different than the American release and I thought it had a more coherent story. Both versions are a bit confusing but the European version is more consistant. It also skips the whole Vietnam segment which wasn't very well done anyway. The endings are both quite different as well and a couple murders are filmed differently also.

I don't want to give away too much but we do know that Herbert murders a girl at the beginning of both versions and after that it is a bit of a cat and mouse with the cops who are trying to solve the murders along with Herbert who is a criminal psychologists and suposed to be helping them in the investigation. His wife starts having weird S&M dreams invloving her husband as the sadist and their maid and another woman who we later find out is her niece. Ther three women fondle and kiss each other while Herebert watches. The editing from the dreams to reality is a bit confusing and at one point early in the film Herbert does beat and cut Marcia as a substitution for sex which he can't perform with his wife. He does seem troubled about his violent tendencies and does not want to unleash his murderous ways on his wife. But he does like looking at her throat which is a very enticing part of female anatomy for him.

The picture on the European version looks fine and is presented in 1.85:1 widescreen. The American version however is missing a couple sections of the original so Anchor Bay had to take some Dutch footage from a VHS copy and splice it in. So you are watching and all of a sudden the picture gets worse and there are Dutch subtitles! But we are talking only a couple minutes worth so it is pretty minor actually. There is also a recently filmed 14 minute interview with director and writer Renato Polselli and Actor Mickey Hargitay which is pretty good really. I watched the US version, then the interview, and then the European version of the film. I did have more of an appreciation for the film after the watching the interview and as I said earlier, the European version is overall a better and more coherent storyline. The US version is dubbed in English and the European version is in Italian with English subtitles. Overall not too bad if you like extreme Giallo. Not nearly as good as say, What Have You Done With Solange, or most Bava's or Argento's, but certainly worthy of $15 or so.

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13 out of 17 people found the following review useful:
Avoid the American version, 23 November 2004
Author: lazarillo from Denver, Colorado and Santiago, Chile

Thanks to a certain gray market outfit in south Florida that searches for obscure videos, I got stuck with the shorn American print of this movie, but it does have some very ridiculous added "Vietnam" footage which might make it the first movie ever to deal with the fallout from that war. A deranged Vietnam vet and forensic psychologist is driven by his traumatic war experiences (and implied impotence) to murder mini-skirted Italian co-eds (just like he did in 'Nam I'm sure). His loyal wife tries to cover up for him the only way she knows how. Mickey Hargitay is the name star. After seeing "Bloody Pit of Horror" I had no trouble buying him as a deranged killer, but a police psychologist?--c'mon. Mickey had apparently been making bad movies in Italy for so long by this point that he'd started speaking with an Italian accent. (Seriously, why did they cast third-rate American actors in these movies and then dub them when they're speaking English?). Rita Calderoni plays the wife. She wasn't a bad actress, but the enjoyment of her performance varies inversely with the amount of clothes she is wearing, and she's a little overdressed here (if you want to see a lot more of her check out the appropriately named "Nude for Satan"). There are also a lot of anonymous Italian girls in impossibly short minis (unfortunately, this is exactly the kind of sleazy movie that looks up their skirts while they're being strangled or shows them topless after they're dead). There's also a strange, recurring dream sequence where a shirtless Mickey strangles himself with a chain while his naked wife, maid(!),and college-age niece(!!) all writhe around on the floor at his feet.

Anchor Bay apparently has included both this version and the longer European version on their legitimate DVD and it costs half as much used as what the more unscrupulous bootleggers are charging. Avoid just getting the American version, but I would recommend this to moral degenerates who enjoy this kind of sleazy, Italian-made filth (you know who you are).

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8 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
One of the best..., 3 October 2000

Author: ulgol from Germany

Whenever I take a look at today's big multiplex cinemasm playing nothing but dreck, I'm really happy, that, in better times, films like this one have been made: "Delirio Caldo" is a sick, a-logical and hilariously funny thriller, the nightmare of any "cineaste". There's lots of violence, psychedelic colours, stylish cinematography and enough of that naive "misogyny" prevalent in 70ies cinema to make any PC-feminists break out in tears. What else could one ask for? Be sure not to miss this treat. And, by the way, watch the continental cut, as the english-dubbed version has been shorn of nearly 20 minutes of fun!

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6 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Warm delirium, 25 May 2002
Author: Nilbog!

The English-language print of this movie is incoherent. It adds stupid Vietnam footage throughout and cuts out all references to the fact that it takes place in England, as well as all the sexual violence, the lesbian relationship between the killer's wife and her maid, and the killer's "masturbation" scene. In the European version there are three killers but here there are only two, and the ending is completely different. The American version adds two murders that were left on the cutting room floor of the European version, but they're unimportant to the story. The final third of this movie has sequences that are basically incomprehensible and the film ends with a tacked-on series of stills from different sex scenes from the film! This may have satisfied the grind house audience of the Seventies but nearly thirty years later it just seems tame and silly. Anchor Bay needs to find the full version of this one and get it out on dvd. As it stands now it's a disappointment.

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3 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Sensual and Delirious, 18 December 2007

Author: andrabem from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The best translation for "Delirio caldo" would be hot delirium. When a desire (specially when it is a deep desire) is not fulfilled, it may turn into delirium.

The film begins with sexual violence followed by murder and the identity of the killer is revealed right away. Well, I'm not giving anything away - this is the very beginning of the film. The killer is Dr. Herbert Lyutak (Mickey Hargitay). And this murder is just another one of a series of murders committed against pretty girls. When Dr. Herbert Lyutak returns home, his wife Marzia (beautiful Rita Calderoni) is waiting for him. Their marriage is not working, but she loves him very much. Marzia has suspicions about his alternative life, but she'll do everything for him.

Other murders will happen and suddenly we are not so sure anymore about who really is the murderer. There are other characters, such as Joaquine (Marzia's niece) and the maid who works for Dr. Herbert and Marzia. Dr. Herbert is a psychiatrist that, ironically enough, helps the police in their investigations. From then on the story will unfold in many directions.

"Delirio Caldo" is a very sensual film. The actors are committed to their roles. Rita Calderoni seems to melt all over when touched by Mickey Hargitay - Her liquid eyes roll and seem to vanish in an expression of ecstasy.

Marzia dreams a lot. In her night dreams strange and erotic visions go through her mind, but in her daydreams, Marzia conjures kitschy visions of a normal happy life.

Marzia's niece, Joaquine (Christa Barrymore) has also intense feelings for someone and even the maid will have her moment of divine ecstasy.

The soundtrack is very good and underlines the different moods of the film - frenzy, tenderness "noir", romanticism etc..

"Delirio Caldo" is at the same time wild, tragic, pathetic and romantic, if I'm allowed to use so many adjectives. Open up your heart and mind and see this sensual and delirious masterpiece.

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4 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Merge the two versions; make out your own cut!, 23 January 2008

Author: Coventry from the Draconian Swamp of Unholy Souls

Our good friends over at the Wikipedia website define the term "Delirium" as follows: an acute and relatively sudden decline in attention-focus, perception, and cognition. It is commonly associated with a disturbance of consciousness. Fair enough! That appropriately describes both the main characters' behavior in this film and the spontaneous reactions of us, the viewers! The least you can say about "Delirium" is that it is one strange movie. Not just the plot lines and character drawings are demented and - oh yeah - delirious), but even the cut, edit and release treatment it received back in the early 70's was highly unusual and peculiar. There exist two principal version of this film, which both feature on the fancy Anchor Bay release, namely the original Italian "Director's Cut" and the heavily altered American version. Most of the reviews and user-comments I encountered avidly discourage people to watch the American version, but I on the other hand, feel that BOTH versions are essential viewing. If possible, you should even watch one straight after the other, filter different aspects & sub plots of both versions together and mentally edit them back together in order to make up your very own final cut! Granted, the American version opens and finishes with a completely goofy and irrelevant Vietnam-trauma sub plot (illustrated through ancient recovered footage with Dutch subtitles!), but it also contains at least one supplementary and highly engrossing killing sequence and – in my humble opinion – the grand finale twists make much more sense here than in the original version. The director's cut is far gloomier and digs deeper into the main characters mental background, but it only just becomes a true Giallo highlight when mixed with elements of the American cut.

Now, don't immediately fear that "Delirium" is an overly complex and inaccessible Giallo because of all this driveling about versions, because it's not! It's your basic and wondrously demented early 70's Giallo, rich on perverted themes, nudity & sleaze, sadistic killings and far-fetched red herrings. The story opens promising with a hunky middle-aged guy (real-life body building champ Mickey Hargitay) picking up a teenage girl in a bar and savagely murdering her in the middle of a mudflat river. Usually the purpose of a Giallo is to keep the killer's identity secret until the climax, but Renato Polselli clearly doesn't bother to do this. The first and highly ingenious twist promptly comes after the intro, however, as the same guy who we just witnessed committing a murder turns out to be a criminology psychologist. He, Herbert Lyutak, cooperates with the police regarding the series of disturbing murders, which naturally puts him above all suspicion. We also meet his wife Marcia, who loves him to death, and his horny housemaid who not so secretly craves for his body. We also learn a bit about Herbert's sexual-related issues that clarify his murderous tendencies. More gruesome murders of sexy young coeds follow; only now Herbert always has indisputable alibis. Is there suddenly a copycat killer? Does Herbert have an evil twin brother? The outcome of this riddle is fairly logic and easy to predict, but Polselli nevertheless maintains an admirably high level of tension and involvement. He inserts inventive sub plots (like vivid hallucinations of lesbian-laughter orgies and the innocent prime suspect's private investigation) and you undeniably look forward to each next gory murder that waits just around the corner. The soundtrack in this particular Giallo is slightly below average, but the photography is beautiful and surprisingly artsy considering the low budget, with an imaginative use of colors and POV shots. Even after starring in numerous low-keyed Italian smut movies (including the decadent "Bloody Pit of Horror"), Hargitay remains a horrible actor, but at least "Delirium" stars a series of indescribably hot wenches, and they all willingly takes their clothes of in front of the camera. This is a fabulously sensational piece of Italian cult cinema and comes highly recommended to fans with a healthy sense for adventure.

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4 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Sensationally sleazy giallo, 14 March 2006

Author: christopher-underwood from Greenwich - London

Sensationally sleazy giallo with loads of fab 70's gear worn by the men as well as the women and stacks of lurid action. When it's not sex or death on the screen, then it's shades of S&M in the cellar with chains, whips and other implements. Great looking, well OTT, eyes wide open shocker. Vivid killing in waterfall at the start sets the tone and we never look back, even the dead must have their clothing arranged in the sexiest possible way. Delirious ending but then this movie is true to it's title all the way. Perhaps the directing is not as stylish as some giallo and the music is rather muted. Some of the performances, especially towards the end are a bit uncontrolled but this is undeniably a very wild ride from start to finish.

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8 out of 15 people found the following review useful:
If only they had viagra back in the 1970s, 21 February 2003

Author: Bryce David

Major Spoilers!!!

DELIRIUM is more like a trashy, super sleazy twisted soap opera than a giallo. The overwrought direction/script/acting/sleaze sends DELIRIUM in the irremediably silly and worthless category. If you thought BASIC INSTINCT was misogynistic in its view of women and lesbians, you have seen nothing yet compared to what DELIRIUM has to offer. Every woman is a "helpless" killer or a helpless victim. They're all lesbian, unfaithful, and insane. And more importantly, naked. This might sound shocking to some and some scenes do shock a little but it's because the film/scenes are more annoying than anything else. DELIRIUM is very typical 1970s Italian provincial style of film-making. The overacting and over everything is something more akin to the style of acting seen in cheap Italian soaps than movies, which is why DELIRIUM ends up looking like a twisted version of DAYS OF OUR LIVES.

The story and direction are remarkably convoluted and confusing, and deliberately so. This in order to hide the obvious potboiler storyline: An important and rich doctor is married to a beautiful young woman. The problem is, the doctor is IMPOTENT and the wife is still a VIRGIN. The two have never consumed their marriage (gasp!). The frustration of being an impotent man married to a virginal wife is shown as the main reason for the doctor's dementia and why he goes around killing young women, as seen during the opening sequence when he brutally kills a young girl in river. After this murder, the doctor becomes a suspect and is interrogated by the police. The wife, who knows her husband is the killer, is madly in love with him, and will stand by him no matter what. As the police are interrogating him, another woman is strangled at a phone booth. Because of this one murder (and subsequent murders), the doctor is not seen as the main suspect anymore. Who is behind these new murders? Who doesn't want the doctor to be found guilty by the police? Who wants to protect him? Yes, you've guessed it. The wife, of course. The story is so melodramatic and stupid that the film actually tries to make the sick doctor look like the hero by the end of the movie by portraying every woman (the wife, her friend and the maid) as total nut cases and whores. The doctor's massive serial killing streak (at the beginning of the film, we are told that there had already been 17 murders) is suddenly trumped by the protective wife's recent serial killings. Needless to say, the end result makes it look like that it's okay if a man kills tons of whorish women because he's impotent, but it's wrong for whorish, insane women who kill for love. But the really funny thing about all of this is that even though the wife is shown to be totally devoted to her husband, to the point of wanting to kill in order to save him, she is having an affair with the maid AND her best friend. This begs the question: how much in love is she really with her husband if she's having sex with two women? I guess the virginal wife needed to get her kicks somewhere.

So, the husband kills because he's impotent (what's with Italian movies and impotence anyway?). And the virginal but whorishly bisexual wife kills because she loves & wants to save her impotent, serial killer husband. Does that make any sense to anyone?!?! The storyline is so divorced from logic that it's pointless trying to make any sense of it. Throughout the movie, we see the wife crying because their marriage is less than perfect. Boo-hoo! Who freaking cares. I don't know what kind of message the movie tries to send (if any) but it seems to say that having a fulfilled marriage is the ultimate raison d'etre in life. Yeah, sure!

And to think, all of this mayhem could have been prevented if viagra had existed back then.

Anyway, to make things even worse, not only is the direction convoluted but, technically speaking, it's really terrible too. Some scenes are totally disjointed. In one scene, the husband is fully clothed. In the next scene, he's bare-chested and seemingly naked. The sloppy editing and direction reminds me of the style of direction seen in old Bollywood movies, where people would be seen entering an elevator with one type of clothes and leave the elevator with a totally different wardrobe. Those looking for sleaze might get a kick out of DELIRIUM but the trashy romance style of film-making might hinder any fun to be had from the shameless exhibitionism on display from time to time. Watching DELIRIUM is a more frustrating experience than an entertaining one, even in the "it's so bad it's good" way. I know, you can't take a film like this too seriously but that doesn't change the fact that it's almost totally worthless. The only good thing about this crappy, twisted soap-opera-disguised-as-a-giallo is the beautiful Rita Calderoni. She's one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen. She even comes out looking pretty good from this stinking pile of crap, which is hard to believe!

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MELROSE PLACE on acid, 3 May 2012

Author: mazec666 from The Lone Star State of Mind

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

The late bodybuilder/actor Mickey Hargitay stars as a criminal psychologist moonlighting as an unstable sex maniac who murders mini-skirted young women because of his impotency. The luscious and full-figured Rita Calderoni plays his beautiful wife who starts suffering from nightmares of medieval torture and lesbian orgies. The two leads are unwittingly pawns in this muddled, if hypnotic oddity of Italia sleaze that won't please the fainthearted but will delight grind house hounds.

After viewing this film a second time, there are some flaws that I would like to point out. Renato Polselli (under the pseudonym Ralph Brown) directs with such competent gusto in a blatant attempt to explore the deeper psychosis of Hargitay and Calderoni. The dialog is so painfully uninspired and over-dramatic that it felt like a demented version of Mexican soap operas. On the positive side, Ugo Brunelli's psychedelic cinematography perfectly captures what it's like for the audience to be trapped in hell. And if you thought the murder scenes were bad, take a gander at the lesbian fantasy sequence if you dare.

The Blue Underground release, obliviously a reprint from the Anchor Bay DVD, contains two different versions of DELIRUIM. The crappy, dubbed American version makes it worse with tacked on beginning and end sequences of Hargitay's psychological trauma as a soldier serving in Vietnam. The coherent, Italian language version contains more explicit material and different subplots which is a slight improvement to the latter cut. As a recommendation, the longer 102-minute cut is probably the best version to go for.

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