Orgasmo

This is a real curio. Directed by Umberto Lenzi before he gained notoriety with cannibal movies such as 'Cannibal Ferox', and starring the lovely Carroll Baker ('Andy Warhol's Bad') and Lou Castel (from supertrash classic 'Killer Nun'). Baker plays a recently widowed American expatriate living in Italy who has a fling with young stud Castel. She invites this hipster to move in with her in her luxurious mansion, followed shortly by his free spirit sister. The two corrupt the millionairess with booze, pills and sex, and then things begin to take a sinister and unexpected turn. 'Orgasmo' holds up surprisingly well and keeps your interest until its final shock scene. It may not be perfect but I recommend it to 60s Euro buffs and thriller fans.

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.

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.

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.

For his third film of 1969, Umberto Lenzi goes for the full groovy sixties vibe with the trippy visuals, free living people who you just want to slap, laid back music and all that crap. It's quite good though, kind of! Caroll Baker is a young widow who is rich beyond her wildest dreams, but has ended up in one of the gigantic mansions that occur in about 95% of Italian films of this era. She's hitting the hooch, but things look up a bit when hunky young Peter Sorel turns up, offering Caroll some free loving and free thinking - just like everyone else of his age and generation. The twats.

Caroll falls in love with Peter, who manages to get himself invited to the mansion and moves in proper, as does his sister, who likes to give Caroll pills and looks like David Bowie (what's with these actresses looking like David Bowie?). Caroll feels young again, but is it all too good to be true? When Caroll catches Peter in bed with the sister, the answer is 'probably'.

Yep, it's another low-violence, high suspense giallo with all the trimmings - annoying free love, pills, booze, crap like 'jealousy is all in the mind' - all that stuff. I don't want to reveal what happens mind you but for a film where not much happen it's still quite watchable. Lenzi cranks up the 'trippy' visuals too, some of which don't make sense, but it's probably the best of the three films he made in 1969.

Except the ending is the EXACT ending of Oasis of Fear! You can't fool me Lenzi!