Complete Lenzi/Baker Giallo Collection [Blu-ray]

Orgasmo:First up is 1969’s Orgasmo, also known as Paranoia, wherein Baker plays a wealthy widow named Kathryn West. Her husband having recently passed away, she is now living in a reasonably massive Italian mansion while the dearly departed’s lawyer, Brian (Tino Carraro), looks into selling off her late husband’s assets, hoping to cash in on a few million dollars’ worth of stores, television stations and other businesses that the man was in charge of.Kathryn doesn’t keep a lot of company at the home, but she is looked after by her maid, Teresa (Lilla Brignone), and her deaf handyman Martino (Franco Pesce). When a man named Peter (Lou Castel) has car problems nearby, he comes to the home for help. The attraction between average Joe Peter and the wealthy woman of the house is instant, and they begin a torrid romance that involves a series of kinky sex games. Soon enough, Peter has not only moved into the house but he’s bought his sister Eva (Colette Descombes) along as well. The three of them fall into a whirlwind of kink, substance abuse and swanky outfits but Kathryn’s fur gets up when she discovers Peter and Eva in bed together, without having had the courtesy to ask her to join in. Before you know it, Peter and Eva are coercing Kathryn to do away with the hired help, plying her with drugs and unleashing a torrent of strange mental and emotionally abusive mind games against her, clearly intending to swindle as much of her fortune from her as they possibly can, and with plenty of photograph of their collective escapades to use as blackmail should she decide she doesn’t want to go along with this.Released here in Lenzi’s ‘director’s cut’ version, Orgamso is a pretty twisted psychosexual thriller with some interesting twists, some excellent cinematography from Guglielmo Mancori and a rousing score from Piero Umiliani. It’s a pretty lurid film, but executed well enough that the more sensationalist aspects of its narrative don’t necessarily overshadow the plot itself. The narrative here is pretty strong, the script with Lenzi co-wrote with Ugo Moretti and Marie Claire Solleville proving more than capable of holding the audience’s attention, liberally dosed with enough kink and suspense to keep us interested for the direction of the film.Baker, the top draw in the film, is very good here. She’s more than capable of carrying the film, her good looks and screen presence certainly an asset to Lenzi’s picture. Lou Castel and Colette Descombes are also strong here, and if we know they’re up to no good before we probably should, they’re quite fun to watch. Tino Carraro, Franco Pesce and Lilla Brignone do just fine in their respective supporting roles.So Sweet… So Perverse:This second Lenzi/Baker collaboration from 1969 is essentially a remake of Diabolique. The story is set in Paris where we meet Jean (Jean-Louis Trintignant), a wealthy businessman and man about town. He’s married to the lovely Danielle (Erika Blanc) but their marriage is no great shakes, the spark seemingly gone out some time ago. When a woman named Nicole (Carroll Baker) moves into the apartment above their own, it isn’t long before Jean is intrigued and once he’s become intrigued, he and Nicole begin carrying on an affair. Nicole, however, is quite troubled, sure that a man named Klaus (Horst Frank) is out to get her.Jean soon learns that Klaus’ real reason for hanging about is to assassinate him, and it sure seems like Nicole is being used as bait to make that happen. Armed with this knowledge, Jean and Nicole take it upon themselves to try and figure out who it is that could possibly want Jean dead and why, but of course, there are a few interesting twists and turns to unravel once they start heading down that path.Set to a fantastic score by Riz Ortolani (complete with an original vocal number) and once again beautifully shot by Guglielmo Mancori, more seasoned genre fans might figure out where this one is headed before the movie takes us there, but it’s a fun ride regardless. This isn’t the most suspenseful picture that Lenzi ever made and it plays out more as a standard thriller than a typical giallo might, but it’s good stuff. Produced by Sergio Martino and written by Ernesto Gastaldi, the movie benefits from solid pacing and strong production values. The Parisian locations are beautifully photographed and the sixties fashions (at one point Trintignant sports what looks to be a gold corduroy suit and an ascot!) and furnishings make for a film that really is just loaded up with wild color schemes and beautifully garish backdrops – perfect for a thriller like this to play off of.Lenzi makes good use of a great cast. Jean-Louis Trintignant is dashing and charismatic, a great leading man looking every bit the part. He has good chemistry with the lovely Carroll Baker, who is also very good in her role here, relaying, initially at least, Nicole’s fear quite effectively. Erika Blanc has been better in other movies but she’s more than solid in her turn as Trintignant’s somewhat put upon wife, doing an impressive job of conveying some believable emotion once she finds out what’s happening. Supporting work from Helga Liné is appreciated and hey, check out Beryl Cunningham in a small role as a wonky black stripper at a high society party.A Quiet Place To Kill:Baker’s third collaboration with Lenzi, also known as Paranoia (but which shouldn’t be confused with Orgasmo, which is also known as Paranoia!), the blonde bombshell plays a flashy race car driver named Helen. When she gets into an accident, her car bursting into flames, her ex-husband Maurice Sauvage (Jean Sorel) reaches out to her and invites her to come to his remote villa on the coast of Spain to recuperate.Helen accepts the offer, the fact that she once tried to kill him before they split not really seeming to play into her decision at all. Upon her arrival meets Maurice’s current wife, ultra-wealthy Constance (Anna Proclemer), who wastes no time in offering Helen a big stack of cold, hard cash if she’ll kill Maurice, who just can’t seem to keep his pants on when around other women! In fact, it was Constance who invited Helen here in the first place, not Maurice, knowing full well that her beau isn’t exactly over his curvy ex-wife. Things get… complicated from here on out, with quite a few interesting plot twists, the arrival of Maurice’s daughter Susan (Marina Coffa) back from school at just the right time to get involved in all of those as well as some nosy friends.Shot by Guglielmo Mancori with some help from Aristide Massaccesi (or Joe D’Amato, if you prefer), A Quiet Place To Kill (which we don’t want to confuse with Lezni’s 1971 picture An Ideal Place To Kill!), is plenty entertaining. Not only does it look fantastic and come loaded with style, but it’s reasonably tense towards its conclusion and if offer up some pretty solid acting. Baker is, once again, in fine form and both Jean Sorel and Anna Proclemer are just as good. The three all deliver believable enough work in the film and they all look great doing it.Like the other films in the set, this picture is loaded with colorful and crazy fashions of the day and this lends the film a lot of visual ‘pop’ that makes it easy on the eyes. The seaside settings give things a somewhat exotic vibe, and while this picture never gets as exploitative as a lot of other giallo films do, it works as a more playful example of the genre.Knife Of Ice:In this final film, Baker plays Martha Caldwell, who, as a young girl, saw her parents killed in a train station. Since then, she’s been mute, and periodically has flashbacks to the event. Obviously she is still very much traumatized by what she witnessed in her younger days.We’re introduced to her as she, now an adult, is on her way to live with her Uncle Ralph (Georges Rigaud of Case Of The Bloody Iris and Lizard In A Woman’s Skin) and her cousin Jenny (Ida Galli of The Whip And The Body) in the countryside, where things should be nice and peaceful. Unfortunately, soon after Martha’s arrival, Jenny is found stabbed to death in the garage of the mansion.As it turns out, there is a sex maniac with an affliction for the occult running around the countryside, or at least it seems that way, as another pretty young girl turns up dead shortly after. The police think that Martha might be next on the killer’s list, but once they arrest the English hippy that they though was guilty, they realize the mistake they’ve made. Clearly, the murders haven’t stopped and Martha is obviously more involved than she or anyone else could have possibly imagined.With this picture, Lenzi certainly crafts a slick and classy giallo that scores high points for its excellent visuals and lush style. Still, this picture ultimately fails to deliver much in the way of shocks, suspense, or mystery. The cinematography is pretty impressive, with some nice use of shadow through, and it captures some of the unusual locations used in the film very effectively, but the film, outside of that, was strictly a PG rated, mediocre thriller. It’s surprisingly un-sleazy for a giallo. For a genre so often associated with gratuitous sex and violence, Knife Of Ice delivers very little of either, save for some very minor bloodshed in a couple of scenes, and an all too real scene involving an unfortunate bull who ends up on the receiving end of a matador’s sword at a bullfight (those who are understandably upset by actual animal violence have been forewarned). Not to say that a good giallo must require sex and violence to succeed, but seeing as Lenzi is, a lot of the time, associated with these elements makes this worth noting.That said, the film is far from terrible. To her credit, Baker puts in a sympathetic and believable performance as the mute Martha Caldwell, and the supporting cast includes a nice assortment of Euro-Horror regulars who also turn in reasonably good work as well. But without much of a mystery (I personally found this one pretty predictable, story-wise), it may prove her for some go get as into this one as they might hope, no matter how good it looks and despite the decent acting.However, in regards to the subtitles, this set suffers from a very strange issue where if you change the audio or subtitles during playback by hitting the ‘audio’ or ‘subtitle’ button on your remote, the settings selected will automatically change when the disc hits the next chapter stop. You can get around this by using the ‘pop up’ menu button on your remote and making the selection from there. Additionally, if you select your options from the main menu before playing the feature, you’ll avoid this problem. This shouldn’t have happened, but at least there’s a workaround.Extras are spread out across the four discs. Here’s what each of the Blu-rays in this set contains, as far as supplemental material is concerned.Orgasmo:Extras start off with a new audio commentary with film critic, author and academic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas that opens with details about the music used in the film and its main theme song, comparisons between the cinema of Lenzi and Argento and the wave of giallo pictures that came before and after the success of The Bird With The Crystal Plumage. She also offers up info on how Baker and Lenzi came to work together on this picture and the importance of Baker's presence in the film, the presence of J&B in the film, some of the themes that the picture exploits and more.Severin has also included the X-rated director’s cut of the film, running 1:30:58 versus the feature version at 1:37:00 that uses the Paranoia alternate title card. It’s presented in AVC encoded 1080p high definition and framed at 2.35.1 widescreen with English language 24-bit DTS-HD 2.0 Mono audio and optional English subtitles.The director’s cut comes with a new audio commentary with Mondo-Digital’s Nathaniel Thompson and author Troy Howarth that discusses the alternate titles for the film, the 'wonky' distribution history of the movie, the differences between the regular cut and the 'X-rated' version (which is not a pornographic cut) and the history of X-rated movies that are not, in fact, adult pictures. They talk about the themes and elements in the film that likely earned this picture the X, the history of the distribution company that handled this one, the film's release history on home video, the quality of the cinematography in the film and Lenzi's abilities to really milk what he had to work with, what works and what doesn't in this picture, comparisons to Five Dolls For An August Moon, details on Baker's career and how she wound up in Italy for a stretch, the use of music in the film, the way that hippies are depicted in giallo films and more.As far as featurettes go, Giallo Fever is an interview with director Umberto Lenzi that runs for eleven-minutes and lets the director discuss writing the original script and revisions that it went through, teaming up with Baker for the film, casting Lou Castel, other actors that appeared in the movie and what they brought to the film, the huge success of the film and its effects on his career, how the film was received theatrically, the American release of the film and how Baker has trouble remembering which film is which when it comes to the movies that she made with him! He also goes on to talk about a few of the projects he was involved with after this one, like Violent Naples and Almost Human.Rounding out the extra on the disc is a US theatrical trailer (using the Paranoia title), menus and chapter selection.Included inside the Blu-ray case along with the disc is the complete soundtrack for Orgasmo on CD, made up of twenty-two tracks that are listed on a postcard sized insert – a great bonus.So Sweet… So Perverse:The second feature kicks off with an audio commentary with Kat Ellinger which opens with her thoughts on how excited she is to see the picture finally restored on Blu-ray. From there, she covers what she feels are the film's biggest strengths, what makes Lenzi's giallos and work with Baker look as good as they do, the use of color in the film, the 'sublime' casting in the film and details on the principal actors that appear in the picture, the ups and downs of Baker's career, the set design on display in the picture and the use of fashion in the movie, avant garde touches on display in the movie like the party scene and more.Lenzi’s Lenses is a nine-minute ‘backstage chat’ with the director that was shot at The 1999 Nocturno Film Festival and which covers the making of So Sweet... So Perverse, the Parisian locations, his thoughts on whether or not the film was successful, what's missing in the script (which he points out he didn't write himself), how it wound up being a French co-production, influences he took from French cinema, his thoughts on American cinema and some of his favorite American directors, going on to make From Hell To Glory with some American cast members, making connections in the French film industry, and how he was lucky to get theatrical distribution in the United States for some of his films.Equilateral Triangle is a six-minute interview with screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi on Lenzi, covering how they first met and how, at times, Lenzi would be irritable and mistreat people on set, how Lenzi felt that Gastaldi held a grudge against him, Lenzi's work as a novelist once he got out of filmmaking, how the two of them disagreed on the casting of So Sweet... So Perverse and then how he got his own start writing for film, how writing was easy for him and how he creates his stories.Rounding out the extras on the disc are an English language trailer, an Italian language trailer, an alternate opening credits sequence using the Cosi' Dolce... Cosi' Perversa title, menus and chapter selection options. There’s also an Easter Egg on the disc that offers up an eight-minute Italian news clip showing off the actresses arrival in England around the time that The Carpetbaggers was made.So Sweet… So Perverse also comes bundled with a bonus CD that contains the entire soundtrack for the feature and A Quiet Place To Kill as well as a bonus track from Knife Of Ice. Again, a postcard-sized cardboard insert offers up the track listing for the disc.A Quiet Place To Kill:Author and critic Samm Deighan provides an audio commentary for the third film in the set that opens with her covering how she's been a longtime fan of Lenzi and how she feels his work is underappreciated in unjust ways. She talks about his giallo pictures and what makes them interesting and sets them apart, Carroll Baker's move from Hollywood to Italy after her career hit some snags as well as other Americans who made the same move, how Lenzi's giallo pictures become more conventional once the boom years kick in after Argento's success, the importance of proper home video releases to evaluating Lenzi's work, the theme of manipulation in the film, the excellence of Sorel's work here as a 'puffed up playboy,' the use of Spanish crew members on the film and more.Sex And Conspiracy is an interview with Lenzi that runs for eleven-minutes and features the man discussing working with Baker and Sorel, how the film came to be a Spanish co-production, the locations used for the film, element of the plot that he feels really worked well, running into trouble with the police during the shoot and why he was arrested three times, working on pictures in Spain later in his career without running into trouble, the film's success in Italy, working again with Baker for a third time, the themes that the film deals with and the characters that populate the picture.The disc also contains an alternate non-negative credits sequence, a VHS credits sequence using the Paranoia title, an alternate clothed scene, a short extended scene, menus and chapter selection. Another Easter Egg contains a black and white Italian news clip announcing Baker’s arrival in St. Vincent to celebrate the release of the film.Knife Of Ice:Extras on the last disc in the set include Carroll And Umberto’s Final Stab, an interview with Stephen Thrower that runs for twenty-nine-minutes in length. Here, Thrower covers how Lenzi came to the attention of horror films thanks to his cannibal films and how he gets categorized as a horror director for that reason, despite doing better as a director of giallo and Italian cop films. He then details the importance of Lenzi's contributions to the giallo picture early in its boom years, the quality of the four films that he made with Baker and how with these films he came into his own as a stylist, how Baker's career nosedived after Harlow flopped leading to her move to Italy, how so many of the giallo pictures were written by the same people, the effectiveness of some of the twists in Knife Of Ice, the release history of the film and its box office and where Lenzi's career went after this picture.A second interview, entitled Until The Silence Screams, sits with Lenzi for just short of nineteen-minutes and which goes over making his fourth giallo picture with Baker based on the success of the first three, shooting in Mallorca, trying to do something different with the plot of the film and taking influence from The Spiral Staircase, the plot points of Knife Of Ice, working with Eveyln Stewert as well as Baker in the film, how he feels Baker really was incredible in the picture, having to create a decent atmosphere on a low budget, how the lack of sex and violence probably hurt the film's box office, the influence of the Manson murders on the picture, working with the cast and crew on the film and more.Special mention should also be made of the packaging for this release. The four discs are housed inside a slick and sturdy cardboard box that opens up from the top. Removing the lid allows access to the discs inside.

Ive been waiting 30 years for a good clear video or DVD of Paranoia Starring the Great Carroll Baker.Now I finally found this by mistake but so glad I was able to get this DVD set and worth the money,in Fact I may get an extra one just to make sure I always have this set.All the movies are great quality ,nicely packed and a must for the Carroll Baker fan.

I just finished all 4 movies in this incredible box set. Having never even HEARD of Lenzi or Baker previously, I had no idea what to expect, but depraved sexuality, shocking plot twists, and beautiful cinematography in exotic European locations hooked me. A Quiet Place to Kill might have a slight edge, but all 4 are really consistently entertaining. I'm a sucker for Hitchcock and 70's/early 80's DePalma and these are almost a bridge between the two. Ok, more DePalma than Hitchcock, but still... Highly recommended!

This box set, comprising the films Orgasmo, So Sweet… So Perverse, A Quiet Place to Kill, and Knife of Ice, is a crucial missing link in the history of the giallo. For those who know only the post-Argento movies of the 70s, this is the ultimate breath of fresh air, and essential viewing for anyone seriously interested in Euro-cult cinema. Fans have long questioned why these key films in both the evolution of the giallo, and the career of Umberto Lenzi, remained so difficult to source in quality, English-friendly prints. Kudos, then, to Severin, for lavishing a great deal of care and attention on this box set comprising four movies on blu ray, two soundtrack CDs, and a host of extras. To explain, the giallo evolved greatly over the years. From its origins in the early 60s at the hands of, arguably, the one true genius of the movement, Mario Bava, it fell quiet for some time before Umberto Lenzi began this cycle of what may well be the definitive gialli of jet-set sophistication and glamor. Watching the first three of the movies on this set today is to languish in sixties elegance. Despite the low budgets, these films immerse the viewer in an effortlessly chic world where, just beneath the glacial surface, lurks rotten beauty and perverse desires. Unlike the era Dario Argento ushered in a few years later, there are no set-piece mutilations or frenzied brutality on display. Rather a more cerebral, unsettling depravity that deprives the beautiful, the rich and the bored of the satisfaction they seek all the way to their doom. Of the first three, Orgasmo is arguably the best. Released in February 1969, Carroll Baker stars as a wealthy American widow living in Europe, whose boredom and deviant tendencies drive her into dangerous relationships.  The home invasion aspect of this beautifully-shot film is something Lenzi revisits in 1971’s An Ideal Place to Kill (more on that movie below). It’s important to note that Orgasmo was retitled internationally as Paranoia, thus setting the stage for some confusion that still reins today.Next in the cycle is So Sweet… So Perverse, from late 1969. Greatly inspired by Les Diaboliques, a psychological horror movie from 1955, So Sweet continues the themes of wealth and depravity amid sophisticated European splendor.My own personal favorite is the third entry, A Quiet Place to Kill, released in Italy just four months after So Sweet, in February 1970 as Paranoia. Confusing? It can take a while to really wrap your head around all these titles, but it’s worth it, and, some would say, part of the enigma of the giallo’s fascination. But try explaining all this to your friends after a few ounces of J&B… In this third movie, Carroll Baker plays a race-car driver who, following an accident on the track, reconnects (in more ways than one) with her handsome ex-husband, played, in a pitch-perfect piece of casting, by Jean Sorel… She soon also ‘connects’ with Sorel’s sexy new wife, checking one more box on the Lenzi-Baker giallo debauchery list. Cue a trail of lust, deception, full-on kink and ultimately savage violence that mixes into the most exquisite cocktail, as only seen in late-60s-early 70s giallo. Stunning to look at in every frame, a beautiful cast, sordid desires rippling just below the surface… Highly recommended. The fourth film, Knife of Ice, arrived in the much-changed giallo landscape of 1972, and appears here for its first-ever American home video release. The least of the collection, it is still a must-see for anyone who appreciates the dazzling creative chemistry of director Lenzi, and leading lady, Carroll Baker. As a supplement to this collection, I would recommend the recent Mondo Macabro blu ray release of 1971’s An Ideal Place to Kill. Directed by Lenzi, it came close to starring Carroll Baker, until Lenzi decided against featuring the same actress in so many of his films. Which is quite a pity, because she brings so much to his films: grace and elegance, for sure, but also a highly-intelligent approach to her complex characters.Why just the four stars? Or let's say 4.5. These films, watched and appreciated over a few days, merit the full five from a woman like me who adores this kind of cinema. However, I cut one star from this review based on the somewhat irritating experience of listening to the academic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas spoil what had been such an engaging and insightful commentary for the US version of Orgasmo, with a series of idiotic “jokes” about Lenzi’s attraction to Carroll Baker’s “bum” (she’s Australian). Early in the film she quotes from a fascinating Lenzi interview, where he enthuses over Carroll Baker’s professionalism and abilities, ending with the words (paraphrasing) “And, she’s got a great bum.” From here, Ms. Heller-Nicholas returns to this remark over and over and over, to such an extent that it becomes cringe-worthy and embarrassing. (Again, paraphrasing slightly for Heller-Nicholas): “I wonder if Lenzi thought that toad had a great bum…?... I bet Lenzi had a great arse…” For God's sake... Shortly after this point, with minutes left of her audio commentary, I turned it off. Enough already!Look, I get it: as a woman, I do find elements of these films a little sexist. But, God, do I still love them! Gialli and poliziotteschi undoubtedly contain titillating amounts of female (and, admittedly, occasionally male) nudity; and as fine directors such as Sergio Martino have since said, it helped sell the films to distributors and hence get them made. So I can live with the fact. It barely annoys me at this point. And if Lenzi was attracted to the derriere of Carroll Baker, and in his typically impish manner decided years later to share this fact with an interviewer, I don’t really care that much. That Alexandra Heller-Nicholas purports to be such a devotee of the giallo, and huge admirer of Lenzi’s prodigious talents acrosslate-60s and 70s Italian cinema, then she has a most odd way of showing it. First, dredge up a sexist throwaway comment, then beat him over the head with it. Not once, not twice, but again and again across her commentary. It’s as though her response to actually enjoying these type of movies – films that would not be universally accepted during these rather uptight, PC times – is followed by an urge to humiliate the man who made them. I know plenty of women who would find these films a little too much: they would object to the amount of female flesh; they would strongly object to the occasional slap of a woman’s face seen in gialli and Eurocrime cinema; and, boy, would they object to the general level of violence and murder that female characters suffer in this kind of cinema. But, I also know quite a few who marvel at their style, their imagination, and their visual flair, and ignore these more questionable aspects. Or as Alexandra Heller-Nicholas puts it at one point in this audio commentary, she loves these movies for their “sleaze”… While I certainly wouldn’t go that far, and find it a bizarre admission from her after devoting so much attention to the director’s penchant for the leading lady’s bottom, I’m at least not conflicted in my appreciation of them. Kat Ellinger, the British film historian, provides a far more rounded, mature, and much less idiosyncratic commentary on So Sweet… So Perverse, and the Severin release of The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh, and would in retrospect have been a considerably better choice here on Orgasmo.

This is the best giallo boxset ever. Every film has great picture quality and sound. Great extras and the soundtracks were also wonderful. Possibly the best $82 i ever spent.

This is an amazing set, the movies look beautiful and it comes it a heavy box that looks cool

Essential early giallo collection. These films have previously been notoriously unavailable and confusingly titled making it frustrating to explore. Severin have done giallo fans a great service by releasing this amazing collection. I just finished each disc and listened to each of the excellent commentaries and supplements. A great set with beautifully designed packaging. A treasure.

Si vous êtes un maniaque de giallo, ce coffret est impératif.

I won't be going into any great detail about this Blu-ray box set featuring the fabulous Carroll Baker-her voice alone is a one off and marvellous to listen to-but needless to say I am simply going to say this is one fantastic purchase and one I have been waiting for for absolutely YEARS to come out in some sort of restored version!Well-This set ticks all my boxes-the packaging alone is a stand out-very sturdy and houses the 4 Blu-ray discs very neatly indeed.The artwork on the Blu-ray covers are similar to the old style Italian retro film posters if I am not mistaken and are a lovely addition to the quality of the purchase,too.As I have already mentioned I won't be doing a particularly in depth review-for that please look at fellow Reviewer Jayne Richardson's wonderfully in-depth take on this set plus her critique of the discs themselves which are a treat to read..no,this review is simply to try and persuade you to purchase this exceptional box-set before it runs out for if you are a fan of Carroll Baker-as I am -it is a definite must-have purchase,and a delight to add to your collection!I suppose if I wanted to be negative the only thing I would say is it is disappointing not to have amongst all the other excellent commentaries on the discs,is not having Carroll Baker herself commenting on these fabulous movies! I guess you can't have it all but that would have definitely been the icing on the cake for me had that been included!!Overall-my highlight purchase of the year so far-10/10.