This film is an extremely entertaining psychological thriller with Carrol Baker excellent as a rich American widow getting away from it all at a secluded Italian villa. Enter smart aleck down on his luck playboy, Lou Castel, who has some golddigging motives behind his slick hipster seduction techniques and has no qualms about how he gets what he wants. He encourages Baker's character's incipient alcoholism and dubious self-esteem, brings in his supposed 'sister' to help drag Baker even further into a maze of sick mind games, drug addiction and group sex, all culminating in a descent into near-madness and self-destructive depravity. I won't give away anymore, suffice to say that the film delivers on its swinging sixties, Euro sleaze ambience and psychological suspense thriller credentials in spades. Director Umberto Lenzi's work has been, at best, uneven and he's churned out his share of crap. However, he made some quite good giallos and crime pictures in the sixties and seventies and this is one of them (other good films by Lenzi -- SPASMO, SEVEN BLOODSTAINED ORCHIDS, ASSAULT WITH A DEADLY WEAPON, to name only a few). Unfortunately this film is ofen confused with another okay but not-quite-as-good Lenzi film that was also released briefly here in America under the same PARANOIA title (but is more commonly known, especially on video, as A QUIET PLACE TO KILL).
爱丽丝(艾伦·波斯蒂恩 Ellen Burstyn 饰)是一名全职太太,多年在家相夫教子,过着平静幸福的生活,然而,某日,她的丈夫在一场意外中去世了,带着十一岁的儿子汤米(阿尔弗雷德·卢特三世 Alfred Lutter III 饰),这对母子不得不步入冷酷的社会,开始为两人的未来打拼。 年轻的时候,爱丽丝热爱唱歌,如今,她带着汤米来到了一座小城定居,在酒吧卖唱。某日,爱丽丝遇见了名为本(哈威·凯特尔 Harvey Keitel 饰)的男人,强壮自信的本唤醒了爱丽丝内心压抑已久的感情,就在她以为幸福的生活将要来临之时,却发现自己不过是坠入了另一个噩梦之中,面对接连而来的挫折,爱丽丝还能够坚强的生活下去吗?
身无分文的记者丘克(Kirk Douglas 饰)流落一座新墨西哥州的小城,他舌如巧簧向当地报馆的主编推销自己,宣称自己有制造新闻的天才。波澜不惊的小城生活让曾经供职纽约的丘克倍感无聊。这天,主编令丘克外出采访,丘克于路却意外遭遇一名小镇店主里奥被困山洞。丘克敏感的意识到这件事情背后的新闻价值,他迅速联系州长、工程队与医生。随着丘克的一篇篇报道,观看施救过程的民众陆续赶来,本欲离开的里奥妻子因为看到有利可图而选择留下,并与丘克站到了同一阵营,丘克安排采用费时的营救方式来维持事件的新闻热度。几天内人群不断涌入,营救现场俨然成为游乐场。丘克与纽约的老上司讨价还价之时,洞中的里奥却走到了生命的尽头…… 本片获1952年奥斯卡最佳编剧奖。
Charles Murdock neglects his fat and lazy wife in favor of Juliet Raeburn but, when Juliet's name is involved in murder, he marries Viola and takes her to Paris.