Orgasmo (1969)

... aka: Dejlig enke i farlig trekant (Lovely Widow in a Dangerous Triangle)

... aka: Erotisch waanzinnig (Erotically Insane)

... aka: O Louco Desejo (The Crazy Desire)

... aka: Paranoia

... aka: Sadismo

... aka: Une folle envie d'aimer (A Mad Desire to Love)

Directed by:

Umberto Lenzi

Sick of playing the Hollywood game, her limiting contracts at both Warner Bros. And Paramount (she ended up being fired by and essentially blacklisted from both) and having a hard time finding acting work after several high-profile flops, actress Carroll Baker divorced her husband, took her kids and moved to Rome for a ten year period in the late 60s. After appearing in the forgotten comedy Her Harem (1967), she starred in the film would go on to define her entire stint in Italian cinema: Romolo Guerrieri's giallo THE SWEET BODY OF DEBORAH (1968). Thanks primarily to some coy nude scenes from its star, Deborah became a box office hit in Europe and the actress went on to headline many similar thrillers, mysteries and horror flicks over the next eight or so years, most of which tried to capitalize on the promise of Baker nude scenes. Many of these, particularly the earlier ones, were considered very racy for the time but are tame by today's standards.

Orgasmo (released in the U. S. as Paranoia and noteworthy as one of the first films to get the then-new U.S. X-rating) was Baker's second giallo and third Italian film. It also marked the first of four films Baker did with director Umberto Lenzi. The two followed with So Sweet... So Perverse (1969), A Quiet Place to Kill (1970) and Knife of Ice (1972). Once giallo fell out of favor in the mid 70s, Baker did a couple of sex comedies and then returned to the States. Her first film back was the incredibly tasteless black comedy Bad (1977), an indie for producer Andy Warhol, where she gave one of her finest performances yet. The film managed to renew interest in her and a few years later she was working for top studios like Disney and Warner again.

Baker's role here, which has some interesting and probably not coincidental parallels to her real life, is scandal-plagued widow / celebrity Kathryn West. Kathryn flees to Italy from New York City after Robert, her much-older, obscenely wealthy hubby, unexpectedly died in a car crash. Robert owned two petroleum companies, four television stations, a chain of department stores, real estate and other assets that are all currently in the process of being liquidated and sold off. But all the money in the world couldn't buy love and affection and that's what the relationship was sorely lacking. In other words, while Kathryn may miss him... she doesn't miss him that much. And she definitely doesn't miss his family, who aren't too thrilled that she's planning on selling most of his properties and businesses, which they feel should stay in their family; hence why she was so eager to get out of New York and never plans to return.

Kathryn is greeted by a mob of reporters at the airport, but she's soon whisked away by her lawyer Brian Sanders (Tino Carraro) to the Italian countryside. A beautiful, luxurious and, she hopes, tranquil villa awaits. Kathryn is so dead set on peace and quiet to work on her paintings that she insists on as little noise and commotion as possible, which includes removing all television sets from the home. Due to the stress, she's taken to chain smoking, popping pills and guzzling as much J&B Scotch and wine as she can get her pretty little manicured hands on.

The quiet doesn't last for too long. A confident and very brash young man, Peter Donovan (Lou Castel), shows up one day obnoxiously honking his horn and looking for a place to fix his vehicle. Finding herself attracted to him, Kathryn lets him in and he's soon joining her for a hilarious "steamy" shower romp which wouldn't be funny except for the fact someone from off-screen is going crazy pumping comic amounts of smoke on both of the actors as they're pawing at each other. Trying not to draw attention to their secret affair, and not wanting the moody housekeeper Teresa (Lilla Brignone) to find out what they're up to, Kathryn sneaks Peter out of the villa following every encounter. After all, it probably wouldn't look too seemly for a new widow to be getting her oyster shucked by a young man just a few weeks after her husband's death, eh?

After returning from London from a disastrous meeting with her late husband's aunts, Kathryn wants to pick up where she left off with Peter. At first he refuses her offers of money, but she soon finds herself paying three months of his back rent. When she invites him to stay at her villa for a week, he invites his hereto unmentioned sister Eva (Colette Descombes) over. The short-haired Eva appears to be a free spirited and gentle "make love, not war" type and doesn't hesitate to express her extremely high opinion of Kathryn. And, while flattery may not get you everything, it at least helps get your foot in the front door. Kathryn is soon enjoying the youth culture and partying hard; hitting up discos, drinking even more than she usually does, taking new pills, trying on terrible wigs, engaging in kinky sex (did I mention that Peter and Eva are only stepsiblings?) and sleeping in until four in the afternoon.

Kathryn's life soon starts spiraling out of control. Someone appears to be sneaking into her home late at night, turning showers on, opening windows and doors and moving her self portrait. Eva starts slipping her drugs and Peter fires Teresa and mute handyman Martino (Franco Pesce) and then starts slapping her around. Eventually Kathryn has enough of their "degenerate games" and kicks them out... but they aren't going away so easily and return to take over the home. The twisted duo blackmail her with lezzy photos, keep annoying her by playing the same song over and over again, continue to drug her and ply her with liquor, slap her, beat her with a belt, call her things like "demented drunk" and "filthy bitch," serve her a live frog for dinner and finally plot to kill her.

Even though I've not yet seen all of Baker's European films, this is by far the most entertaining performance I've seen out of her in an Italian film. While she's saddled with plenty of cringe-inducing "naughty" dialogue in the earlier erotic scenes ("Dirty me, dirty me, yes yes yes yes!"; "I want to DEVOUR you!"), she does a decent job when her character later descends into madness. My favorite bit though is when she makes the casual aside "I've had a problem with my liver lately" right before sucking down a pill with some wine.

Though it's admittedly not saying very much, this is also the best giallo I've seen from Lenzi. While not all that impressive visually (there's elegant interior design, garish 60s fashion aplenty and the usual zooms, out of focus and kaleidoscopic shots from the cameraman) it's consistently entertaining, often hilariously (accidentally) campy, sleazy and well-paced, plus you do at least feel invested in what's going on and in the fate of the various characters by the end. Never mind the fact Roger Ebert selected this as the second worst film of 1969, behind only Jess Franco's Succubus! We already know he didn't watch stuff like DRACULA (THE DIRTY OLD MAN), IT'S ALIVE and Scream Baby Scream.

This received pretty spotty home video distribution in the U. S. until recent. At the dawn of the video era, there were cut, pan-n-scan early Beta and VHS releases from NTA and Spotlite Video (both divisions of Republican Pictures) here, plus a VHS from Videoform in the UK. The later DVD-R version from Synergy Entertainment was a cut, full frame TV print. A Blu-ray was finally released in 2020 by Severin Films.

★★1/2

Embrujada (1969)

... aka: Bewitched

Directed by:

Armando Bo

Voluptuous Latin American bombshell Isabel Sarli, who started out as a model and beauty queen (she was Miss Argentina in 1955 and a Miss Universe semi-finalist later the same year) headlines this little exploitation romp from Argentina. A vision of heaving bosom, soft tummy, wide hips, piled-high black hair and thick fake eyelashes, it's easy to see why she became an in-demand sex film star in South America and also acquired a healthy fan following elsewhere. Sarli was discovered by director Bo in 1956 and immediately cast in a starring role in his Thunder in the Grass (1957), where she instantly made a name for herself by becoming the first actress in Argentine film history to appear fully nude on film. The notoriety of her nude swimming scene was such that it turned the otherwise unexceptional drama into a record-setting box office smash in much of South America. Many other controversial and then-critically-panned sexploitation films featuring ample nudity from the star would follow, with the duo perhaps hitting their peak in 1968 with Fuego, which was so racy it became the first film to be banned in its home country.

Many of Sarli's films were also popular in North America and throughout Europe and she reputedly turned down offers to work with major studios just to keep making these low-budget sex flicks with Bo, whom she was romantically involved with for decades. The duo kept on going until his death in 1981, with Sarli (then in her early 50s) deciding to throw in the towel at the same time. Before passing away in 2019 at the age of 89, she was at least able to see the cultural impact of her films and was even awarded the title of "Ambassador of Popular Culture" by Argentinian president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in 2012.

Unhappy trophy wife Ansise (Sarli), who'd been plucked from her Guarani Indian tribe and "cultured" years earlier, is desperate to have a child. And not just any kind of child will suffice. For some reason that's never explained (Nazi fetish?) she's fixated on having one with blonde hair and blue eyes. That proves an impossible task as she's married to wealthy, much-older lumberyard owner Leandro (Daniel de Alvarado) who may shower her with money, attention and gifts but hasn't yet been able to shower her with a pregnancy. Consults with an old psychic woman and a doctor both confirm her suspicions that it's likely her husband who's infertile (or, "useless" as they deem him), not her. The problem is then compounded when pressure put on the old chap to perform makes him unable to get an erection.

Leandro starts taking his frustrations out on his work crew and has his whip-wielding right hand thug Peralta (Miguel A. Olmos) tie up and lash an under-performer. This kind of brutality only further alienates Ansise, who starts to actively despise ("You are the scum of civilization!") her husband. For revenge, she runs off to a whorehouse and is hired by the madam after agreeing to service thirty to forty men a day during her 8 hour shifts. She doesn't even ask to get paid. She merely wants somebody - anybody - to knock her up. But Leandro gets wind about what she's doing and goes to retrieve her before she can even finish with her very first client. She's brought back home and becomes even wilder.

Leandro hires a young blonde man named Juan (Victor Bo, the director's real-life son) and, almost immediately, he and Ansise are hooking up, taking nude swims together under a waterfall and plotting to run away together. Ansise begins flaunting her infidelities in her husband's face to the point where he attempts to strangle her. After another of Ansise's patented nude swims, she lies down in a field and has visions of Indian rituals as lightning flashes. A horned, clawed, hairy demon then crawls on top of her and rapes her before disappearing. Or does it? Seeing how Ansise was already starting to lose her mind over the whole baby thing, we're not quite sure. Either way, local legend has it that a demon called Pombero is known to lurk in the area...

Ansise is haunted by visions of the demon, accompanied by psychedelic color flashes and a whistling sound as it proceeds to grope her, terrorize her and (seemingly) possess her body. Desperation finally leads her to the backwoods shack of dirty hermit Jacinto (C. Adolpho Chadler). She pleads for him to impregnate her but the demon chops him with a machete before he can. More murders follow. We're also provided with an explanation for why Leandro can't get it up for his sexy young wife. It ends up having nothing to do with his age and everything to do with him screwing his male assistant (!) instead... but only if he wears lipstick and sprays himself with women's perfume (?!?) beforehand.

As a movie movie, this is cheap, not very well made or shot and has some truly bizarre and off-putting editing choices, with lots of quick cuts and flashes of reused footage we've either already seen or are about to see along with grainy, sepia tinted archive footage from the director's earlier film India (1959) wedged in from time to time. As a horror movie, it has a few fun schlocky moments but it's never very exciting nor very interesting plot-wise. And if you're a feminist you might want to steer clear unless you're looking to laugh at a depiction of a woman with no discernible personality or driving force in her life outside of becoming a brood mare who'll screw any man in sight.

However, as a showcase for the female star's figure this is a resounding success. She has near-nonstop topless scenes, a full frontal nude scene, a few minor sex scenes (one featuring the director in an uncredited cameo as a brothel client) and, during those few times when she isn't naked, is showing maximum cleavage in short dresses or walking around in see-through nightgowns. If you're a fan of large breasted, curvy women, what Sarli brings to the table will certainly bewitch you even if the rest of the film doesn't.

To my knowledge, this Argentinian / Brazilian co-production has never been officially released to home video in any country. The only current outlets who carry it are bootleggers offering a video-sourced print on DVD-R, which comes with English subs and a fucked-up aspect ratio. While most film resources agree that this was made in 1969, they don't always agree on the release year. I've seen some go with 1969 and others claim it didn't make it to theaters until 1976.

★★