Orgasmo
Italy, 1969
Director: Umberto Lenzi
Script: Umberto Lenzi, Ugo Moretti, Marie Claire Solleville
Cast: Carroll Baker (Catherine), Lou Castel (Peter Donovan), Colette Descombes (Eva), Tino Carraro (Brian)
Music: Piero Umiliani
Story
The young American widow Catherine, a multi-million dollar heiress, retires to a luxurious villa in Italy after the death of her husband, with a maid and an old gardener. Her lawyer, the mature Brian, helps her settle in. Her late husband’s aunts (who allegedly lost their lives in a car accident) try to get hold of part of the inheritance. One day a certain Peter appears there. His car breaks down and he goes to Catherine’s villa to get help. The two become lovers.
Catherine decides to put him up with her, and shortly after that, Eva, who claims to be Peter’s sister, shows up. Between the two of them, they intend to drive Catherine crazy, slowly drugging her, keeping her prisoner in her own house and blackmailing her, in order to get their fortune…
Commentary
This film was the beginning of a fruitful collaboration between the director Umberto Lenzi and the American actress Carrol Baker, whom he would turn into the muse of several of his proposals in the late sixties and early seventies.
It is debatable whether this can even be considered a giallo (at least for most of the footage). Although officially this is how the film is catalogued. One of the few things that brings the film closer to the canons of the genre is the omnipresence of J&B whiskey bottles.A completely overrated film. Boring, soporific, difficult even to bear without yawning, and which has aged frighteningly badly. No suspense or intrigue anywhere, as interesting as the premise might be. The hedonistic and decadent nature of most of the characters will awaken the antipathies and boredom of the spectator. Neither for the millionaire widow nor for the couple of scoundrels who settle in her house, no empathy is developed, only the purest indifference (if not directly an aversion). For most of the time, the film is weak and very disappointing. Only the final stretch of the film is somehow good, with the surprise moment, and a script twist that must be recognized as very successful and intelligent. Carrol Baker’s performance in her role as Catherine is also remarkable, with her physical and mental decline as the story progresses. In general, it is very inferior to other films by Lenzi that would come later (some of them also starred by Carrol Baker, like “Il coltello di ghiaccio” (“Knife of Ice”), which in my opinion is much more recommendable).
The film was initially titled “Paranoia”, which incites confusion; bearing in mind that the following year another film by Lenzi with Carroll Baker came out, which is called “Paranoia” and has nothing to do with this one.
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