Second joint Giallo by Carroll Baker and genre master Umberto Lenzi
In this wonderfully filmed giallo from 1969, originally called "Cosi dolce...cosi perversa", Hollywood star Carroll Baker can be seen for the second time in a film by Umberto Lenzi after "Orgasmo" (1968). Two more collaborations ("Paranoia" (1970) and "Knife of Ice" (1972)) were to follow. Wolf C. Hartwig's Rapid Film, which produced numerous German adventure films with Brad Harris in the 1960s, also co-produced. This is probably how Horst Frank was cast.
The great Carroll Baker (born 1931) felt a certain downturn in her career in the mid-1960s after her great Hollywood successes ("Giants" (1956), "How the West was won" (1962)). What did this fantastic woman do then? She went to the Cannes Film Festival in 1965 uninvited (i.e. At her own expense), got to know European film producers and ultimately became a busy CinecittaDiva. Her collaboration with Umberto Lenzi resulted in four outstanding gialli, which are not always logically rigorous, but are among the most elegant and sleazy that the genre has to offer. If only Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962) had done the same after she was fired from 20th Century Fox in 1962! What kind of films could an MM have made in Bella Italia!
About the plot: Jean Reynaud (Jean Louis Trintignant) is a bored but immensely wealthy industrialist. His marriage to Danielle (Erika Blanc) has become stale, and his insatiable lover Helena (Helga Line), who is also married to his business partner, is slowly becoming a nuisance to him. Even the sight of an attractive stripper (Beryl Cunningham) cannot shake him out of his lethargy. A beautiful American woman named Nicole (Carroll Baker) moves into the apartment above him. As if electrified, he rushes to the aid of the enchanting beauty when she once again has problems with her violent husband Klaus (Horst Frank / whoever isn't thinking of Kinski...). A hot affair follows...Of course, what happens next shouldn't be revealed because of the tension.
Of course, Umberto Lenzi makes extensive use of film history. Alfred Hitchcock (Two Strangers on a Train) and Henri Georges Clouzot (Les diaboliques / (The Devilish Ones) send their regards. But it's all incredibly elegantly staged, but still has a wonderfully dirty aftertaste and is great acting cinema. Carroll Baker is particularly convincing and enthusiastic.
This film, which is hardly known in German-speaking countries, is definitely worth seeing for all fans of Italian genre cinema!
In this wonderfully filmed giallo from 1969, originally called "Cosi dolce...cosi perversa", Hollywood star Carroll Baker can be seen for the second time in a film by Umberto Lenzi after "Orgasmo" (1968). Two more collaborations ("Paranoia" (1970) and "Knife of Ice" (1972)) were to follow. Wolf C. Hartwig's Rapid Film, which produced numerous German adventure films with Brad Harris in the 1960s, also co-produced. This is probably how Horst Frank was cast.
The great Carroll Baker (born 1931) felt a certain downturn in her career in the mid-1960s after her great Hollywood successes ("Giants" (1956), "How the West was won" (1962)). What did this fantastic woman do then? She went to the Cannes Film Festival in 1965 uninvited (i.e. At her own expense), got to know European film producers and ultimately became a busy CinecittaDiva. Her collaboration with Umberto Lenzi resulted in four outstanding gialli, which are not always logically rigorous, but are among the most elegant and sleazy that the genre has to offer. If only Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962) had done the same after she was fired from 20th Century Fox in 1962! What kind of films could an MM have made in Bella Italia!
About the plot: Jean Reynaud (Jean Louis Trintignant) is a bored but immensely wealthy industrialist. His marriage to Danielle (Erika Blanc) has become stale, and his insatiable lover Helena (Helga Line), who is also married to his business partner, is slowly becoming a nuisance to him. Even the sight of an attractive stripper (Beryl Cunningham) cannot shake him out of his lethargy. A beautiful American woman named Nicole (Carroll Baker) moves into the apartment above him. As if electrified, he rushes to the aid of the enchanting beauty when she once again has problems with her violent husband Klaus (Horst Frank / whoever isn't thinking of Kinski...). A hot affair follows...Of course, what happens next shouldn't be revealed because of the tension.
Of course, Umberto Lenzi makes extensive use of film history. Alfred Hitchcock (Two Strangers on a Train) and Henri Georges Clouzot (Les diaboliques / (The Devilish Ones) send their regards. But it's all incredibly elegantly staged, but still has a wonderfully dirty aftertaste and is great acting cinema. Carroll Baker is particularly convincing and enthusiastic.
This film, which is hardly known in German-speaking countries, is definitely worth seeing for all fans of Italian genre cinema!