Delirium

Renato Roselli's 1972 Giallo is a sleazy affair along the lines of, say, Sergio Martino's TORSO.

Presented in both it's full 105 minute Italian language version and the alternate US version (85 minutes), I chose to watch the 'International' version first.

The movie opens to a cafe jukebox blaring out the funky psychadelic music of composer Gianfranco Reverberi. Dr Herbert Lyutak (Mickey Hargitay) is spotted by the cafe bar attendant lusting after a teenaged girl as she speaks on the telephone to her boyfriend. Lyutak overhears her conversation - she is about to make her way to a local nightclub, but does not have directions - and offers to give her a lift.

During the lift, the girl catches Lyutak ogling her exposed thighs (hey, it's the early 70s! Mini-skirts were trendy!!) and after a brief struggle escapes the car. The good doctor gives chase into the woods, and into a nearby stream. It's here, beneath a small waterfall, that the doctor catches his prey. In a famously controversial scene, Lyutak strangles the girl (whose breasts by now are exposed) with one hand while using his other one to rip her knickers off ...

The bar attendant later identifies Dr Lyutak to the police as giving the girl a lift on the night of her murder. Luckily for him, we learn that not only is the Doc a cool customer and adept at lying, he also enjoys a close working relationship with the police as a psycholgical profiler!

Inspector Edwards (Raoul - yes just the one word in his name) is in charge of the case along with his partner Willy, as we join the story learning that the murdered girl is the 7th victim of a killer notorious for his sleazy strangling/molestation methods. Lyutak has been working on the case also, offering what insight he can into the killer's profile.

A second murder occurs - a girl trapped in a public telephone box while on the 'phone to a newspaper office explaining her predicament. This time, the killer's face is not offered on-screen. But when the cops arrive at the scene, the same MO is offered - and yet Dr Lyutak looks noticeably perturbed.

So, the police set a trap to catch their murderer. Knowing their intentions, the Doctor still can't resist the allure of a pretty young blonde female used as bait in a local park. But as the opportunity to kill again rears it's head, the Doc's urges are interrupted when screams from another woman in the park are heard. The 'killer' has struck again ... but who is predicting the Doctor's murderous desires, and acheiving the kill before he does?!

The film offers a wealth of suspects:

There's the peeping Tom (the nightclub's carpark attendant), who manages to be present at 2 of the most notable early murder scenes.

Then there's Lyutak's wife Marzia (Rita Calderoni) - who's frustrated by her husband's impotence and prone to masochistic dreams of lesbian encounters, and S&M torture at the hands of her husband (no doubt initiated by her discovery of his bloody murder mementos).

Or, what about the maid Lolel? She enjoys watching her employers canoodle while having a fiddle beneath her night-gown.

Lest we forget the pretty blonde neice ...

While the viewer ponders who the killer may be, we are treated to more sleaze as the killer wipes out Ms Heyndrich (the girl the police used as bait in the park) on account of the fact that she stole a vital piece of evidence from the murder scene. Nice and tense, there's a great closure to this episode as the cops visit her appartment and clumsily send Heyndrich's corpse plunging 25ft to the concrete floor!

As the police investigation deepens, so the madness escalates. Marzia enjoys increasingly bizarre dreams - including threesome lesbo depravity, as the Doctor looks on, keen to join in but unable to as he is chained to a wall. (Hmmm, these metaphors are hardly subtle!)

Meanwhile the carpark attendant has his own suspicions about the Doctor, and takes it upon himself to snoop around Lyutak's abode. This is where the plot begins to tighten for the final hour ...

What a bizarre film. Enjoyable in it's general absurd feel, it's rife with the kind of sleaze that's almost exlcusively reserved for this specific era of Euro-cinema: all female murders are complemented by mandate scenes of the victims having their breasts exposed moments before death. And it's precisely scenes as dubious as this that keep the otherwise ponderous plot afloat!

It has to be said that this is a well-made film in many respects. The plot may be confused at times (and the identity of the killer is hardly a revelation), but the camera-work is effective in it's voyeuristic approach, while the final 10 minutes genuinely do approach the feeling of true delirium caught on celluloid. Overall, the film is low on gore but has enough stand alone bad-taste set-pieces to hold most genre fans' attentions!

The US version is dubbed and 15 minutes shorter - but I found it more enjoyable than the International version!

The opening scene now offers violent footage of Vietnam and throws an entirely different spin on the entire plot. Hmmm, so Lyutak is a disturbed Vietnam Vet?! This footage is sourced from a Dutch VHS release and contains unremoveable Dutch subtitles in these scenes. It's not as annoying as it perhaps sounds.

Even the credit sequence is filmed differently and, in my opinion, works better.

Elsewhere you'll find that although this version is shorter not much violence has been edited out (the early sex scene where the Doc abuses his wife has been trimmed slightly but looks more morally suspect!), and if anything it succeeds in feeling even sleazier than the lengthier version. Most scenes are edited differently, and the two versions end up being significantly different - it's not just a case of director's cut vs theatrical cut (a'la ROBOCOP). The Vietnam scenes add a spice of tacky drama to the plot, and the pacing seems generally better. There's also more murders!!!

In fact, although the picture quality of the US version is definitely inferior (though easily watchable) I must say I found it an altogether more satisfying experience than the International release.

Picture quality is great on the lengthier Euro version. Both versions are anamorphic 1.85:1. Sound in both cases is mono and there are no complaints in that department.

Review by Stuart Willis