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5
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8 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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Delirium
is the one movie in which you'll hear the name
"Herbert" yelled more often than in that "hippies
in space" episode of classic Star Trek.
Bloody Pit Of
Horror's Mickey Hargitay
the Crimson Executioner himself
stars as Dr. Herbert Lyutak, a renowned psychiatrist
who occasionally helps the police with homicide
cases. After the brutal murder of a young woman,
Lyutak is called in to consult. The two detectives
working the case (who dress as stylishly as those
wild and crazy Festrunk brothers from Saturday
Night Live) believe the dead girl is the latest
victim of a deranged serial killer. They show
Lyutak crime scene photos but he can't really
offer anything helpful. The cops are surprised
when a bartender identifies Lyutak as the last
person seen with the victim alive. His memory
jogged, Lyutak admits that yes, he did meet the
girl at a bar, but she was a total stranger to
whom he only gave a friendly lift in his car.
He dropped her off at a nightclub and never saw
her again. The cops more or less accept his story
as an odd coincidence; other clues seem to point
elsewhere. Besides... Dr. Lyutak is a respected
professional, a friend of the police. No way he
could be a psycho killer, right?
Wrong.
The good doctor is lying. As we know from the
opening minutes of Delirium,
Lyutak picked the girl up at the bar and then
drove her to a secluded spot, stripping her naked
and beating her to death. He's totally bonkers,
a sicko who gets his kicks from torturing and
killing women. He can't rape his victims because
he's impotent. The movie posits that this sexual
frustration is the root cause of his murderous
rages. (Sorry, Doc, Viagra is still a quarter
century away!) Lyutak's bizarre, dysfunctional
relationship with his sexy wife Marzia (Rita Calderoni)
also contributes to his madness. She's totally
devoted to him, allowing him to indulge in weird
S&M
sex games with her and hiding evidence that could
implicate him in the murders. But Marzia has some
"issues" of her own. As Herbert is incapable
of satisfying her own carnal cravings, she's turned
to the household maid and even her shapely niece
(Christa Barrymore) for comfort. She has hallucinogenic
fantasies of a lesbian sex orgy with the two women,
writhing in ecstasy on the floor of a dungeon
as a chained-up Herbert looks on in frustrated
torment. Ozzy and Harriet this ain't.
Later, as the police focus
their investigation on a suspicious-acting parking
lot attendant, more women are slain by the killer.
Only this time there's no way the Doc could be
responsible
he has an ironclad alibi. So now there's a second
killer on the loose. Lyutak seizes the opportunity
to divert any lingering suspicion away from him
but finds he simply can't control his homicidal
impulses. He sets up his next potential victim,
a pretty, naοve young student, by telling her
he's a professor working on a study of how high
school kids relate to their instructors. But guilt
starts to weigh on him. Will he turn himself in?
What would that do to Marzia? And who is the second
killer? Is this unknown fiend trying to place
the blame for their crimes on him? Just what the
frickin' hell is goin' on here?
Even
after you've seen the movie that last question
is not so easily answered. Delirium
is very aptly named. It's a ridiculous, confusing
mess; red herrings and nonsensical plot twists
abound to the point of absurdity. (Hey! Wasn't
that guy killed 10 minutes ago? And who's the
blonde chick supposed to be again?) While
logic and tight plotting have never been strong
points of the giallo, Delirium
is a runaway train that jumps the tracks very
early on and just keeps plowing forward, totally
out of control. The editing is often deliberately
chaotic
"whip" cuts (as in the old Man From UNCLE
television show) are used to transition between
actors in the same scene, rather than as
a bridge between different scenes. Acting
by the principals is way, way over the top. All
this yelling, pleading, screaming and mugging
would be contemptible were it not made hysterically
funny (unintentionally so, that is) by some of
the most ludicrous dialog ever heard in a Eurothriller...
I'm talking El Santo-level scriptwriting. Ironically,
the original Italian language dialog is even goofier
than the dubbed English version! ("You are
a hyena
HYENAAAAAAAAAA!!!") And it's more
than a little obvious that director Polselli is
a "leg" and "thigh" man, if
you know what I mean. 
Basically, this was
my very first giallo to fall within the "So Bad
It's Good" realm of guilty pleasures. It's not
a total dog by any means
the murder sequences are actually quite well handled,
composer Gianfranco Reverberi's score has its
groovy moments, and there's plenty of attractive
female flesh on display
but the avalanche of overwrought, apoplectic histrionics
render it a comedy instead of a thriller. Delirium's
sleazy, misogynistic edge is totally blunted by
its unintended goofiness. I should probably despise
the film, but I just can't. In more than a few
instances it had me laughing.
Like a hyena.
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Given
the film's obscurity, Anchor Bay is to be commended
for its release of Delirium
on DVD. Both the uncut, full-length Italian print
(reviewed above) and the substantially altered,
heavily edited U.S. version are included on the
disc. Unfortunately there's no trailer for either
version, but an entertaining documentary on the
making of the film more than compensates. The Italian,
or "international", version (entitled Delirio
Caldo according to the poster art on the Chapter
Listing card) runs some 20 minutes longer than the
American cut. The mono audio track is in Italian,
with easy to read English subtitles that default
to 'ON'; no real problems to report sound-wise.
Picture quality is generally quite good, with strong
colors and negligible print damage. Some of the
night scenes appear too dark
particularly the opening murder sequence
but this is likely symptomatic of the original print
and not the authoring of the DVD. (It is a low budget
flick, after all.)
As for the dubbed American
version, I found it fascinating to compare it with
the original edit. Just what was thought would appeal
to American audiences as opposed to European ones
is rather illuminating. A ridiculous wraparound
is tacked on to the story, showing Lyutak being
wounded in combat in Vietnam. This head injury and
the trauma of war are used to explain his psychotic
obsessions, providing an excuse to throw in Vietnam
flashback footage every now and then. A sizable
chunk of the S&M
shenanigans are trimmed; for example, the bullwhipping
of the woman in the bathtub is much shorter. Apparently
it was thought Americans would be turned off by
this sexual, albeit nonfatal, violence. This
is quite interesting considering that the U.S. version
actually has a higher body count, featuring
more onscreen murders! A teenage girl who isn't
harmed in the Italian version gets strangled to
death by Lyutak, while an entirely new character
yet another teenage girl
is brutally suffocated with a plastic bag, a killing
that (while not really graphic) is bloodier than
anything in the Italian cut. The sex and nudity
is toned down, though ironically there's footage
of Hargitay fondling Calderoni's naked breasts that's
not in the Italian version. (Basically, the formula
used for the U.S. version of Delirium
is Less Kink + More Tits + More Murder.) There are
other changes as well... Parts of the score are
replaced with decidedly inferior music; the ending
of the film is completely different
a total cop-out. As goofy as it is, the original
Italian edit shines in comparison overall. (This
superiority isn't limited to content, either. Visual
quality of the U.S. print
obviously a compilation job on Anchor Bay's part
ranges from grainy to fuzzy at times. Still, nice
to have it included on the disc.)
In addition to the different
versions of the movie, the DVD also features a 14-minute
documentary, The Theorem of Delirium. 30
years on, director Polselli and star Hargitay provide
their recollections of the film. Cleverly edited
with tongue in cheek flair, the doc is amusing and
quite enjoyable.
7/31/02 |
| UPDATE
On April 29, 2008 Blue Underground is reissuing
this title using the identical transfer and extras. |
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