Severin Films seems determined to put out the top tier of home video releases in 2020. In May they released an Al Adamson Collection so comprehensive I think Al himself would have been shocked at the loving treatment he received. Now in July we have gotten the long awaited Complete Lenzi/Baker Giallo Collection! This collection brings together the 4 giallo films that Umberto Lenzi and Carroll Baker collaborated on between 1969 and 1972. Being an obsessed giallo fan, this collection will probably be at the top of our gift guide and best of come December with EASE.
The collection kicks off with 1969’s ORGASMO. In this film Baker plays Kathryn West, a rich widow, who hops a plane to Italy to stay in one of her late husband’s estates. Her life isn’t exciting, but she acts like she prefers it to her life back home in New York. That all changes when she meets young stud Peter Donovan played by Lou Castel, who easily seduces Kathryn, and then moves his “sister” Eva (Colette Descombes) in for drug and drink fueled parties of three. All of a sudden the game begins to change from sex and drugs to Kathryn being kept in the house by the siblings in her home as a prisoner and blackmailed by erotic pictures that the duo has taken of her in compromising positions.
Orgasmo is a crazy ass experience. We watch the rich and arrogant Kathryn West become a fun party-girl and then a tortured shell of a human being over the course of the film. All the while watching the acts of blackmail and torture the siblings inflict upon Kathryn. It’s a harrowing experience at times, with Castel and Descombes playing up their villainous parts, and Baker really relishing both the highs and lows of the West characters.
The 2nd film in the set is also from 1969, and is So Sweet… So Perverse. This film stars the iconic Jean-Louis Trintignant (Trans-Europ Express) as Jean. A rich fella who one day hears abuse of his upstairs neighbor Nicole (Carroll Baker!), and gets involved both in her life, and with her on a sexual level. It turns out however, Nicole’s husband Horst, has been hired to take out Jean, and Nicole was aware of this. Complicating matters is the fact that Nicole is developing feelings for Jean, and the fact that there are other relationship layers between Nicole and Danielle (Erica Blanc, Devil’s Nightmare) Jean’s neglected wife.
You might need a notebook to keep track of the twist and turns in So Sweet… So Perverse, or you could just sit back and joy the twisted, wild, and occasionally black-gloved ride. This is another stylish affair from director Lenzi, that is sure to keep fans glued to their seats as the ever shifting narrative plays out.
The third film in the set is A Quiet Place to Kill (not to be confused with Mondo Macabro’s recent release of Lenzi’s Ideal Place to Kill, though I do have to wonder if the Ideal Place to Kill is just not quiet enough). In this film Helen (Baker is a race car driver (I swear not a Primus reference). She crashes her high end, super new car, and is forced off the circuit, and is given a powdery new drug by her doctor. Being this is giallo world, she decides to ditch the advise, and steal a car, and find her ex-husband Maurice (because the best place to hide is with one’s ex). He does so as the upscale estate Maurice now shares with his current wife Constance (Anne Proclemer). Oddly, they start planning Maurice’s murder, but then things get all sorts of degrees of messed up, and continue to get more messed up from there.
Of all the crazy ass films in this box-set this is the craziest and I unabashedly loved it. There are so many out of control crazy moments, a plot that spiral out of control, a ton of great visuals, and some great over the top design choices that seem suited to the era.
The final film of the set, and the only one I’d seen previously is 1972’s Knife of Ice. I was excited to revisit this film, because the prior version I reviewed was a grey market bootleg edition of the film that came out via MVD in 2010, and it didn’t really do the film any favors on a visual level. At the time I felt the film was slow and kind of clunky, and I was not really a fan. I’ve been wrong on first viewings before, so I was ready to prove myself wrong again.
The film stars Baker as a mute named Martha who as the film opens finds her famed cousin Jenny visiting her. Martha is apparently a mute because of viewing her parents tragic and violent death in a train crash. Jenny is dispatched early on, and the cops immediately blame a Satanic teen (always blame the Satanist, right?). But is he a red herring, or is the killer still on the loose?
Knife of Ice worked better for me this time. I’ll say that. I had hoped I would have enjoyed it more significantly, but I’ll just say I enjoyed it more. It did have a lot of cool gothic atmosphere, but the over the top weirdness of the other films isn’t here, except for maybe the performance of Mario Pardo as the Satanic hippie. Also, Lenzi opens the film with real bullfighting footage. I’m just not cool with animal violence, but it’s easy enough to skip over. It’s still quite watchable, and Baker is great as always, it’s just probably the least film in the set.
All 4 films in the set are given extreme high definition makeovers with 1080p AVC encoded transfers in 2:25:1. Everything here looks fantastic, colors are nicely reproduced and well-detailed. I can say for certain that Knife of Ice looks infinitely better than the DVD counterpart, as for how they compare to one another, the only one that looks slightly difference is Orgasmo which is a bit softer, and I’m going to assume that’s the overly brighter more exterior heavy look of that one. All 4 films have DTS-HD 2.0 tracks in English and Italian that sound fantastic and come through crisp and clear.
Extras include commentary tracks on So Sweet… So Perverse, Orgasmo, and A Quiet Place to Kill that are in depth, informative, and are just essential to listen to. There is also an X-Rated director’s cut of Orgasmo with a commentary by Nathaniel Thompson and Troy Howarth. There is an 11 minute interview with Lenzi and a trailer closing off Orgasmo. So Sweet… So Perverse comes with a 9 minute backstage interview with Lenzi, and a 6 minute interview with screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi. There are also 2 trailers, and alternate opening credits. A Quiet Place to Kill has another interview with Lenzi, some alternate credits, deleted and alternate scenes, and some cool little Easter eggs. Knife of Ice has an excellent 29 minute interview with Stephen Thrower on Lenzi’s career, these films specifically and more. A final 19 minute interview with Lenzi, trailers, alternate credit sequences, and some other odds and ends. Also packed in are 2 CD’s including the soundtrack queues for the included films.
This set is a giallo fans dream come true. If you told me even 10 years ago we would be getting a compilation box set of these films I would have thought that would be crazy. Instead here it is. This is a necessary purchase for all giallo fans. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
The Complete Lenzi/Baker Collection
Director- Umberto Lenzi
Cast- Carroll Baker
Country of Origin: Italy
Writer: Scott MacDonald