(aka Delirio caldo, Death at the Villa)
Writer and director: Renato Polselli
Music: Gianfranco Reverberi
Starring: Mickey Hargitay, Rita Calderoni, Tano Cimarosa, Christa Barrymore, William Darni, Raoul, Steffy Steffen, Cristina Perrier, Katia Corsorich
Young girls are being viciously killed and Dr. Herbert Lyutak (Mickey Hargitay) is helping the police track down the savage killer. But little do the police know that Dr. Lyutak has some serious problems of his own in this deranged giallo from director Renato Polselli. Anchor Bay’s release features the longer International version, which is cover here in detail, and an American version which is short and quite different in it’s approach.
After fixatedly gazing at the bare legs of a short skirted girl in a bar, Herbert offers the girl a lift to a club she is meeting friends at. In the car the girl starts to get worried as Herbert constantly gazes to her bare legs in an effort to see where they end, and when she begins to freak out Herbert doesn’t hesitate in forcing his hand up her skirt to find out for sure. When she struggles against Herbert’s advances and demands to be let out the car stops and she gets out and starts running, but Herbert follows her. He catches up with her at a stream and begins to strangle her as he rips her wet clothes from her, then beats her about the head until she is dead.
This latest murder is the 7th girl now found dead and the police are at a loss, but this time they have something of a lead. The owner of the bar saw a man leaving with the latest victim, and the parking lot attendant saw the man drive away with the woman.When Herbert returns home to his wife, Marzia (Rita Calderoni), some time later he claims to go looking for cigarettes, but runs off to find a chest which he unlocks mysteriously. His wife spies on him, and when he leaves to help the police in their investigation she picks the lock where she discovers his blood stained shirt.
At the police station they bring in the owner of the bar and he identifies Herbert as the man leaving with the now dead girl, but the positive identification does not mean the police arrest him, especially since another woman turns up dead while he’s being questioned. But since they like Herbert all suspicion seems to be dropped - he has helped them extensively in the past after all, but not very successfully I’m assuming since they are up to body number eight now.
A call earlier by Herbert to his wife makes us believe the film is going to be over in no time, that the police are really arresting him, but when he returns home we get to climpse the strange relationship Herbert has with his wife, and the household at large. As he’s talking to his wife the maid is outside the door masturbating as she listens to their conversation.
Marzia is plagued by strange, ”erotic” dreams. In the latest dream she is alternating between naked and clothed in a basement with her niece and the maid, all the while Herbert is tormenting and strangling them. When she wakes from the dream Herbert is lying awake watching her. He reaches for her neck and begins to strangle her. She doesn’t fight back, but when he stops himself by fighting his uncontrollable urges he refuses to do that to her, but she tells him he can do anything to her.
It is revealed then why Herbert is the way he is. He is unable to be a ”real” man, and his wife is still a virgin and his problem has obviously driven him to some strange activities, like it would anyone! Herbert is tormented and considers himself a monster, wanting to end his marriage to spare his wife the lack of action. Even though Marzia though knows he’s a killer, but loves him still, and when she resorts to eroticising the strangulation of herself, Herbert loses all control and begins to beat her. In this violent act of passion he seems to find some pleasure but is ultimately unable to perform his manly duty.
After Herbert has calmed himself down he calls the police to tell them he’s conducted his own investigation and the killer will strike in an hour at a swimming pool. The police surround the area. When Herbert arrives and begins to talk to the woman, Miss Heindrich (Katia Corsorich) the police have planted, we are almost assured that Herbert is going to strike again, and right in front of the police! He obviously wants his reign of madness and murder brought to an end. As his hands reach for her throat, there is a scream. A different scantily clad woman is stabbed a short distance away.
Heindrich, the woman who the police used as bait, took the murder weapon from the scene of the crime. She tries to get in contact with Herbert to talk to him about it, but before she can she is killed. Heinrich is drowned in the bathtub and then her body is placed in the window, so when the police find her she falls the several stories to the concrete floor below, the killer wanting it to look like a suicide. The police know she took the knife though, and know her death was no suicide.
The reoccurring character of the parking lot attendant seems to be doing his own investigation. He appeared at the swimming pool, and after Heinrich is drowned he can be seen washing his hands of blood. As he continues to search around he finds a hidden passage to a basement, then gets himself locked inside. Once inside though he witnesses another murder, a woman is unclothed and then injected with morphine and left to die in a room filling with gas. The parking lot attendant manages to break through, but it appears he’s too late. When he find his way out it he ends up in the Doctor’s house, and finds the missing murder weapon. When he calls the police the line is disconnected and he gets trapped in the basement. When Herbert returns home and finds him in the basemen the is none too happy.
Delirium is a strange little giallo. There is a lot going on, and you really need to be paying attention to follow all the little details. Where in a normal giallo there is one murderer and then are relatively simple story line to follow, Delirium maybe tries to be too clever. After all it’s not too hard to guess what is going on, but even with a clue to the killers identity there is still a lot to be explained. Like why isn’t Herbert being tied to at least one of the murders like he should be since witnesses saw him leaving with a now dead woman, and just what is the parking lot attendants role in all this?
The inherent madness that seems to surround the doctor, and the overall texture of the film bares a striking similarity to Emilio Miraglia’s Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave (1971), who’s Alan Cunningham character also has strong masochistic tendencies, but rather than directed at girls in short skirts it is directed towards women of the redheaded persuasion.
It isn’t unusual for a giallo to be lathered with a healthy does of nudity and sexual content but once again Delirium does things a little differently. The camera roams around the bare thighs of the short skirted girls as they are killed in varying fashions by the killer. This could be labelled slightly misogynistic since there is definitely is an eroticism to the scenes, but it seems more in place to link the death to the hands of the doctor who has a sharp eye for some skirt.
The American version of Delirium included on this disc is a very different film. There are a number of Vietnam war insert to make this film more relevant to American audiences, as well as a method of explaining why Herbert is the way he is. There is, of course, less sexual content, but most interestingly there is an additional murder towards to finale of the film and a different ending. The American version is definitely worth examining, but after the longer version of course! This American version of the film includes footage from a Dutch video cassette, so the quality on portions culled from the video source is not as good as the majority of the film, but it’s impressive to have such a complete package for this film.
Overall, Delirium is a lot of fun to watch. There is enough going on too keep the viewer engaged, and if you like your giallo’s on the sexy side this one is a must. Anchor Bay’s release is about to be re-released by Blue Underground on April 29th in their continuing pilfering of AB’s back catalogue, which is a good thing!
Specifications: Widescreen (1.85:1) enhanced for 16×9 TVs; International version in Italian with optional English subtitles.
Extras: International Version (102 minutes), American Version (85 minutes), The Theorem of Delirium - interview with Renato Polselli and Mickey Hargitay.