''A Quiet Place to Kill'' ( it, Paranoia) is a 1970
''giallo'' film directed by
Umberto Lenzi
Umberto Lenzi (6 August 1931 – 19 October 2017) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and novelist.
A fan of film since young age, Lenzi studied at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia and made his first film in 1958 which went unr ...
.
Plot
Helen, a racecar driver whose personal and professional life is rapidly declining, is invited by her ex-husband Maurice's new wife Constance to stay at their plush estate. The two women form a bond, and it is not long before their mutual dislike for the husband culminates into a plan to kill him. Their plot to murder Maurice on a sailing trip goes awry, and Constance accidentally gets killed instead. Helen and her ex seize the moment and dispose of Constance's corpse at sea, but when the dead woman's daughter Susan arrives, the young lady suspects that they have murdered her mother.
Cast
*
Carroll Baker
Carroll Baker (born May 28, 1931) is an American former actress. After studying under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio, Baker began performing on Broadway in 1954. From there, she was recruited by director Elia Kazan to play the lead in t ...
as Helene
*
Jean Sorel as Maurice Sauvage
*
Luis Dávila as Albert Duchamps
*
Alberto Dalbés
Alberto Dalbés (April 3, 1922 – September 14, 1983) was an Argentine film and television actor. who appeared in Argentinian and Spanish films, including horror films, giallo/ crime dramas (''Night of the Assassins'', ''A Quiet Place To Kill'') ...
as Dr. Harry Webb
* Marina Coffa as Mrs. Susan
*
Anna Proclemer
Anna Proclemer, sometimes credited Anna Vivaldi (30 May 1923 – 25 April 2013), was an Italian stage, film and television actress and voice actress.
Born in Trento, Proclemer was the daughter of an engineer and a housewife. She debuted on stag ...
as Constance Sauvage
* Lisa Halvorsen as Solange
*
Hugo Blanco
*
Jacques Stany
Ancient and noble French family names, Jacques, Jacq, or James are believed to originate from the Middle Ages in the historic northwest Brittany region in France, and have since spread around the world over the centuries. To date, there are over ...
Release
The film was released in Italy on February 20, 1970 under the title ''Paranoia''.
The film was released internationally in 1973 as ''A Quiet Place to Kill'', since Lenzi's previous 1969 film ''
Orgasmo'' (1969) had already been released internationally as ''Paranoia''.
It was released in Spain as ''Una droga llamada Helen'' ( A Drug Named Helen).
Reception
The ''
Monthly Film Bulletin
''The Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 to April 1991, when it merged with '' Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those with ...
'' described the film as "both sluggish and scrappy, with Lenzi bravely throwing up a screen of object-fixated camerawork and fidgety focusing, but not receiving much help from his players."
References
Footnotes
Sources
*
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Quiet Place to Kill
1970 films
1970 crime films
Giallo films
Films directed by Umberto Lenzi
Italian crime films
Spanish crime films
1970s Italian films