Umberto Lenzi, come on down! We're looking for you to shock us, to titillate us, to maybe even thrill us a bit. Oh, you're brought Carroll Baker with you! Please! Show us what tale you've crafted!

Kathryn West (Baker) is a glamorous American widow who has come to Italy weeks after the death of her older wealthy husband. She movies into a huge villa but her life is lonely and boring until Peter shows up. His free spirited ways shake her loose and he soon moves in his sister, Eva. But things aren't what they seem - they aren't brother and sister and the relationship becomes a threesome. But when Kathryn tries to quit them, they keep her prisoner, constantly high on drugs and alcohol as they keep playing the same song over and over until she goes insane and wants to kill herself.

Caroll Baker started off as a Hollywood sex symbol before retreating to Europe where she'd make Baba Yaga, So Sweet... So Perverse and The Sweet Body of Deborah, amongst others. Eventually, she'd move back to America and become a character actress. As for Lenzi, he'd go on to make Eaten Alive, Cannibal Ferox, Nightmare City and more.

If you like twists, if you like more twists, if you like your sex scenes filled with acid drenched visuals, then by all means, it's time for you to savor this one. I found my copy on YouTube, so feel free to search there.

"Orgasmo" (called "Paranoia" in the US) is the first Umberto Lenzi movie that I have ever seen, and also the first Carroll Baker movie that I have ever seen. I can understand how it probably was very shocking when it first came out (and even got an X rating),but it's naturally now quite tame - and from what I've read of Lenzi's other movies, this one sounds like the calmest one of all.

Carroll Baker - looking almost exactly like Elizabeth Montgomery - plays wealthy American widow Kathryn West, who inherits a villa in Italy. While over there, she gets acquainted with young Peter Donovan (Lou Castel) and his sister Eva (Colette Descombes). Sure enough, they turn out not to be what they seem. But some of Carroll Baker's scenes, particularly that one in the shower, are likely to get any teenage boy's hormones going! So, I guess that these shockers from the '60s, '70s and '80s are all about lewdness, but there's nothing wrong with that. This one gives a feeling of swinging London, although it's set in Italy. Pretty neat.

I must be one of the only people on Earth who's seen an Umberto Lenzi movie but hasn't seen "The Passion of the Christ".

Carroll Baker plays a recently-widowed American artist, sick of New York City and recuperating at a plush Italian villa, who invites a hunky young man with car trouble to spend the night in her abode. How Baker, a respected member of the Actors Studio, ended up in a poorly-dubbed, Euro-trash sex opus (originally rated X, and known overseas as "Orgasmo"!) is anybody's guess. This was actually the first in a series of sordid tales Baker would make in Europe with director Umberto Lenzi (followed by "So Sweet... So Perverse", also in 1969, "A Quiet Place to Kill" in 1970--also released as "Paranoia", much to everyone's confusion--and "Knife of Ice" in 1972). It's a hedonistic, kinky affair with an unpleasant twist ending, although Baker, looking like a cross between Tuesday Weld and Gena Rowlands, certainly dives into the dirty doings with aplomb. ** from ****