A Quiet Place to Kill | |
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Directed by | Umberto Lenzi |
Screenplay by | |
Story by |
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Starring | |
Music by | Gregorio Garcia Segura |
Cinematography | Guglie Imo Mancori |
Edited by | |
Production
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Release date
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1970 |
Running time
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94 minutes |
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A Quiet Place to Kill (Italian: Paranoia) is a 1970 Italian-Spanish giallo film directed by Umberto Lenzi. The film was released in Italy as Paranoia, but it was released as A Quiet Place to Kill internationally, since Lenzi's earlier 1969 film Orgasmo had been released internationally as Paranoia. The producers of Orgasmo re-hired Lenzi and Baker in an attempt to repeat their success. A song from Orgasmo ("Anytime") even reappears in this film as an in-joke. Ironically the film was only released in the USA in 1973.
The film was released in Spain as Una droga llamada Helen (A Drug Named Helen). Joe D'Amato worked as a cameraman on this film under the name Aristide Massaccesi.
Helen, a race-car driver whose life, both personal and professional, is in a rapid downfall, is invited by her ex-husband's new wife Constance to stay at their plush estate. The two women form a bond, and it's not long before their mutual dislike for the husband culminates into a plan to kill him. Their plan to murder Maurice on a sailing trip goes awry, and Constance is accidentally 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 begins to suspect that her mother has been murdered.
The Monthly Film Bulletin 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."