Delirium

Dr Herbert Lyutak, criminal psychologist, has a problem: He's a compulsive killer. Determined to bring his crimes to an end, he sets himself up to be arrested, telling his police colleagues the time and place he believes the killer will next strike. Unfortunately another killer is at work and Lutyak's attempt to frame himself fails when a murder he couldn't have committed occurs…

This convoluted giallo wallows in sleaze and perversion and is all the better for it. Though released 20 years before Basic Instinct, Delirium outdoes Paul Verhoeven's cause celebre on all counts. Sex, violence, drugs, killer lesbians, psychedelic orgy sequences, some seriously bad clothes and trashy rock. You name it, Delirium has it.

Mickey Hargitay, the Arnold Schwarzenegger of his day, gives an eyeball rolling, totally over the top performance utterly in tune with the material.

Director Renato Polselli, credited under the pseudonym Ralph Brown, throws in the zooms and wacky camera angles with abandon and draws uninhibited performances from his female leads.

They really don't make 'em like this anymore, more's the pity.

Anchor Bay's Region 1 DVD of Delirium presents two alternative versions of the film, the US and international releases.

The US version is shorter, with a running time of 85 minutes. It removes much of the racier content, adds in an extra murder or two, explains Dr Lyutak's illness as the consequence of his experiences in the Vietnam war and neatly presents the events depicted as being just a dream. The international version, presented in Italian, runs 102 minutes and sets the film, somewhat unconvincingly, in London.

Picture quality isn't that great, especially with the Vietnam flashback sequences in the US version, which were sourced from a Danish VHS tape and have the subtitles to prove it. Nevertheless, both versions are watchable and are presented in widescreen, enhanced from 16:9 TVs.

Extras wise, Anchor Bay include a 14 minute documentary by Blue Underground, The Theorem of Delirium containing on-camera interviews with Hargitay and Polselli. Both men remember the film, and each other, with affection. Along the way Polselli quotes Pirandello, thereby demonstrating that, like many a Eurotrash auteur, he's a man of culture, even though his films might suggest otherwise.

Overall, a good value package for those looking for something a little 'out there'