Also Known As:
Paroxismus, or Black Angel
Plot:
Drifting across a deserted Turkish beach, American jazz trumpeter James Darren has a lot on his mind, mostly expressed in voiceover form. "I tried not to remember why I buried my horn," he says to himself. "A guy like me without a horn is like, well, a man without words." But trumpet or no, Darren is never short of words for his internal monologue. And when he happens upon the body of a topless corpse, he knows exactly the right thing to say: "She was beautiful, even though she was dead." She also looks familiar, and Darren soon recognizes her as Maria Rohm, whom he spotted while playing trumpet at a wild party thrown by Klaus Kinski. That shindig devolved, as such parties often do, into outbursts of sadomasochism, gang rape, and murder. ("If they wanted to go that route, it was their bag," Darren notes.) Fast-forward to a year later: Darren is in Brazil putting the past behind him with help from Barbara McNair (as a gimmicky singer who performs while flat on the floor). But when Rohm surfaces again, Darren's not sure what to think. Could she really be alive? Or is she a spirit come to exact some kind of sexy, sexy revenge?
Key scenes:
Darren strays from McNair to make love to Rohm on the side (a process that necessitates frequent cutaway shots to creepy 19th-century paintings.) But Rohm has a secret life of her own: When not taking off her clothes for no particular reason, or grooving to some out-there jazz, she finds ways to combine nudity, grooviness, and violence as she tracks down her killers. In the film's final moments, Darren makes a shocking discovery that might blow the minds of more sensitive viewers.
Can easily be distinguished by:
The trippy soundtrack by special guest star Manfred Mann.
Sign that it was made in 1969: It's probably the only film in which a ghoulish killer wears dresses that look like hand-me-downs from Goldie Hawn's Laugh-In wardrobe.
Timeless message:
Ghosts: They're great for scaring people, but as girlfriends... maybe not so great.
Memorable quotes:
"Oh my god... It's me. I'm dead! I've been dead all the time," Darren says, finally finding a reason to quit yapping, shortly before the credits.
Available on DVD from Blue Underground.
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