A Quiet Place to Kill is a 1970 Psychological Thriller film directed by Umberto Lenzi and starring Carroll Baker. It was one of four films Lenzi and Baker made together.
The original title of the film was Paranoia. However, a 1969 film directed by Lenzi and starring Baker, which they had titled Orgasmo, had been re-titled Paranoia for international markets. Accordingly, their 1970 film was renamed for international markets to the Quiet Place title.
Baker plays Helene, a race car driver medically forced to retire from the pursuit after a crash. She receives a telegram offering her the hospitality of a luxurious villa to recuperate.
Initially, she declines, as the telegram claims to be from her ex-husband Maurice, with whom she has a love-hate relationship so volatile that she once tried to shoot him during their marriage. When she reconsiders and comes for a stay at the villa, she’s surprised to learn that the telegram really came from Maurice’s current wife, Constance.
It’s soon clear that Constance’s relationship with Maurice is just as love-hate as Helene’s was (and is). Soon, a conspiracy to commit murder is hatched. But is that the only conspiracy? Which members of the love triangle are setting the trap, and which one is its victim? And when Constance’s estranged daughter shows up unexpectedly, what part will she play in the intrigues?
- Asshole Victim: Every person who dies was guilty of plotting at least one cold-blooded homicide, whether or not they got to carry it out.
- The Perfect Crime: It truly appears that the murder of Helene by Maurice and Susan may be this. The conspirators were able to Make It Look Like an Accident because it actually was, aside from Maurice deliberately startling Helene into driving off the cliff and even to look like they’d tried to prevent that accident.
