凯特(贝蒂·戴维斯 Bette Davis 饰)和帕特里希(贝蒂·戴维斯 Bette Davis 饰)是一对孪生姐妹,拥有一模一样的长相,就连亲生父母都很难分辨出她们究竟谁是谁。一位名叫比尔(格伦·福特 Glenn Ford 饰)的灯塔巡视员出现在了姐妹两人苍白的生命里,她们顿时双双坠入了情网,最终,比尔选择了帕特里希。为了忘记比尔,凯特开始投身于艺术创作之中。 一晃眼几年过去,凯特始终都没能忘记内心的悸动。一天,她和帕特里希出海航行,结果发声了意外,帕特里希被茫茫大海所吞噬。凯特幸运的逃过一劫,捡回了一条命,但她接下来必须将帕特里希的死讯告诉比尔。
迈克尔(连姆·尼森 Liam Neeson 饰)、哈里(艾丹·奎因 Aidan Quinn 饰)和伊曼(艾伦·里克曼 Alan Rickman 饰)是情同手足的好兄弟,他们共同组建了爱尔兰志愿军,其强大的战力和坚定的意志令大英帝国都对他们有着三分的畏惧。 一场演说中,迈克尔邂逅了名为凯蒂(朱莉娅·罗伯茨 Julia Roberts 饰),凯蒂勃发的英姿和巾帼不让须眉的气势深深的吸引了他和哈里,两个男人之间的友谊因此生出了嫌隙。与此同时,伊曼带领着哈里远赴美国,为他们的军队争取更多的支援,当两人回到爱尔兰之后,发现迈克尔已经煽动革命抵达了高潮。英国同意和爱尔兰签订休战协议,认可爱尔兰的独立,但前提是爱尔兰必须向英皇效忠,这很显然违背了伊曼的初心。
This film is an extremely entertaining psychological thriller with Carrol Baker excellent as a rich American widow getting away from it all at a secluded Italian villa. Enter smart aleck down on his luck playboy, Lou Castel, who has some golddigging motives behind his slick hipster seduction techniques and has no qualms about how he gets what he wants. He encourages Baker's character's incipient alcoholism and dubious self-esteem, brings in his supposed 'sister' to help drag Baker even further into a maze of sick mind games, drug addiction and group sex, all culminating in a descent into near-madness and self-destructive depravity. I won't give away anymore, suffice to say that the film delivers on its swinging sixties, Euro sleaze ambience and psychological suspense thriller credentials in spades. Director Umberto Lenzi's work has been, at best, uneven and he's churned out his share of crap. However, he made some quite good giallos and crime pictures in the sixties and seventies and this is one of them (other good films by Lenzi -- SPASMO, SEVEN BLOODSTAINED ORCHIDS, ASSAULT WITH A DEADLY WEAPON, to name only a few). Unfortunately this film is ofen confused with another okay but not-quite-as-good Lenzi film that was also released briefly here in America under the same PARANOIA title (but is more commonly known, especially on video, as A QUIET PLACE TO KILL).