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| Delusion Soundtrack Album Cover |
"A fun low-budget Film Soleil Noir" (Noirsville)
A low budget spaghetti western-ish Death Valley Neo "B" Noir with lots of twists.
A Cineville production, directed by Belgium born Carl Colpaert, written by Carl Colpaert and Kurt Voss. Starring Jim Metzler (River's Edge (1986)), Jennifer Rubin, Kyle Secor (Sleeping with the Enemy (1991)), Jerry Orbach (Cop Hater (1958)), Robert Costanzo, and Tracey Walter (Repo Man (1984)). With a budget of supposedly $1,000,000 Delusion is a bare bones Film Soleil Noir.
George O'Brien (Metzler) is a yuppie executive of some type of LA based computer software company that's been bought out by a bigger fish.
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When George tops the hill he sees the Olds tits up, wheels spinning, and a man and a woman scrambling out of it. Good Samaritan George pulls off the road to offer them help.
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The woman is all legs, showgirl/escort/femme fatale Patti (Jennifer Rubin) traveling with her pet lizard (which she keeps in a glass jar), and a dumbass, cornball, Vegas hit man Chevy (Kyle Secor). Patti legs akimbo is flashing her crotch at George and its hard to tell if she is wearing panties or not with this print.
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George O'Brien (Metzler) is a yuppie executive of some type of LA based computer software company that's been bought out by a bigger fish.
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| George O'Brien (Metzler) rt. |
George is not taking the ensuing events well, and in classic noir fashion, he decides to take a walk on the wild side. O'Brien is a cultured metrosexual, one scene has him and a cohort sitting in a spa/hot tub with mud facials, they calmly discuss embezzling a large sum of cash by faking expenses in the takeover confusion, then crossing the Nevada state line and setting up shop with a new company in Reno.
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| Yuppies |
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| Embezzling |
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| The Moola |
It's Christmas time, and O'Brien is soon on his way from smog shrouded LA to Reno with a gift to himself of a half million in the spare tire well of his tres hip silver 1990 Volvo 760.
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| Death Valley Mojave Desert |
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He is cruising across a barren desert on a two lane highway. With all the moola he's carrying in the trunk George is a bit apprehensive, a bit on edge. In his rear view he scopes a red '71 Olds Cutlass weaving erratically across the centerline through the heat waves behind him.
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It's coming up fast like an interceptor. He breathes a sigh of relief when the Olds barrels on past. A mile or two further on he sees the Olds crest a rise and disappear, but a cloud of yellow dust suddenly boils up against the desert sky.
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| The Wreck |
When George tops the hill he sees the Olds tits up, wheels spinning, and a man and a woman scrambling out of it. Good Samaritan George pulls off the road to offer them help.
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Chevy is on his way to deliver a holiday whack to his old mentor Larry (Jerry Orbach) at his mob provided silver Airstream desert pothole "safe house" hideaway.
It's hinted at that Patti was administering some "road head" to Chevy and that caused the wildly careening driving of the Cutlass, and it's veer onto the loose gravel shoulder and roll. George offers Patti and Chevy his car phone and a ride into the Noirsville Twilight Zone.
It's hinted at that Patti was administering some "road head" to Chevy and that caused the wildly careening driving of the Cutlass, and it's veer onto the loose gravel shoulder and roll. George offers Patti and Chevy his car phone and a ride into the Noirsville Twilight Zone.
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| Patti, Chevy, George, and Patti's pet lizard in jar on dash |
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George drives Patti and Chevy to a state line truck stop. He figures his good deed is done, he figures wrong, Chevy pulls out an automatic and instructs George to head South, the pavement ends and they lay down a dust contrail across the desert.
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| Desert truck stop with Christmas garland decorations |
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| Hijacked |
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When they blow into Larry's, Chevy tells him that he's got a contract to take out George. George naturally thinks it's because of hot loot in the trunk. Larry happy to see company, offers to barbecue some steaks for George's last meal.
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| Larry (Jerry Orbach) greets his mob protégé Chevy (Kyle Secor) rt. |
They all hang out at the Airstream. Larry puts some steaks on the barbeque while Patti slips on a red bikini and goes swimming. She flashes her ass at the boys.
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| Patti taking a desert pothole swim |
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| Patti mooning the guys |
Chevy grabs lacrosse stick and using it as a net wades out in the lake trying to catch a fish. On shore, Larry offers George a beer. Patti comes out of the water and starts looking around for ants for her pet lizard. George is looking at his keys where Chevy left them laying on top his clothes.
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Patti notices that George is looking at his car keys, she's feeling sorry for him and wanting him to get away. She gives him a knowing stare and creates a diversion by letting her lizard out of his jar. She screams to Larry to help her and while he is distracted George grabs the keys, hops in the Volvo and speeds off.
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Unfortunately, the road makes big loop around the lake and Larry and Chevy are waiting for him with Larry's pickup blocking the path. They bring George back to the campsite nd handcuff him to the awning support rod.
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Larry apologizes to Chevy for letting George escape. But Larry is told by Chevy that the story of the contract on George was all BS.
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| You're screwed Larry |
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The contract was really on Larry and Chevy used George as cover to get his guard down. Larry tries to plead for his life but Chevy isn't buying.
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Larry tries to grab for his gun but Chevy is quicker. Chevy makes George load Larry's body into the trunk of the Volo toss in a shovel and then drive back into Death Valley.
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George is soon digging two graves way out in the desert.
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While digging George throws a shovel full of dirt into Chevy's face and makes a grab for the automatic. They roll round on the ground fighting for the gun. Chev breaks free and points it at George.
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He's toast, right? No, Chevy pulls the trigger on George and gets just an audible click. He is out of bullets. A quick thinking Patti, (who has been visibly warming up to George) quickly tosses what's left of Chevy's bullets in the cartridge box out into the sand and covers the over with flick of her foot. Chevy has no choice but to push George off a nearby bluff and leave him to the buzzards.
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Chevy is pissed off at Patti, but he's not sure if she did anything for certain. Plan B. He takes George to the top edge of a nearby ridge and knocks him in the head so that he falls rolling down a few hundred feet. Chevy figures that if the knock on the head and the fall didn't kill him, dying of thirst in the oven heat will. He'll leave him to the buzzards.
Patti and Chevy drive back to the Airstream and from there call ahead to make reservations at the Death Valley Junction Hotel.
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On the way to the hotel t the ghost town of Rhyolite the Volvo gets a flat. Chevy grabs the lug wrench, loosens the nuts and jacks up the car. He tells Patti to bring him the spare tire. Patti opens the trunk, lifts the floor panel to get the tire and finds George's embezzled half million. She says nothing, unzips her traveling bag and transfers the cash to it while Chevy asks her what is taking so long.
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| Rhyolite flat tire |
Once at the Death Valley Junction Hotel they check in and Chevy leaves Patti at the room and heads to Vegas to pick up his hit loot from his mob boss in Las Vegas.
Meanwhile....
The push of George off the ridge in Death Valley and the dust plume he made down the slope was witnessed by a motorcycle mamma, a desert rat biker.
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He's sticking out like a sore thumb against the drab landscape. She thinks its her old man so she heads off across the terrain to see. She finds George who is roughed up but still very much alive. He asks her to bring him back to the Airstream.
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At Larry's Airstream, George grabs a bottle of booze. He sits on the couch. Out side the window the lights from a pathetic prickly pear "Christmas" cactus "tree" twinkle in the background.
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He's trying to figure out his next move, he gets a bright idea and hits the redial on the phone. That tracks Chevy and Patti to the Death Valley Junction Hotel. George cleans up grabs some of Larry's clothes, and finds a revolver.
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George is now in full Noir payback mode. He drive to the Hotel where it all goes Noirsville.
Noirsville
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The entire film is dominated by the burnt umber, yellow ochers, and the bleached whites of an immense desert laughingly juxtaposed, whenever we see the barest traces of habitation, with the most miniscule pathetic looking Christmas decorations imaginable.
Character actor Tracey Walter is in a nice cameo as the desert rat owner of a Death Valley Junction fly speck-dump. The film has an interesting soundtrack, by Barry Adamson, though in retrospect a soundtrack of Diegetic sounds of say Country-Western Christmas tunes blaring from radio stations would have probably been eerie-er.
For an extremely low budget "B" a 10/10 for effort, as is a 7/10 it may be a lost Neo Noir, needs a widescreen DVD or Blu restoration/release. The new improved screencaps are from an online streamer.
Very much an overlooked Desert Noir .... great to see obscure semi-classics brought back to everyone's attention
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