"Turkish Delight" (or "Turk Fruits") is a highly charged, entertainingly erotic drama about a stormy sexual affair and the fate that befalls a couple (played by Rutger Hauer and Monique Van De Ven) who have nothing in common except that they like to sleep together.

Hauer plays Erik, a brusque, slightly mad sculpture who hates bourgeois values, has no patience for common decency and has an incessant sexual appetite. The movie starts with him totally dejected despite the fact that he is having a series of one-night stands with various women. Then a flashback reveals what it is that led to the film's beginning.

The rest of the film plays as a flashback and we see that one day while hitchhiking Erik is picked up by a cute teenager, Olga (Van De Ven). They have sex, get into a car accident and thus their bond begins. They marry - much to the chagrin of her wicked mother - and begin a stormy couple of years of marriage.

The film is directed with a lot of energy and features numerous impressive cinematic flourishes that often border somewhere above B movie quality. Stylistically, the film keeps up with the furious pace of their love. When they are madly in love a high-energy score and a mobile camera (shot by Jan De Bont who went on to direct Speed and Twister) accompanies their every move. When they are fighting and things get more serious the film takes on a dramatic soapy score and the camera work slows down and everything becomes slightly claustrophobic.

Although it starts as an irreverent comedy it eventually shifts gear and takes a darker (questionable) tone that's much more like something out of an Ingmar Bergman film. Despite this, the film never slows down and there is never a dull moment.

When it came out in 1973 it became the most financially successful Dutch film of all time and it introduced the world to Rutger Hauer -- who it can be argued -- was rarely better.

The Video:
Anchor Bay has done a fine job with the transfer, which is presented in the standard European anamorphic aspect ratio of 1.66 to 1. The transfer is from a newly struck interpositive that was restored for the recent Verhoeven retrospective in Europe. The images are sharp, clean and have few scratches. Most of the outdoor scenes have good saturated colors and are slightly grainy. The indoor scenes use darker flesh tone hues that are naturally lit. Partly because of the way it was originally shot in non-diffuse light the images are dark, which makes for best viewing on the big screen. But the print Anchor Bay struck from certainly looks much better than the older video prints that can be found.

The Sound:
The sound is presented in 2.0 Stereo and is in Dutch. The film has many recurring musical themes that sound good here and even though the sound could be better it's still slightly better than it was when it was originally released in 1973.

The Extras:
Extras are thin but considering this is a film that few have ever seen or heard of there is enough to make the disc a better than average one. There is a good director commentary track by Verhoeven who talks non-stop and very quickly for the full length. For the most part he gives a lot of exposition and insight into character motivation but he also mentions a few good anecdotes about the shoot. He too talks a lot about the overriding themes of love and death and his use of symbolism. And quite a few times he fondly recalls the freedom he experienced while making the film as compared to the rigorously controlled and planned films he makes today in Hollywood. There is a three-minute trailer that has also been restored. There are also twelve behind-the-scenes shots in black & white and twenty lobby cards and original movie poster that were supplied for the DVD by Verhoeven. There is also extensive talent bios on Verhoeven, Rutger Hauer and Monique Van De Ven. The subtitles are yellow, making for an easy read, and they can be removed. The film is 112 minutes long and there are 28 chapters.

Overall:
Overall, "Turkish Delight" is a judiciously decadent mix of the aesthetics of The French New Wave, the sexual frankness of Russ Meyer and the portentous (some would say pretentious) storyline of "Last Tango in Paris". In Verhoeven's canon this film is the most underrated and rarely seen by American audiences. This isn't the case in Holland, however, where a couple of years ago it was awarded the Golden Calf Award in the Netherlands as the best Dutch film of the 20th century. Now with Anchor Bay's quality work the film can be seen and appreciated by Verhoeven's fans.