Review: Five Dolls for an August Moon

A wealthy industrialist (Teodoro Corra) invites some friends and associates to a swanky island home for some fun in the sun…and a little business. Corra has invited chemist pal William Berger with the purpose of talking to him about Berger’s new scientific invention. A very lucrative invention that Corra (and other guests, I might add including sexy Edwige Fenech) would very much like to purchase and profit from. Berger isn’t interested, he’s here for a holiday. Then someone turns up dead. And another. And another. It seems we have a murderer amongst this group of friends.

 

Director Mario Bava (“Kill, Baby…Kill”, “Black Sunday”, “Black Sabbath”) didn’t like the script and only accepted the assignment for the money. Critics don’t seem to like it much either, then nor now (Yet they laud over the quite similar and very enjoyable “The Last of Sheila”). However, I actually think this giallo-mystery unofficial take on “Ten Little Indians” from 1970 is very good-looking (and sounding) and frankly irresistible entertainment. The locales and interiors are both stunning, with the swanky house the characters stay at looking something like Blofeld’s summer house. The music score by Piero Umiliani (“Tropic of Cancer”, “Black Cobra Woman”) might just be the best thing here. It’s got a real sleazy, Jess Franco organ vibe about it. I also liked the dark humour at play here, with the characters seemingly having a rather flippant (or morbid in some cases) attitude towards the deceased. Almost none of them seem shaken after one of them turns up dead. It’s particularly funny how as more and more bodies turn up, they get hung up in a meat freezer. That’s some cold shit.

 

The film is a touch slow, with some scenes dragging on a tad longer than they ideally should. Still, when it looks and sounds this good, it’s tough to complain. There’s a particularly great bit where a scuffle leads to a series of glass balls rolling down a staircase that as we follow them leads to the scene of a murder/discovery of a body. That’s bravura stuff, almost Hitchcockian. The murder-mystery is pretty solid stuff. Even if you think you have it worked out, you’ll likely be wrong. The big reveal is gleefully twisted, if coming a bit too abruptly for my liking. Still, it’s clever and not exactly a cheat, either. Apparently the twist ending was one of the director’s few contributions to the script. Looking like a smug, young-ish Rutger Hauer, William Berger is excellent as seemingly the only person here with half a heart, and Edwige Fenech is sexy as hell. You can’t keep your eyes off her, in a film with plenty of other attractions on show, too. The screenplay is by Mario di Nardo (Bava’s “Roy Colt and Winchester Jack”), with some additional uncredited work by the director himself.

 

I’m not sure why this was Bava’s least favourite of his films, perhaps because he was essentially a hired-hand. It’s not Bava’s best film (Take your pick from “Black Sunday”, “Kill, Baby…Kill”, and “Black Sabbath”), but this is pretty fun murder-mystery stuff. I think it’s underrated, and certainly better than the more popular “A Bay of Blood”. A touch too slow and I’m not sure Bava executes the twist ending perfectly, but this is morbid, stylish fun. Time for a re-appraisal? I think so, just don’t expect much of a horror film. It’s a murder-mystery with giallo stylings.   

 

Rating: B-

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