HOME |  CULT MOVIES | COMPETITIONS | ADVERTISE |  CONTACT US |  ABOUT US
 
 
 
Newest Reviews
American Fiction
Poor Things
Thunderclap
Zeiram
Legend of the Bat
Party Line
Night Fright
Pacha, Le
Kimi
Assemble Insert
Venus Tear Diamond, The
Promare
Beauty's Evil Roses, The
Free Guy
Huck and Tom's Mississippi Adventure
Rejuvenator, The
Who Fears the Devil?
Guignolo, Le
Batman, The
Land of Many Perfumes
Cat vs. Rat
Tom & Jerry: The Movie
Naked Violence
Joyeuses Pacques
Strangeness, The
How I Became a Superhero
Golden Nun
Incident at Phantom Hill
Winterhawk
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City
Maigret Sets a Trap
B.N.A.
Hell's Wind Staff, The
Topo Gigio and the Missile War
Battant, Le
Penguin Highway
Cazadore de Demonios
Snatchers
Imperial Swordsman
Foxtrap
   
 
Newest Articles
3 From Arrow Player: Sweet Sugar, Girls Nite Out and Manhattan Baby
Little Cat Feat: Stephen King's Cat's Eye on 4K UHD
La Violence: Dobermann at 25
Serious Comedy: The Wrong Arm of the Law on Blu-ray
DC Showcase: Constantine - The House of Mystery and More on Blu-ray
Monster Fun: Three Monster Tales of Sci-Fi Terror on Blu-ray
State of the 70s: Play for Today Volume 3 on Blu-ray
The Movie Damned: Cursed Films II on Shudder
The Dead of Night: In Cold Blood on Blu-ray
Suave and Sophisticated: The Persuaders! Take 50 on Blu-ray
Your Rules are Really Beginning to Annoy Me: Escape from L.A. on 4K UHD
A Woman's Viewfinder: The Camera is Ours on DVD
Chaplin's Silent Pursuit: Modern Times on Blu-ray
The Ecstasy of Cosmic Boredom: Dark Star on Arrow
A Frosty Reception: South and The Great White Silence on Blu-ray
You'll Never Guess Which is Sammo: Skinny Tiger and Fatty Dragon on Blu-ray
Two Christopher Miles Shorts: The Six-Sided Triangle/Rhythm 'n' Greens on Blu-ray
Not So Permissive: The Lovers! on Blu-ray
Uncomfortable Truths: Three Shorts by Andrea Arnold on MUBI
The Call of Nostalgia: Ghostbusters Afterlife on Blu-ray
Moon Night - Space 1999: Super Space Theater on Blu-ray
Super Sammo: Warriors Two and The Prodigal Son on Blu-ray
Sex vs Violence: In the Realm of the Senses on Blu-ray
What's So Funny About Brit Horror? Vampira and Bloodbath at the House of Death on Arrow
Keeping the Beatles Alive: Get Back
   
 
  5 Dolls for an August Moon Fateful Formula
Year: 1970
Director: Mario Bava
Stars: William Berger, Ira von Fürstenberg, Edwige Fenech, Howard Ross, Helena Ronee, Teodoro Corrà, Ely Galleani, Edith Meloni, Mauro Bosco, Maurice Poli
Genre: ThrillerBuy from Amazon
Rating:  6 (from 2 votes)
Review: A group of friends have been brought together by industrialist George Stark (Teodoro Corrà) at his house on his exclusive island home for a holiday mixed with business. One of the friends is Professor Gerry Farrell (William Berger) who has created a new synthetic resin the formula of which could make its owner very rich indeed. Gerry tries to forget about his professional life for a while, although remains noncommittal about joining in the frolics at the house which include grooving the night away and playing a prank that makes it look as if Marie (Edwige Fenech) has been murdered - but what if someone is not joking?

5 Dolls for an August Moon, or 5 bambole per la luna d'agosto as it was known in its native Italy, is not one of the better thought of works from director Mario Bava, in spite of his high reputation amongst cineastes. It was effectively a job for hire dry run for his Bay of Blood, which some would have that it invented the slasher movie genre even if it did not popularise it to the extent that John Carpenter's Halloween did. This, however, owed far more to Agatha Christie than horror movies, being a thriller where the suspects are killed off one by one in the And Then There Were None mould, although you have to be paying special attention to work out why this is happening.

In fact, many find this a film too confusing to be truly enjoyable, but if it doesn't make a whole lot of sense unless you are taking notes, there were compensations. It may be a short film, not even eighty minutes, but it does pack in quite a bit of incident even though much of that incident involves the same thing happening over and over again, that being that a body is found, put in a body bag (where did George get access to all that plastic covering in the first place?) then placed in the freezer, leaving the survivors to contemplate who the killer might be and who may be next. Suffice to say most of the cast have to endure their own death scenes, and when you get the solution it is possible to be unsure of who did what to whom.

Still, the locations are attractive as the actors pose artfully around them, until the lifeless body of one of the friends Charles (Mauro Bosco), turns up on the beach. Immediately they are all suspicious of one another, but in typical style they are stuck where they are with the killer because George has sent the yacht back to the mainland, he says due to the stormy weather impending and the fact that he has no harbour to protect the vessel from the elements. Mind you, the weather we see is perfectly clement, so either George is telling porkies, or Bava and his crew could not rely on there being a storm blowing up for the sake of their production. Probably the latter, to be honest.

It takes a while for the next murder to occur, but as with Bay of Blood these deaths are all centered around the love of money, specifically the money that Gerry's formula could bring. There are at least two million pound cheques being handed around pass the parcel style between the characters, and being rich already, these people can only think about acquiring more money than they already have. It's a dim view of the wealthy to take, that they will literally kill to secure their fortune, but not one exclusive to this film, and adds an edge of decadent cruelty to a plot which is largely going through the motions. It does look stylish, but the characters are pretty much interchangeable, and the ones alive nearer the end have a curious lapse of memory which means they completely forget about another person on the island who naturally it turns out is vital to what is going on. Not terrible, then, but fairly average, although the music by Piero Umiliani is fine.
Reviewer: Graeme Clark

 

This review has been viewed 9508 time(s).

As a member you could Rate this film

 

Mario Bava  (1914 - 1980)

Italian director/writer/cinematographer and one of the few Italian genre film-makers who influenced, rather than imitated. Worked as a cinematographer until the late 1950s, during which time he gained a reputation as a hugely talented director of photography, particularly in the use of optical effects.

Bava made his feature debut in 1960 with Black Sunday/The Mask of Satan, a richly-shot black and white Gothic gem. From then on Bava worked in various genres – spaghetti western, sci-fi, action, peplum, sex – but it was in the horror genre that Bava made his legacy. His sumptuously filmed, tightly plotted giallo thrillers (Blood and Black Lace, Hatchet for the Honeymoon, Bay of Blood) and supernatural horrors (Lisa and the Devil, Baron Blood, Kill, Baby...Kill!) influenced an entire generation of Italian film-makers (and beyond) – never had horror looked so good. Bava’s penultimate picture was the harrowing thriller Rabid Dogs, while his last film, Shock, was one his very scariest. Died of a heart attack in 1980.

 
Review Comments (1)


Untitled 1

Login
  Username:
 
  Password:
 
   
 
Forgotten your details? Enter email address in Username box and click Reminder. Your details will be emailed to you.
   

Latest Poll
Which star probably has psychic powers?
Laurence Fishburne
Nicolas Cage
Anya Taylor-Joy
Patrick Stewart
Sissy Spacek
Michelle Yeoh
Aubrey Plaza
Tom Cruise
Beatrice Dalle
Michael Ironside
   
 
   

Recent Visitors
  Stuart Watmough
Paul Shrimpton
Darren Jones
Mary Sibley
Enoch Sneed
Mark Le Surf-hall
  Louise Hackett
Andrew Pragasam
   

 

Last Updated: