Five Dolls for an August Moon (1970)

Recently talking about Giallo queen Edwige Fenech on IMDbs Classic Film board,I decided that it was time to watch a Fenech Gialli for the first time.Taking a look at a box set of auteur film maker Mario Bava,I spotted a collaboration that he had made with Fenech,which led to me staying up for the August moon.The plot:Wanting to get a breather from work, Professor Gerry Farrell & his wife Trudy decide to join industrialist George Stark and other couples for a "happening" weekend taking place on a remote island.Shortly after things start to flow,Gerry Farrell begins to suspect that he was not invited so that friends could catch up with him,as each of them start to offer bags of cash in exchange for his now formula of industrial resin.Sticking to his principles,Gerry turns down all of the offers.As the men argue among themselves,Stark's wife Jill decides to go for a walk on the beach.Getting stopped in her tracks,Jill finds out that a fellow guest has been left brutally murdered on the beach.As the bodies start to pile up,the surviving guest become increasingly desperate to get Farrell's new formula by any means possible.View on the film:Getting into the spirit of the "happening",director/editor Mario Bava & cinematographer Antonio Rinaldi dazzle with wah-wah whip- pans that give the partying a frenzied atmosphere. Despite working as a "director for hire" (and being very dismissive about the movie later on)Bava clearly displays an excellent attention to detail for the film,as the blunt murders take place against a whirling psychedelic backdrop,which goes from each of the women wearing lavishly colourful dresses,to the murder scenes being covered in shimmering blood and rolling crystal balls.For the screenplay,writer Mario di Nardo gives the Giallo a satirical Film Noir bite,as Nardo makes all the guests more concerned about getting Farrell's new formula than they are about the bodies stacking up.Digging into the Film Noir root of the Giallo,Nardo fills the weekend guest list with shady femme fatales and smart suited men who would hang anyone out to dry (or in this case on a meat hook!) to get one step ahead in the business world.Whilst the satirical slices give the movie a brittle comedic edge,the casual nature that the characters treat the murders in is sadly reflected in the screenplay,with Nardo paying little attention to building up any clues,and and also treating the murder set pieces in a relaxed manner which withholds any tense atmosphere from them.Looking gorgeous wrapped in eye-catching clothes,the beautiful Edwige Fenech gives a wonderful performance as guest Marie Chaney,whose flirtatious charms are given a femme fatale shine by Fenech,as Chaney tries to wrap all the men around in to giving her what she wants. Joining Fenech, William Berger gives a great performance as Gerry Farrell,with Berger smoothly carrying Farrell's naïve innocence into something more sinister,as the August moon rises.

The luscious lady co-stars in this interesting effort from Mario Bava utilizing that old "Ten Little Indians" theme of a group of people being knocked off one at a time.The victims are a group of businessmen - arrogant upper crust jerks all - and their hottie companions who have gathered at an island mansion; the men are determined to make a scientist, Gerry Farrell (William Berger), divulge his formula for an industrial resin. They're willing to pay top dollar, and throw in their wives as bonuses. When he still won't do it, that's when the trouble begins...The movie is done in Bavas' typical artistic style with great use of colour and an effectively isolated setting. Another entertaining touch is the jazzy music score by Piero Umiliani. The scene with the bouncing marbles has to rank as a striking highlight. It's not as thickly atmospheric as Bavas' other efforts - for one thing, it takes place largely in the daytime. But it still has a respectably substantial body count, and the screenplay is just twist laden enough to make it intriguing. Although the viewer is likely to figure out one of the twists, they may not see all of them coming. One thing that really does help is the hilarious dark humour, as the bodies, one after another, are hung up in a meat locker.The acting from the cast is perfectly acceptable, including Maurice Poli as Nick, Howard Ross as Jack, and Teodoro Corra as George. The "five dolls" of the title are enticing and very easy to watch; Fenech sears the screen in a variety of provocative outfits, also appearing are Ira von Furstenberg as Trudy, Helena Ronee as Peggy, Ely Galleani as Isabel, and Edith Meloni as Jill.Ultimately, this isn't one of Bavas' best efforts - it's enjoyable and well made but one can sense something of a "throw away" quality about it. But you certainly could do worse. There is a certain appeal in seeing a variety of worthless greedy pricks receive their just desserts, and if nothing else "5 Dolls for an August Moon" is consistently amusing. It is somewhat refreshing to see a movie of this kind not be completely serious about itself.A good if not great giallo.Seven out of 10.

I know that the director, Mario Bava, has a very good reputation, but this film and another one on the same DVD (Four Times That Night) really make me wonder. Plus, I've seen quite a few of his horror films and also found them to be very inconsistent. Clever 'tricks' such as rapidly panning in and out for a psychedelic effect and a choppy film were clearly evident in "5 Bambole Per la Luna D'Agosto"--but also were some nice closeup shots of the bodies and some inventive camera work as well. It's really hard to pin down his...or this film.This movie is a variation on Agatha Christie's "Ten Little Indians" (also called by another name originally--one that IMDb rules prohibit reviewers from using). But, the plot has been reworked so much that it's hard to tell it has much to do with Christie. The most obvious change is that this film was 'sexed up' quite a bit--though it actually shows very little. But the sexual content is rampant and there's even a subplot involving lesbianism. I think most of this can be chalked up to 1970--when film makers were deliberately testing their limits and breaking taboos.But, as I said in the summary, there's a lot to like and a lot to hate about the film. It has a nice twist near the end about drugging the remaining people and a tape recorder. There also are a lot of very beautiful women in the film and this sure didn't make watching it very difficult. But, on the other hand, the plot seemed to bounce all over the place and the gimmick about sodium penathol made no sense at all--nor did all the times the one lady kept ripping off her clothes for no reason at all (though, as I said, you don't see much). It really made the film pretty cheap and silly. Overall, I was not particularly impressed by the film but it did at least keep my interest. A decent time-passer, but that is all.

Being a fan of Bava's flicks and after hearing quite a few bad and average reviews about this one. I decided to keep my expectations low check this one out. What I found out is that I actually liked it. While not up to the standards of Black Sabbath, Black Sunday, Twitch of the Death Nevrve, or Kill, Baby, Kill you can still tell this was done by Bava and that is what I think I liked about it. Bava's visuals and camera work are awesome even if the story is not. The story concerns a bunch of unscrupulous wealthy investors, at one's their summer home, trying to get a professor to sell his groundbreaking new formula by any means necessary. Then someone starts bumping them off one by one. If anyone looking for a great story from a Bava film is missing the point. The story is really secondary to Bava's visuals, weirdness, and black as night humor(in full swing here). The only complaints I can come up with is that the last section of the movie kind of drags and some of the characters are interchangeable. Some others might complain that there really is not any gore and they are right, but that did not bother me. So, in closing if you are a Bava fan see this one, but if you are not skip it or see the other ones' mentioned above.