Rating: 3/5
Hooptober 7.0 | 3/32 | Countries 3/6 | Italy
There's something dirty about death
Professor Farrell attends a private island retreat hosted by industrialist George Stark.
The first night, Marie removes her sequenced dress and dances on the furniture. George ties her up. Everyone grabs a knife. The lights go out. When they come back on, someone has stabbed Maria.
She laughs, and everyone else joins in. It was all a prank.
As they spend time together, the professor learns the reason for his invitation — these wealthy people want to buy his new formula. They’re all willing to pay a pretty penny. Some might go so far as to kill for it.
To keep the professor from leaving, George sends the motor launch away. So, when Jill finds the body of George’s manservant, Charles, on the beach, they have no choice but to keep an eye on each other.
As the body count rises, the suspect list shrinks. And this is giallo, baby — it’s never as simple as it seems.
Bava knew this was an And Then There Were None rip-off and tried to change it up, but his involvement was so last-minute that he couldn’t do much.
The story is pretty threadbare and hard to invest in, but it all moves along well enough
Rapid zooms and pulls, elegant blocking and compositions — Bava never turned in a bad-looking movie when he handled the cinematography. The sniper rifle scene looks stellar!
The movie has an overt lesbian relationship, which is neat, even though they have to hide it and deal with terribly misogynistic men, even by giallo standards.
Edwige Fenech is in the giallos with the wordiest titles. She’s always great.
The score is delightful — the freezer theme is whacky in the best way.
This movie is not Bava’s best, but certainly not his worst.