5 Dolls for an August Moon Mario Bava Collection, Vol. 2

Italy | 1970 Directed by Mario Bava Starring William Berger Ira Fürstenburg Edwige Fenech Color | 81 Minutes | Not Rated Format: DVD (R1 - NTSC | 6-disc set) Starz/Anchor Bay Entertainment

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		Review by Brian Lindsey

5     9   10 = Highest Rating

• One of the films in the Mario Bava Collection, Vol. 2 • DVD Rating is for entire 6-disc set • Replaces EC's review of the 2001 Image edition

Three couples are invited to spend the weekend at the posh private island of wealthy industrialist George Stark (Teodoro Corrà). Among them are research scientist Professor Farrell (Sabata's William Berger) and his beautiful wife Trudy (Ira Fürstenberg). Farrell has perfected a new formula for an industrial resin which Stark and his other male guests, Jack Davidson (Howard Ross) and Nick Chaney (Maurice Poli), are extremely keen to buy the rights to. Offers of $1 Million from each of the three businessmen is made to the professor, who turns them down flat — the scientist genuinely seems not to be interested in money. Tempers flare as the dog-eat-dog capitalists vie separately or in tandem to win Farrell's favor. Meanwhile their wives indulge their own agendas, to include a fling with Stark's houseboy and an implied lesbian relationship. Then the houseboy turns up murdered, stabbed to death. Trapped on the island — Stark's yacht has been taken to the mainland by the crew and the radiotelephone is out — the amoral sophistos continue to play head games with each other as one by one they're picked off by the unknown killer. When Farrell is believed shot and washed out to sea, the businessmen circle about his wife like vultures in their continuing attempts to obtain the prized formula. Trudy, however, is playing her own angles...     An offbeat reworking of Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians, 5 Dolls for an August Moon is perhaps famed Italian director Mario Bava's most uncharacteristic film. Bava (Erik the Conqueror, The Whip and the Body) reportedly hated the script and took the job strictly for the money, signing the contract within 48 hours of the commencement of shooting! It's a testament to Bava's skills as a visualist that the film looks as stylish and snappy as it does, considering its director had virtually no time to prepare. He offers up a number of interesting tableaux, as when sexy Edwige Fenech (Case of the Bloody Iris) gyrates uninhibitedly to Piero Umiliani's deliriously frenetic go-go tune "Danza Jazz Moon" (Shake it, baby! Yeah!); of special note is the scene in which a cascade of translucent plastic balls bounce down a spiral staircase only to roll into a sunken bathtub containing a dead woman. Compelling visual moments like these kept me watching despite the weak, confusing screenplay, which wobbles unsteadily from moments of black comedy to the expected whodunit/thriller conventions. The presence of one important character (Isabel, played by Justine Gall of A Lizard in a Woman's Skin) isn't really adequately explained — who exactly is this person? What is her relation to the Starks and the other jetsetter couples? — and there's a major plot hole that just doesn't make any sense. (The killer confesses to a murder which is clearly impossible for him/her to have committed.) The film's title is utterly meaningless, too. Or did I miss something?     So, while left scratching my head on a few points of the story I was still intrigued enough by Bava's compositions to stick with it. Gorehounds will be disappointed that the film isn't really bloody at all; horndogs should note that, aside from a few very brief flashes of skin by the delectable Fenech, it's not exactly chock full o' naked gals, either. (Bava would go much farther with his 1971 proto-slasher Bay of Blood, AKA Twitch of the Death Nerve). Fans of the Italian maestro's other works will definitely want to see it, and should, if only for it being so different from the more well-known films.     Actually, for awhile there at the beginning of the movie I could've sworn I was watching a Jess Franco flick rather than something helmed by Bava. Zoom-a-zoom-ZOOM!

5 Dolls for an August Moon was first released on R1 DVD — a bare-boned, less than satisfactory offering — by Image Entertainment back in 2001. The October 2007 edition of 5 Dolls arrives as one of the eight films in Anchor Bay's Mario Bava Collection, Vol. 2, which also includes new, remastered editions of Roy Colt & Winchester Jack (a 1970 spaghetti western), Bay Of Blood (1971), the sex comedy Four Times That Night (1972), Baron Blood (1972), Lisa And The Devil and its alternate exploitation version, House of Exorcism (1973), and Bava's final, unfinished film, Kidnapped (1974), which was eventually completed by his director son Lamberto. 5 Dolls is paired with Four Times That Night on a single "flipper" disc (Dolls is on Side A); ditto for Lisa and the Devil and House of Exorcism. The remainder of the films get an individual disc to themselves. Each DVD in the box set is housed in its own "slim-line"-style keepcase, a type of packaging which has won me over with its space-saving utility. Unfortunately, the cardboard box they come in is rather flimsy and cheaply constructed. The spine incorrectly lists the contents as "8" discs when in fact it's only six — a glaring mistake.     Of the titles in the set previously released by Image, all demonstrate moderately improved transfers, with Baron Blood fairing the best in comparison visually; Bay of Blood receives a long-awaited correction to its problematic English audio. As for Five Dolls, visuals are pleasing if not exactly pristine, exhibiting minor edge enhancement but also strong colors. Unlike the old Image disc, the 1.85 Anchor Bay transfer is anamorphic. (Quite important in this age of 16x9 TVs.) Both English and Italian mono audio tracks are included (with optional English subs for the latter); predictably, the Italian dialog is superior.     The set's extras should make the maestro's enthusiasts quite happy, chiefly the three new audio commentaries recorded by Bava historian Tim Lucas, for Bay of Blood, Baron Blood and Lisa and the Devil. Add to these various and sundry trailers, radio spots, and still galleries, along with previously released extras from Anchor Bay's April 2007 stand-alone edition of Kidnapped (a featurette and Lucas commentary) and Image's long-OOP House of Exorcism (commentary with producer Alfredo Leone and star Elke Sommer). Alas, 5 Dolls gets exactly jack and shit for bonus features. 11/17/07

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