5 bambole per la luna d'agosto (1970)

Director:

Mario Bava

Writer:

Mario di Nardo (story)

Release Date:

14 February 1970 (Italy)

Genre:

Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

A small group of people come to an island to relax but soon find themselves trapped on the island with a murderer in their midst.

Plot Keywords:

Nudity | Suicide | Murder | Slit Wrists | Giallo

Cast

William Berger	...	Prof. Gerry Farrell
Ira von Fürstenberg	...	Trudy Farrell (as Ira Furstenberg)
Edwige Fenech	...	Marie Chaney
Howard Ross	...	Jack Davidson
Helena Ronee	...	Peggy Davidson
Teodoro Corrà	...	George Stark
Ely Galleani	...	Isabel (as Justine Gall)
Edith Meloni	...	Jill Stark
Mauro Bosco	...	Charles
Maurice Poli	...	Nick Chaney

Also Known As:

Five Dolls for an August Moon
Island of Terror (USA) (dubbed version)

Runtime:

88 min | USA:78 min | France:90 min | UK:81 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Italy:VM18 | UK:18 | USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Anzio, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Produzioni Atlas Consorziate (P.A.C.)

Trivia:

Shot in only 19 days.

Quotes:

Nick Chaney: So what was I telling you?
Marie Chaney: That I'm a dirty whore. That's why I'm taking a shower...at least now I'll be a clean whore.

Movie Connections:

References La dolce vita (1960)

Soundtrack:

Il Balletto di Bronzo

bad taste can be so good

The late Italian director Mario Bava (1913-1980) made a handful of genuinely great films, like Black Sunday, Lisa and the Devil, and Blood and Black Lace, along with many that almost transcend kitsch, i.e. Diabolik and Black Sabbath, and some that are simply wonderful kitsch. Of the third category, this may be the best example.

A group of rich, decadent swingers in the most tasteless fashions of the time (the year is 1970) cavort about on an island owned by one of them. One guest is a scientist with a formula that could be worth a fortune. When he refuses to sell the formula, everybody on the island starts dying one by one (a la Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians,) the bodies literally piling up in the meat locker, just one example of the hilariously dark humor Bava brings to this dubious premise.

Bava made no bones about this movie being a paycheck job, or of his shame for it - the script was atrocious, the producer refused to let him have any say in the casting, or let Bava use most of his usual crew, and budget cuts forced the director to have almost every murder take place offscreen. But Bava's films always had a misanthropic wit(except Black Sunday, with its clear-cut good versus evil scenario,) and in the case of "Five Dolls For An August Moon," it almost seems like the director's contempt for the project actually made the end result funnier and more brazen than expected. Bava had a technical facility that most money-burning present day directors would kill for, and a complete lack of pretensions to being anything other than a hard-working director for hire. When the chemistry was just right, it could create a glorious bauble (or, less often, something even better.)

Is it good? Well, as the saying goes, how could something so right be so wrong?