Bava believed this was one of his worst films. It wasn't released in the U.S. until 2001. And yet, I found plenty to like about this murder-filled affair. It also taught me an important lesson: if you invent a new chemical process, don't go to a rich industrialist's vacation island.George Stark is one of those industrialists and he's invited a bunch of guests to his private island, including Professor Farrell, who has created an industrial resin. Several of the guests want him to sell it. Here's where the hijinks ensue.Stark's wife Jill is sleeping with Farrell's wife, Trudy (Ira von Fürstenberg, The Fifth Chord). Stark's partner Nick treats his wife, Marie (Edwige Fenech!) horribly, but allows her to sleep with Charles, one of the servants. Isabelle (Ely Galleani, A Lizard in a Woman's Skin) is a teenage girl along for the ride. And Jack and Peggy just seem to get along, unlike everyone else.The men beg Farrell for his formula, sending away the only way off the island - a motorboat - away until the deal is done. So when Charles is killed, they simply hang him in the freezer until they can get the radio working to call the mainland. As you do.Then, teenage Isabelle kills Farrell, but the others only know he's dead. The killings now pick up, with Peggy being shot to death, Marie being stabbed and Jill being electrocuted in the bathtub. One by one, their bodies are added to the freezer.With Isabelle having gone missing, Stark, Jack, Nick, and Trudy decide to stay in the same room for the night, as one of them has to be the murderer. Nick takes off after an argument and is found dead the next day, so of course, as is custom, he is also added to the freezer.Stark has a boat, which makes you think he'd be the suspect. But as he comes back to the house, Jack reveals that he has killed everyone else to steal their checks. He kills Stark and meets with Trudy, who was the real boss. She's got the resin formula. He has the checks. But they're both out for themselves and end up killing one another. Isabelle makes herself known and takes everything.That's not the whole story. Isabelle also shows up to see Farrell in prison. He didn't die, but had come up with the whole scheme with Trudy. Turns out he wasn't the good man that he appeared to be and had stolen the formula. He got Isabelle to be part of his plan, but she gave him a drug that would make him appear to be dead, then pushed him out to the sea. Rescuers found him and he was so messed up on the drug that he confessed. She laughs about the whole thing and leaves the prison, finding it all rather funny that he'll be hung in the morning while she'll enjoy three million dollars.There are better Bava films to be found, but there are plenty of twists and turns in this film. It's certainly entertaining and you know, Edwige Fenech is in it. So there are way worse movies to spend your time with.Just remember. If you come up with a great formula or steal one, just keep it to yourself. And don't go on vacation. Stay at work.

3 Stars for Edwige Fenech. 0 for the rest of the film. Somehow, someway Mario Bava found a cult following who will dismiss his poor choice of story/scripts/plot/dialogue/human communication and emotion, and praise his colors/sets/cinematography and maybe music, and his dark sense of humor. Bava lovers say style over substance. Disregard story, it's all about how cool it looks. So, the people who want stories are supposed to regard Bava as some kind of an abstract painter? I'm thinking more like some fool who throws a bucket of paint on a canvas and call it art? Let's face it, be honest, we're all adults here, or try to be, Bava sucks. And so does this guy Argento. Suspiria is one of the most amateur pieces of garbage I've ever seen, everything from the candy color lights to poor acting, scenes, sets, dialogue, story, music, cinematography, etc. I recently watched his Flies & Plumage movies. Garbage. It's a cult propaganda. Maybe I'm wrong that cult movies aren't just people who love certain movies, maybe the Argento cult really belong to some crazy German Witches who run a ballerina school for international students. Fresh Meat!Getting back to Bava. Planet of Vampires, poor cartoon garbage. Bay of Blood, poor story some decent scenes. Black Lace, pretty near garbage story. This movie, the story idea is there. The script, screenplay, dialogue, scenes, all suck. Music was good, entertaining. Cinematography was good, but not great. Sets great. Edwidge was great. The rest of the cast were OK. But, without the story and the scenes this thing is a joke. It went from great, to boring, to what the hell is this. The scene with the girl walking in the beginning, and then looking through the window at the party and Edwidge dancing and the fake killing, is all great stuff. Where did they get all those plastic body bags, from Planet of Vampire? Those glass balls, suck! No thrills, no death scenes, we get the aftershow!If the producers were to edit a 10 or 15 minute version, with only Edwidge than this particular version may get an 8 stars or even 10. As it stands, this is the best Bava movie I have ever seen. And it gets 3 stars for Edwidge alone. Minus points for all the garbage one must sit through.

Mario Bava arguably created the giallo; that very Italian brand of horror/thriller that combined psychosexual undertones with astonishingly beautiful women, a killer with black gloves, and penis-shaped weapons. Along with the likes of Lucio Fulci and Dario Argento, the giallo was highly inspirational to American film-makers such as John Carpenter, leading to the creation of that very American brand of horror, the slasher. As innovative as Bava was (and still is), his filmography contains a few duds, and Five Dolls for an August Moon is one example.Taking inspiration from, of all people, Agatha Christie and her novel Ten Little N*****s (now commonly referred to as Ten Little Indians, understandably), Five Dolls groups a bunch of wealthy people together at a weekend getaway owned by George Stark (Teodoro Corra). One of the guests is scientist Gerry Farrell (William Berger) who, as we come to learn, has made a revolutionary breakthrough in creating a new formula for industrial resin. Farrell quickly realises that he was invited to the retreat so Stark and his fellow industrialists can persuade him to sell his formula, which he declines. As frustration grows, the inhabitants shortly start turning up dead.The film is sporadically fun, especially the running joke that has the victims wrapped in plastic and hung in the freezer one by one which, by the end, is almost overflowing. Yet, although the premise sounds like classic giallo material, Bava makes his group of characters so indistinguishable from one another (although there's no mistaking the stunning Edwige Fenech) that it's difficult to get engrossed by the increasingly outlandish plot. For a Bava film, the visuals are shockingly bland, with only brief glimpses of his famous visual flair and complex use of colour. There are also precious few memorable set-pieces to savour between the quieter moments, with many of the murders taking place off camera. Certainly lower-league Bava.

5 Dolls for an August Moon (1971)** (out of 4) Mario Bava's twist on the "Ten Little Indians" story has a group of people being invited to an isolated island where one by one they're murdered. 5 DOLLS FOR AN AUGUST MOON isn't considered one of the director's best films and it's easy to see why as it's lacking the flair and style of his earlier giallos but it's also quite tame when compared to what the director would do a year later with TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE. This film here pretty much falls well below what one would come to expect from the director, although there are a few good moments scattered throughout. One such moment happens to be the twist that happens towards the end of the picture but after the twist the events that play out really aren't all that special. I'm going to place the majority of the blame on the screenplay because it's simply never all that exciting and there's really no one you like or care about. It takes quite a while for everything to get going and once it does you realize that the characters are rather bland and it also appears that the director isn't all that interested in anything going on. That typical Bava style is missing throughout the picture and this is certainly true during the murder scenes. The majority of them happens off camera and we're slowly let in on them in ways that are just rather dull and lifeless as the bodies themselves. Even the sexuality in the film is pretty tame to the point where it really does seem like Bava isn't interested in anything that's happening. Of course, this tame sexuality and violence might be why he went full steam ahead the next year with TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE. Cult favorites William Berger and Edwige Fenech are on hand but neither add enough to save the film.