A few years ago, Image Entertainment treated
Euro-cinema fans to a series of classic movies
from Italian maestro Mario Bava. So, I decided
to plunder the archives and revisit their release
of 5 Dolls for an August Moon
and give my opinion on what I consider to be a
long overlooked gem. I have ulterior motives though,
as it is my hope that by presenting Digital Retribution
with this review that many others may also discover
this fantastic Giallo that is often ignored and
rarely talked about. I feel it deserves wider
recognition as the masterwork that I feel it is.
So, proceed onwards, intrepid reader…
The story tells of a wealthy industrialist, George
Stark (Teodoro Corra), who invites a group of
his friends and colleagues to stay with him at
his island retreat. Stark introduces the group
to Gerry Farrell (William Berger) a brilliant
chemist who has created a formula for a new industrial
resin. Each of the guests, who are also wealthy
and prospective investors, tries to buy the formula
from him. Double-dealing and murder ensues as
each of the guests try to acquire the formula.
With the bodies piling up and paranoia escalating,
the ever-decreasing group continues to connive
and, even with the fear of death looming, these
avaricious guests are still focusing on their
greedy intentions. Money, it would seem, is more
important than survival…
This film divides the opinion of viewers and
it's easy to understand why. It is so typically
unlike Bava with manic zooms, trite dialogue,
and is decidedly non-graphic in its depiction
of violence with the murders taking place off-screen.
However, this is probably the best fun you'll
ever have watching a film. Gaudy 70's fashion,
a superbly loungetastic music score from Piero
Umiliani, inane dialogue, and splendidly larger
than life characters – what's not
to love?
The way the bodies are hooked up one-by-one in
the freezer room, as the characters carry on in
a business-as-usual fashion, is highly amusing.
They continue seducing and dealing and it all
adds up to some great, deliciously macabre fun.
It is obvious that everything is presented exactly
as Bava intended; he was by no means setting out
to make a classic and achieves his goal in making
a fine lowbrow film that will first and foremost
entertain – but there is a lot of subliminal
imagery too; for instance, the spiral staircase
that is often framed to look like a dollar symbol.
It may seem like a throw-away effort from Bava
(and on the surface it appears that he seems intent
on making us believe it is), but there is a lot
of intelligence at work here too, you just have
to know where to look for it. In fact, it's
quite a subversive little number, and is deserving
of repeat viewings to properly soak up all that
is going on.
If it's a high gore-score you're
after, then forget this; but if you're looking
for something deliciously mischievous and entertaining,
then look no further. I can't recommend
this highly enough. |
