Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Five Dolls for an August Moon Blu-ray Movie Review

A midway stop on the evolution of the slasher.

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater September 5, 2013

Cinematographer-turned-director Mario Bava is one of the horror genre's great transitional figures, and a particular influence on the development of the slasher. His first feature, 1960's Black Sunday, is a musty gothic chiller in the old-school Hammer Horror mold—foggy graveyards, crumbling castles, supernatural spooks—but by '63 and '64, with The Girl Who Knew Too Much and Blood and Black Lace, he near- singlehandedly set the template for a modern form of distinctly Italian horror: giallo. Characterized by lurid colors, psycho-sexual stories, and black-gloved killers wielding phallic weapons, giallo was horror gone Freudian, and Bava was its key practitioner, inspiring a whole cadre of younger filmmakers like Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci, and Umberto Lenzi. In turn, their collective work inspired American filmmakers of the late '70s and early '80s—John Carpenter, Wes Craven, Black Christmas' Bob Clark—who, in what came to be called the slasher, further sexualized the form and doubled down on the limb-hacking, blood-spurting violence. Bava, then, is the progenitor of much of what horror hounds love about Friday the 13th and Halloween; some of his later films read like how-to instruction manuals for the future slasher sub-genre. This week, Kino-Lorber is releasing two of those films, 1970's Five Dolls for an August Moon and 1971's A Bay of Blood, both of which belong in any well- curated horror movie collection.

1 of 5 Dolls

Five Dolls for an August Moon—killer title, by the way—has the setup of a classic whodunit. Specifically, it steals its premise directly from Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians, in which guests on a private island are murdered one after another. (Leading, of course, to the alternate title, And Then There Were None.) Here, a group of friends and business associates—and their significant or not-so-significant others—are gathered at the ultra-mod island getaway of rich industrialist George Stark (Teodora Corrá) and his still-life painter of a wife, Jill (Edith Meloni). At the swinging opening party, which goes from sensual to dark when a practical joke involving a dagger and cocktail sauce sours the mood, we're introduced to the rest: Pushy investor Nick (Maurice Poli) and his slutty bride, Marie (Edwige Fenech), who's secretly been doing the house servant. Professor Farrell (William Berger), whose lucrative formula for a new type of resin has brought them all together, and his judo-practicing wife, Trudy (Ira von Fürstenberg), who's also happens to be in a discrete lesbian relationship with Jill. And finally, the comparatively nondescript Jack (Howard Ross) and Peggy Davidson (Helena Ronee), who would appear to be fodder for the killer that lurks in their midst. There's also the daughter of the island's groundskeeper, Isabel (Justine Gall), who watches these uber-rich, high-society types with awe and envy.

Though its made cumbersome by the fact that the characters are hard to distinguish for the first half hour or so, the plot is exceptionally simple. Farrell's formula could make him and his investors a lot of money, but despite pressure from all sides, the professor doesn't want to sell, as his "best friend was killed because of these experiments." Of course, with fewer investors, the windfall will be split fewer ways, so it's no real surprise when additional bodies begin turning up. Atypical for most gialli, however, there are no elaborate murder set pieces here—most all of the killings take place off screen—and the focus is less on violence and suspense and more on the slow unraveling of who did what and why. The pacing is deliberate, and while the lack of horror action would seem to suggest an emphasis on characterization instead, little is done to develop the characters or their interpersonal conflicts. Even the established love pentagon, for the lack of a better phrase, falls apart from lack of use. Consequently, Five Dolls for an August Moon is rarely considered among Bava's best films, and even the director himself disowned it, often claiming it was the worst movie he ever made. He was essentially a hired gun on this one—brought onto the production after the actors and locations and story were already in place—and he was additionally irked that the script, by spaghetti thriller writer Mario di Nardo, was such an unabashed Ten Little Indians ripoff.

Bava's lack of enthusiasm for the film does manifest itself in some distinct, borderline passive-aggressive ways. Hired presumably because of his artistry in killing off characters on screen, the director defiantly opted not to explicitly show any of the murders, and he also shied away from the expected nudity, keeping Italian sex-comedy icon Edwige Fenech—who was almost certainly cast to give the movie some softcore appeal—strategically covered up. Fret not, fans, her bosomy sensuality is unable to be suppressed, and she is nearly naked in several scenes. Likewise, Bava's excitement towards the project may have been self-stilted, but his style comes through nonetheless. The dramatic camera angles. The sudden zooms. Most of all, the film's flaws are greatly overshadowed by Bava's ability to set a strange mood and then continuously unsettle us with small details, like how the survivors hang the victims in the mansion's enormous freezer, draped in plastic, until it's full. Or the initially head-scratching, non-linear way Bava deals with the appearance of some Navy seamen who have been dispatched to the island to check on everyone. While it may not be one of his best, or even best-remembered films—it was largely unseen in the U.S. until Image Entertainment's 2001 DVD—Five Dolls for an August Moon still has a lot to offer as a midway stop on the evolution of the slasher. Ironically, for as much as Bava disliked the and then there were none countdown killing of di Nardo's script, he would reappropriate the formula for his own Bay of Blood, which would go on to establish many slasher conventions.

Five Dolls for an August Moon Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Five Dolls for an August Moon looks spectacular on Blu-ray. Kino-Lorber has become known for their "as-is" transfers—performing minor color corrections but no substantial digital cleanup—so their releases often only look as good as the source materials they can obtain. In this case, Five Dolls's 35mm print—newly transferred into a 1080p/AVC-encoded presentation—is in excellent shape. There are a few fleeting age/budget-related issues—white specks, a hair or two sticking into the frame, the rare vertical scratch—but nothing pervasive or even remotely distracting. For the most part, the print is very clean, maybe even surprisingly so. Just as importantly, the print's filmic integrity is intact—grain is visible, edge enhancement or other forms of filtering are absent, and there are no harsh compression artifacts or encode problems. Clarity is greatly improved from previous standard definition editions, so much so that—as Tim Lucas points out in his commentary track—you can even make out the name on the check that Jack hands the professor at one point, a name that belongs to the stills photographer who documented the shoot. As you can imagine, then, fine detail is highly visible, and not only in closeups. Color is perfectly balanced too, punchy without looking oversaturated, with consistent black levels and highlights that never blow out. The high marks are well-deserved here.

Five Dolls for an August Moon Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Kino presents the film's English version in an uncompressed Linear PCM 2.0 mono track that does everything it needs to do. Sure, there are a few age- related concerns here—some light hissing, a few pops and crackles—but nothing persistent, harsh, or in any way distracting. The audio highlight is indisputably the groovy, organ/guitar score from composer Piero Umiliani. (The man behind the wicked earworm that is "Mah Nà Mah Nà," the song that gained international attention when it was featured on Sesame Street and The Muppet Show.) The music has a decent sense of clarity and projection, and the dubbed English dialogue is always easy to understand.

Five Dolls for an August Moon Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary: Video Watchdog editor and giallo expert Tim Lucas gives yet another insightful commentary, breaking down the film's production history and Bava's directorial approach, and pointing out details that would otherwise take several viewings to notice. A great listen.
• Mario Bava Trailers (HD): A collection of trailers for additional Bava releases from Kino-Lorber.

Five Dolls for an August Moon Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Five Dolls for an August Moon isn't often the first Mario Bava film fans reach for when they want a seamy, blood-soaked thriller—it's conspicuously nonviolent, with none of the Grand Guignol panache of the following year's Bay of Blood—but it's certainly worth watching for its stylishness and dreamlike mood. Bava himself was extremely critical of the movie, but while it's no masterpiece, it is odd and entertaining, and in its one-murder-after-another plotting, it played a definite role in the evolution of the slasher genre. Kino-Lorber's Blu-ray release features a stunning high definition transfer, lossless audio, and a must-listen commentary track from Video Watchdog editor Tim Lucas, so if you're a fan of gialli or low-budget '60s/'70s Italian moviemaking in general, it's an easy recommendation.