VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Brenda The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Bezenby My feet stink! Just like my feet, so do the morals of 100% of the characters in this film - A bunch of beatnik types on a remote island courtesy of George Stark, an uber wealthy guy who's brought these people here in order to obtain a new chemical formula discovered by William Berger.Being the sixties, everyone's a bit groovy and all into each other's pants - Maurice Poli's wife Edwidge has huge Robert Smith circa 1984 hair and gold lame trousers and loves dancing in her bra and sleeping with the guy who owns the yacht. I think Berger's wife was into ladies but maybe not. You also have Ely Galleanni running around the island acting strange too (and she can't be more than seventeen in this one. In fact everyone looks pretty young, expect Maurice Poli who looks about fifty - yet he still walks the Earth forty-seven years later!).This being a giallo someone's got to be killed at some point and yacht boy is up for a stabbing first, so everyone's blaming Edwidge, who states "I like men - but I like them to be alive!". So who is the killer? Who wants the formula? And why didn't they invite William Berger instead of all those people?I suppose if you ask ten different people to make you an omelette you're going to get ten omelettes of varying quality depending on the skills of those in charge of the eggs (this is a great analogy - remember and change 'omelette' to 'pizza' before posting review so it makes cultural sense). Bava's one of those special cooks who just has a natural touch that makes everything taste everything better than anyone else.When not cooking, Bava made some of the best Gialli too, thanks to his ability to film things from unusual angles, fitting all the characters in one scene in one shot, and throwing in a curveball or too to totally confuse the viewer (that comes an hour into this one, where I thought the story had just forward to the end for some reason). Also, the wrapping of each victim in plastic and hanging in the freezer is a nice touch too (and often copied in slashers in the eighties).Lacking gore though (except someone being shot directly in the face at the end) - he'd remedy that in Bay of Blood!Oh - and the soundtrack was amazing!

BA_Harrison George Stark (Teodoro Corrà), a wealthy industrialist, invites several business friends and their partners to his island retreat for the weekend, with the intention of convincing scientist Gerry Farrell (William Berger) to sell his secret formula for a new industrial resin. Philanthropist Gerry isn't interested in making a deal, intending instead to make his invention public, a fact that forces one or more of the guests to turn to murder.The general consensus seems to be that this is one of director Mario Bava's weakest efforts (even Bava himself was reportedly not fond of the film, being contractually obliged to direct); I can't really comment much on that since I've seen too few of his films to compare, but what I can say is that, even though I found the twists and turns of this Italian variation of Agatha Christie's Ten little Indians virtually impossible to fathom (especially the twist ending), there were still enough positives to make it worth a go.As with many a giallo, the female cast are very easy on the eye, with genre regular Edwige Fenech stripping off whenever possible as always. There are numerous murders, and although they all occur off-screen (we get to see just the aftermath), the hanging up of the steadily growing number bodies in a meat locker is wonderfully macabre and darkly amusing. The jazzy score is super cool, perfectly complementing the wonderful '60s/'70s architecture and decor of the island's house. And despite Bava's purported disinterest, there is still an unmistakable sense of style, with effective uses of whip-pans and rapid zooms, and at least one stunning scene worthy of a genius, wherein a display of glass balls roll down a spiral staircase, along the floor, and into a bathtub where a woman has committed suicide.All said and done, if this is his worst, I really must check out his best.

jadavix "Five Dolls For an August Moon" is a tedious proto-slasher with giallo touches. It features the typical cast of older, debonair gentlemen with their young bimbos conducting affairs with whoever else - one in a lesbian tryst, for an even more giallo-type sense of trashiness (the slasher genre was too conservative for lesbianism).Anyway, the characters are all utterly charmless and distant. Slashers generally went with obnoxious teenage stereotypes; gialli use bloodless rich people. Either way, it's impossible to care about them.There is also no real attempt at suspense. The movie doesn't even try to make you care about what's going on; it's like looking at a series of photos of the location that occasionally have dead people in them.There is no on-screen violence that I remember, no nudity except for one scene with Edwige Fenech (who is wasted here) where you might have to squint, and no real reason to watch that I can think of, unless you are a Bava completist.

Tender-Flesh This plays out less like a giallo film and more like a simple murder mystery, or, to be unkind, an adult Scooby Doo episode that mated with Gilligan's Island.A group of acquaintances are staying together in a lovely villa while the men-folk discuss business. The business at hand involves a professor's new formula for an industrial resin that has the potential to make someone a lot of money. Several of the guys offer the professor million dollar checks for the formula, but he's not ready to sell out just yet. So, naturally, someone is just going to have to DIE! So, the only boat on the shore seems to have been set adrift, leaving the "friends and lovers" to figure out whodunit, and how to get home.If I recall, all of the death scenes are off-camera, and Bava is having some fun with music scores and dark comedy. As the bodies pile up, the still-living decide to wrap the corpses in plastic and hang each of them in the meat locker next to a massive slab of beef to swing to and fro on hooks to a strange musical ditty that seems to be the "Meat Locker Theme." There is some blood, but it's tame, and you'll probably realize by the way these people treat each other, even supposed spouses and lovers, that none of these jerks deserves to make it back alive. The worst aspect of the film is the unbelievability with which the remaining cast carries on their daily routines on the island knowing there is a killer among them. They barely act upset when someone dies. Oh, there may be some tears, but they get over it real quick! I enjoyed how Bava set up so many of the scenes from the exact same camera points in the house or on the beaches, but had different action taking place. I wouldn't recommend this for giallo fans, but if you like Italian thrillers or just Mario Bava in general, search this one out.