User Reviews

I've become a fan of the giallo films in recent years. I'd seen some in the past but with many being released for the first time on blu-ray I've been able to catch many that I'd missed. The thing is I've truly enjoyed seeing these films and look forward to seeing more as they are released. Which brings us to SHORT NIGHT OF GLASS DOLLS.

The movie is told from the perspective of reporter Gregory Moore (Jean Sorel) who is thought dead and laying in the morgue due for an autopsy. He can hear his thoughts in his own mind but can't move or communicate with those around him. As he awaits his fate he reflects back on what led him to this predicament.

Moore was writing about political affairs in Czechoslovakia. He became enamored with a young woman named Mira (Barbara Bach) and promised to take her with him on his next assignment. Called out to meet and informer who never shows Moore returns to find Mira gone and missing. With the police assuming she just ran off he must search for her on his own.

Using his reporting skills he soon discovers a number of young women who've gone missing in recent years. He continues his search with the help of his ex-lover and editor Jessica (Ingrid Thulin). As he delves deeper he finds connections to Klub 99 where he had taken Mira earlier on the night she went missing. He soon learns that the members of the club are a secret sect of Czechoslovakia's old guard who thrive on destroying the idealistic young people of that country. Before he can take this information to the police he is drugged which is where we now find him. Can he escape?

The movie is often hailed for the political motivations seen on screen but for myself I found it difficult to understand all of those. Much of what they were talking about was foreign to me and I'm not just talking about the film. I wasn't aware of much of the political turmoil in that country at the time and it made it just a bit confusing. Interesting but confusing. I found out more in looking into the film after watching it than I gained while watching.

In the end it was entertaining enough but not a film I would truly call a giallo in spite of the fact that it has been marketed as such. Perhaps that's just my misunderstanding of the genre but I don't think so. Gone are the black gloves, the sharp knives and the masked killer. Still on hand are a few red herrings to distract you. On the whole though I'd have to say I was disappointed in this one. But many have praised it so my guess is it depends on your life and viewing experiences.

Twilight Time is releasing this like always in just 3,000 copies. The film was released earlier but Twilight Time always does an amazing job with their transfers making this one a movie to add to your collections if you love the genre. Their edition includes extras like an isolated music track (the score was written by Ennio Morricone), an audio commentary track with film historians David Del Valle and Matteo Molinari and the original English and Italian theatrical trailers.

I've seen many reviews praising SHORT NIGHT...and I guess I just don't get it. There are definitely some things to like about it-but overall I found the storyline and pace of the film to kill what otherwise could have been an interesting ending.

American reporter Greg Moore is found dead in a park in Prague. Thing is-he's not really dead-just paralyzed but still cognizant of what's going on around him-and the plot is presented to the audience through Greg's flashbacks of what brought him to this condition. The 'mystery' of the story revolves around the fact that days earlier-Greg's girlfriend disappeared and the search for the truth surrounding her disappearance, and his subsequent solving of the mystery, is why he ends up in the condition that he's in...

There are a few things that I liked about this giallo-styled thriller. I say 'giallo-style' because there are a lot of stylistic differences in this film that in my opinion move it more into just straight-up 'thriller' territory, than the slightly more 'specific' sub-genre of the typical 'giallo'. There's very little actual sex and violence shown-and the typical 'black- gloved killer' is non-existent. Regardless-the film is shot well, the acting is decent, and Greg's odd 'condition' is both interesting and original for this sort of film. The underlying theme of the 'elite' being able to manipulate people and situations for their own benefit usually makes for an interesting basis for a plot as well. That said-SHORT NIGHT is SO slowly paced that after the first half-hour or so-it just drags. I don't mind a slow-paced film-but the problem I found is that often leads were followed that never really went anywhere, therefore not really forwarding the story very much. The 'climax' of the film- though somewhat interesting-didn't feel as though it was built-up to very well. I think the occult angle could have been discovered earlier and then used as a major and interesting part of the build-up...but it wasn't. I will say that I did very much like the downbeat nature of the final scene.

At this point-I've now seen three of Lado's films-including the relatively enjoyable (if completely derivative) NIGHT TRAIN MURDERS, and the abysmal WHO SAW HER DIE? I found SHORT NIGHT...to fall somewhere between the two on the enjoyment scale. SHORT NIGHT....isn't a 'bad' film by any means-but I can't agree with those that feel this is a shining example in the genre. I'm not nearly as much of a giallo aficionado as some-but I've seen enough to know that this definitely isn't one of the most notable entries. 6/10

And perhaps the only one, as well. I mean, how many others in this genre were even set in a Communist city (here, Prague), let alone had such a strong political subtext? Though this isn't really a giallo in the traditional sense, it's more of a straight mystery (there is no gore, but some nudity - even senior-citizen nudity!). The "hook" of the film (a man who appears to be dead to everyone but whose mind is still working and is trying to remember what happened to him) is original and gripping. The final 5 minutes are suspenseful. But in the middle the movie fizzles and becomes dull, with a more or less obvious plot, a lack of pace, and uninspiring performances. It also features one of Ennio Morricone's less memorable music scores. ** out of 4.

*spoiler* ahead

(aka: SHORT NIGHT OF GLASS DOLLS)

I saw this one right after Aldo's WHO SAW HER DIE? (1972) and I can tell you that this is a MUCH better film than that one, hands down. The Morricone score is better here, too. I may even purchase the soundtrack to it if I can find it.

Most of the film is told in flashback which isn't too hard to follow. Gregory Moore (Jean Sorel) is found in a park, comatose and paralyzed and spends the rest of the film reflecting on the events that led up to him being put into this state.

Barbara Bach (Ringo's wife) appears as Gregory's girlfriend who disappears early in the film and who's search is imperative to Gregory. Besides Bach gone missing, not much else happens in the film for the first 40 minutes or so as he goes from place to place investigating what happened to her as well as similar cases of other young women who have turned up missing.

Then the plot picks up as Gregory is on to something and other people try to prevent him from getting at the truth. It's all tied to a private club that kidnaps young girls for satanic rituals and uses the butterfly as a symbol of it's members virility. It's members (old & young) engage in orgies as the victim is sacrificed, so we get a blurry soft core scene of naked old people huddling with one another. (gag!)

When Gregory stumbles on to all this, he is put on a powerful drug that simulates death by the cult members so that when he's found, he will be fully aware of what's happening to him without being able to do anything about it. It's a pretty macabre sentence Gregory has to serve because of his discovery.

*It has a brutal twist ending that totally surprises the viewer. Just as you think our hero Gregory comes out of his coma in the large autopsy viewing room right before he is to be cut open, the knife goes in and satanic cult's secret is safe.

This is the 70s, folks. A decade when the bad guys sometimes won in films and this film is no exception.

Beautiful Prague scenery. I'm surprised the Commie authorities allowed this kind of a film to be made there, but I suppose with mostly a Czech film crew behind the scenes, an exception was made.

Stunning DVD print by Anchor Bay. It's so pristine that the film stock hasn't aged at all. With extra commentary by Aldo Lado himself and his recollections of the film.

Gets a 6 out of 10 on the imdb meter for having some originality to it.

Spoilers

SHORT NIGHT OF THE GLASS DOLLS is a beautiful film. In fact, it's one of the most beautiful films I've ever seen. Beautiful cinematography (by Giuseppe Ruzzolini), beautiful composition, beautiful cast, beautiful music, beautiful sets and scenery. Prague looks absolutely stunning. But, and it's sad to say anything negative about SNOTGD, the story is sparse and VERY predictable. The one truly original aspect of the story is in the way that it's told: in flashbacks by a man, Greg (handsome Jean Sorel) who is supposed to be dead. We see him at the morgue, his "corpse" moved around here and there, his best friend, a doctor, wondering if he's really dead and doing tests on the supposedly dead man. Well, obviously, Greg is not dead, merely hypnotized. And as Greg lays there, his eyes staring blankly at the ceiling, he recounts the many strange events that lead him being hypnotized and in his very precarious situation.

The logic (or lack of logic) behind the idea of hypnotizing Greg in order to simulate death is an interesting one but it IS stretched to the point of incredulity. Why didn't the "evil bunch" just kill Greg? This is where the story falters. Yes, the ending sorta makes it look like the perfect crime but come on. The evil folks who plotted all of this took a BIG chance because Greg might have suddenly snapped out of his hypnotic state at any moment. Also, the story about Greg's disappearing girlfriend (a very young Barbara Bach) and how this affects a group of people is simply too reminiscent of Antonioni's L'AVVENTURA. The similarities between the two films are to the point of being distracting. And because I knew how the movie was going to end from the very beginning (it's not hard to figure out), all the great things going for SNOTGD were unduly negated by the predictability of it all. It's a shame because the film could have been a real masterpiece.

Every Giallo fan should see SHORT NIGHT OF THE GLASS DOLLS at least once. Even though it doesn't look like a Giallo during the first hour, corpses start to piling up in the second half and the whole morgue setting is morbid enough to place this film in the Giallo category. The only thing that really stood out and seemed out of place was the bit with the singer. Now that was annoying!

Aldo Lado's "La Corta Notte Delle Bambole Di Vetro" aka. "Short Night Of The Glass Dolls" of 1971 is a work of art in style and beauty that every fellow lover of Italian Horror cinema should see for its many ingenious aspects. Yet, I cannot deny that I was a tiny bit disappointed with this film, which I bought under the title "Malastrana" and which several fellow Giallo-enthusiasts had recommended to me as something absolutely unique. My expectations were high, and I also expected something quite different in the film. I was (miss)lead to believe that "Malastrana" was a typical Giallo, and while it can be attributed to the Giallo-genre, it can not really be described as a Giallo in the traditional sense. It was not the lack of stylish murders from the perspective of a black-gloved killer that bothered me, however. The visually striking film has a downright brilliant premise and an ingenious ending, but in-between it tends to drag a little. While the general atmosphere is an eerie one, however, I would have loved a little more genuine scares.

Not that the film wasn't suspenseful. It actually builds up a great tension. The film begins very promising, when a man (Jean Sorel) is brought to a morgue while he is actually still alive. The man, who soon remembers that he is Gregory, an American Journalist working in Prague, experiences how he is pronounced dead, and yet he is unable to do anything about his situation. He therefore decides that all he can do is to try and remember how he got in this peculiar situation... A more than original beginning indeed, which made my expectations for the rest of the film even higher. A fellow Giallo fan had described the film as one of his personal favorites to me, and in the beginning I almost felt that it might become one of mine. Sadly, there are some points that I didn't like. The film drags a little in the middle, and the suspense could sometimes have been more intense. Also, the film does not really make the viewer care for the characters, which lessens the intensity a little. Then again, the film has many brilliant aspects. Visually, the film is incredibly striking. The photography is beautifully done and Prague is an excellent setting for a Giallo, even more for one with an occult twist. The visual impressions are intensified by a brilliant score by maestro Ennio Morricone. Jean Sorell is very good in the lead and the rest of the performances are also brilliant. The cast includes the great Mario Adorf in a typically unpolished role, and the immortal Ingrid Thulin. The ravishing Barbara Bach is unbelievably beautiful in the role of Mira, the main protagonist's young girlfriend who takes every man's breath away. Overall, "Short Night Of The Glass Dolls" did not quite live up to my very high expectations, but it is not the film alone which can be blamed for that. I began to watch this film expecting a masterpiece, and while, in my opinion, it is not, it is nonetheless a highly atmospheric, original and visually striking film that no Italian Horror fan should consider missing. Especially the ending is breathtaking. Not an absolute masterpiece, in my opinion, and yet highly recommended to all my fellow Giallo-buffs!

A superior giallo classic from Aldo Lado, who would follow it up with the watchable but not quite so gripping WHO SAW HER DIE?. SHORT NIGHT OF THE GLASS DOLLS is an acknowledged classic of the genre for the few people who have seen it, a suspenseful and thoroughly atmospheric conspiracy thriller which takes an understated approach to rival the sheer claustrophobic paranoia of such '70s classics as INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS. Lado's movie is expertly-made, from the stylish cinematography which brings the beauty of the Prague location to the fore, to the strong acting on display and the fitting score by genre maestro Ennio Morricone.

The conspiracy lies at the centre of the movie and we watch as the lead, Gregory, gradually gets a step nearer at a time to discovering the truth about the disappearance of his girlfriend, as played by the incredibly fragile Barbara Bach. The slow-paced nature of the narrative may be off-putting to some viewers but the lack of action is by no means a hindrance, rather a plus as Lado takes time out to characterise the leads, build atmosphere, and also work on the level of suspense the film offers, ever increasing. The framing narrative of the story unusually comes from the point of view of Gregory's corpse, or rather his body as he is suffering from a form of the rare condition catalepsy (which of course led to Edgar Allan Poe's fears of being buried alive). However, the fear of something much worse is at hand here - an autopsy! The finale involves Gregory's body being laid on the autopsy table in front of a student college and is sheer nail-biting stuff, which brings the tension up to breaking point and is near unwatchable. An extremely powerful conclusion that I can't really say any more about, other than it's well worth waiting for and one of the scariest bits of cinema I've seen in a long while.

Lado ignores the typical horrific approach for the genre - i.e. to ladle in oodles of sadism and gore - and instead concentrates on psychological horror over the physical stuff - there are no faces burned off by acid or gruesome knifings in this movie. Instead what we have is a deliberate pacing which helps get us into the increasingly desperate head of the lead Gregory as he alienates those around him and becomes a murder suspect himself as he hunts for the missing Mira, becoming increasingly dishevelled as he does so. Lado has some excellent set pieces in which the filming and lighting are spot on (take for instance the shot where Gregory hides in the darkened room, or the train station murder sequence). Technically the film is perfect and, seen in its subtitled version, the dialogue is witty, believable, and often packed with double-meanings.

Jean Sorel is perfectly cast as the young, handsome male lead, in what is a chivalrous and Franco Nero-type role. His acting gets better as he gets increasingly fraught throughout the production and I couldn't imagine a better actor in the role. The supporting cast also turn in strong performances which give the movie a realistic edge - you don't feel like you're watching actors acting here, just real people. Lado deepens his movie with political subtexts and inserts some arty clues (a case of butterflies which cannot fly), which are the norm for the genre. The title, incidentally, refers to a crystal chandelier which hangs above Sorel's bed. Other spine-shuddering moments include mysterious characters hanging around on street corners (always a good scare for me) and a really weird orgy/Satanic ritual which comes as a real surprise. Lado's movie avoids being sleazy (there are nude scenes, but mainly of old women!) and gory yet stands out as one of the highlights of the giallo genre - a minor classic that deserves a better reputation than the (lack of) one it has at the moment.

What a pleasant surprise. This early giallo entry was Aldo Lado's first directorial feature and he put a lot of effort into it. What might disappoint slightly is that you don't see a lot in the way of good deaths. Most are done off-screen, which makes this a marginal giallo, at best. However, don't be put off by the "lack of hack." This movie has got the goods and delivers them.

An American journalist, Gregory Moore played by Jean Sorel(who reminds me of Franco Nero a bit), is found at the beginning of the film lying in the grass and being menaced by a hungry crow. Gregory is believed to be dead and so is transported to the hospital. However, while there, the audience is privy to his inner dialogue which seems to prove he is very much alive. The examining doctors are befuddled by his lack of rigidity and other normal signs of recent death. Then we begin to move through flashbacks as Gregory tries to piece together how he got to the hospital and what occurred over the last few days. During the hospital sequence, there are some delicious moments of uncertainty where you wonder whether a possibly still-living Gregory will fall under the scalpel for an autopsy or will he wake up with is innards exposed? I especially liked the part where he was slipped into the cooler until the doctors decided what to do with him and then another body is placed on the rack above him. Super creepy.

The flashback sequences are masterfully spun. Gregory searches desperately for his girlfriend, the pretty-from-the-right-angle Barbara Bach, who's gone missing. He and his journalist friends butt heads with the local police in Prague as they chase shadows in empty plazas and zig-zagging alleys. After putting a few pieces of the puzzle together, Gregory finds a club for lovers of classical music and believes Barbara and other women have met their fate at the hands of the occupants. What follows is a rather strange orgy of black mass rites and political potency. The ending is shocking. The hospital aspect of the plot is very similar to a Twilight Zone episode and also to a Stephen King short story(I doubt King saw this film, but he did say the TZ episode inspired him-which is admirable since it's practically identical---ah, the ability to be published for such nonsense, but I digress).

Ennio Morricone provides the score. While Morricone is always good, the second film by Aldo Lado has a much better score written by Ennio.

There is almost no bloodshed in this film and what you do see is mainly off-camera deaths. This is unusual for 70's horror/thrillers and it's a rare treat to just sit back and take in Lado's meticulous direction.