Five Dolls for an August Moon (1970)

A small group of people come to an island to relax but soon find themselves trapped on the island with a murderer in their midst.

Director:

Mario Bava

Writer:

Mario di Nardo (story and screenplay)

Stars:

William Berger, Ira von Fürstenberg, Edwige Fenech

1 win.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
William Berger	...	Professore Fritz Farrell / Professor Gerry Farrell
Ira von Fürstenberg	...	Trudy Farrell (as Ira Furstenberg)
Edwige Fenech	...	Marie Chaney
Howard Ross	...	Jack Davidson
Helena Ronee	...	Peggy Davidson (as Helena Ronée)
Teodoro Corrà	...	George Stark (as Teodoro Corrá)
Ely Galleani	...	Isabel (as Justine Gall)
Edith Meloni	...	Jill Stark
Mauro Bosco	...	Jacques / Charles
Maurice Poli	...	Nick Chaney

Storyline

George Stark is a wealthy industrialist who invites five business friends of his to his remote Mediterranean island for a weekend of relaxation and business when he introduces them to Professor Farrell, a brilliant chemist who gives investment ideas to the group. But against Farrell's wishes, the group goes behind each other's back to obtain information on Farrell's chemistry ideas and soon the guests and residents start turning up dead one by one as Stark and Farrell must rally the group together to determine the identity of the killer (or killers) despite nobody trusting anyone.

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Plot Keywords:

female nudity | female removes her clothes | female removes her dress | female stockinged feet | bathtub | 

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Taglines:

Island of terror!

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Genres:

Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

Agatha Christie's original story was titled "Ten Little Niggers", which had previously been filmed under such official titles as And Then There Were None (1945) and Ten Little Indians (1965). The source of the story went uncredited. Mario Bava did not care for that story, but his next feature, A Bay of Blood (1971), was practically a rewrite, on which he enjoyed total control.

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Goofs

At 66 minutes, a crew member can be seen holding the mirror that is causing the sun's reflection.

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Quotes

George Stark: I'm not a man of thought. I'm a man of action.

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Connections

References Sandokan the Great (1963)

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Soundtracks

Neve Calda
Written by Emilio Iarrusso (as Jarrusso) and Giacomo Simonelli (as Simonelli)
Performed by Il Balletto di Bronzo
Courtesy of Disco R.C.A.

User Reviews

An incomprehensible but sporadically beautiful mess

Art direction and cinematography are as distinctive as any of Bava's other giallo films of the period, but the garbled script to what is essentially little more than a standard body-count movie really lets this one down. After a plodding and talky start, the film disintegrates into a total mess. Bava pulls off the odd visual flourish, but such scenes never gel together. Still, the mesmeric use of zooms, focus pulls, and tracking shots and the stylish use of colour ensures that, from an entirely aesthetic perspective, this film never becomes boring, and as an auteur piece, is well worth a watch. Now, if only I could work out what the hell happened in it...

Details

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

25 November 1970 (UK)

Also Known As:

Island of Terror

Filming Locations:

Anzio, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company Credits

Production Co:

Produzioni Atlas Consorziate (P.A.C.)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

82 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1