review

5 DOLLS FOR AN AUGUST MOON
5 Dolls for an August Moon

Mario Bava's 5 DOLLS FOR AN AUGUST MOON is giallo as pop music. It is lively, entertaining, colorful, and playful but completely devoid of substance. This is pure shut-your-brain-off-and-enjoy eye candy with a playfully sadistic streak, shot through with gaudy 70's haute couture. It seems a bit out of place in Bava's filmography. While Bava was never one to stray away from playful films - DANGER DIABOLIK is, more or less, a Saturday morning cartoon come to life - 5 DOLLS FOR AN AUGUST MOON is a giallo and we don't often expect to find a giallo with this kind of black humor undercurrent.


Edwige Fenech 5 Dolls for an August Moon

The plot of the film is rather easily summed up. A group of married couples are taking a holiday on a private island. One of the men is Professor Farrell, a man who has recently come up with a new formula for an industrial resin. The other men - George, Jack and Nick - are desperate to get their hands on it. Problem is, the Professor isn't selling. While the wives lounge around clothed, semi-clothed and nude, the men play power games. All of this occurs under the watchful eye of a strange young woman named Isabel. When the house boy is found murdered and the sole boat on the island goes missing, the couples begin to grow suspicious of one another. The situation comes to a head when the Professor is shot dead and soon our guests are being bumped off one by one.


Mario Bava Giallo 5 Dolls for an August Moon

Easy enough.


In reality, 5 DOLLS FOR AN AUGUST MOON is little more than a ripoff of Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None" but while Christie's novel had fully formed characters and an engaging - if simple - plot, Bava's film features stock characters simply going through the standard murder mystery motions. Though it is linked to Bava's earlier gialli through it's obsession with greed and duplicitous relationships, 5 DOLLS FOR AN AUGUST MOON feels cheaper and flimsier than, say, BLOOD AND BLACK LACE. None of the relationships in the film are fleshed out past "who slept with who" and "who wants to sleep with who" and none of the situations are ever played for anything more than simple plot mechanizations. While it is quite striking at times, the film feels cheap in comparison to Bava's other films. I think the use of actual locations - a good chunk of the film occurs outdoors - hurts the film considerably. Bava was at his best when shooting on set where he could control every aspect of the film's look. 5 DOLLS FOR AN AUGUST MOON lacks that signature Bava look and, as a result, has nothing to fall back on when the story begins to wear thin.


Ira Furstenberg 5 Dolls for an August Moon

One of the key ingredients to a successful giallo is the set piece and one of the many problems with 5 DOLLS FOR AN AUGUST MOON is it's lack of set pieces. Apart from a brief scene at the film's beginning - a scene which starts with a kinky Edwige Fenech dance number - there is nothing remotely close to a true giallo set piece in the film. And even that scene is little more than a come on. It all turns out to be one big joke. The characters in the film more or less turn up dead, robbing the audience of one of the giallo's true pleasures. It's disappointing, especially when one remembers that this is a Mario Bava film. What this film needed was a bit more suspense and a little less humor. Had Bava gone down that route, the film might have been a keeper. As it stands, it's just eye candy.


Not recommended.


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