*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.
(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.