Out of this world horror-fused giallo, incorporating a flashback/non-linear narrative to roll out it's pretty unique entry into the genre. Italian Director Aldo Ladd ("Who Saw Her Die?") successfully balances a decent whodunit with pending dread.

The film opens with the point of view from a (supposed) corpse, as the plastic covering over the body is unzipped. Very cool touch. It begins to dawn on the awakening man, who can't move a muscle or speak, that he's lying on a slab at a morgue in Prague. One of the attendants notices that the body is not cold, despite the amount of time since being pronounced deceased. This gives the victim limited time to recall (in a series of flashbacks) how…

Hoop-Tober #8

a slow nightmare of resistant, dissonant, wild, youthful energy being orgiastically consumed by state power. it burns slowly, granting the final revelation a terrible magnetic power, slow absorbing the foregoing labyrinth of the film's mysteries, evaporating them in the hideous NOW of consuming and frantic lust. satanic power dominates the body and mind like black magic. the state as the soul of satan. the city as the body of satan. souls for plucking and consuming. mind control and thought command and auto-submission to the cult.

eschewing gore emphasizes how implacable the final doom is: that THEY must consume more than the body, reach beyond the body, devour MORE than mere bodies. satanic lust inhales entire souls. eats the…

As a big fan of "Night Train Murders", Aldo Lado's bloody and shocking treatise on class, I've been really looking forward to this film.

"Short Night of Glass Dolls" is gialli Jim, but not as we know it. There are no black gloves, blood is mostly kept off screen, and a knife is rarely seen here. What we do get is a really interesting mystery story with a macabre edge - the twin foundations of giallo. Rather than a shadowy killer we have a secret organisation, an almost illuminati like cabal and the tale of a dogged reporter's hunt for his missing girlfriend told in flashbacks.

The location is Czechoslovakia; a country under soviet control and the colour red features…

A mysterious disappearance, Black Magic, and political unrest via expertly conjured symbolism. Aldo Lado’s Short Night of the Glass Dolls is a slow burn excercise in dread that doesn’t rely on the usual giallo tropes. No black gloves or razor blades, no lurking psychopath drenched in black, just pure mystery with one hell of a framing device.

The corpse of reporter Gregory Moore (Jean Sorel) is found and brought to the local morgue, but, Moore is actually alive, trapped inside his dead body and desperately trying to somehow alert the morgue technicians of his aliveness whilst trying to piece together how the mysterious disappearance of his girlfriend (Barbara Bach) soon reveals a terrifying conspiracy of Eyes Wide Shut style madness.…

Hooptober 5.0, 30/31
The Twilight Time Challenge, 10/100

The directorial debut of Aldo Lado, Short Night of Glass Dolls is a bit of a different giallo. There are still mysterious deaths occurring, but they have largely already occurred by the time the film starts. Even when one does occur, it happens off-screen and is shown to be a mysterious disappearance with no one knowing if the woman is alive. There is no gore - in fact, there is no blood until the final scene - and there is even very little clarity. Many giallos feel a bit like a slasher whodunit, but Short Night of Glass Dolls feels more like a hazy recollection, missing a lot of connective threads to…

Underestimated, partly because it barely fits the giallo category but is difficult to label in any other way. Also underrated, I suppose, because with the main character in a coma from the start, the film is essentially a flashback and there are few killings. However, this lovely looking film features the hypnotic Jean Sorel in the lead and the even lovelier Barbara Bach as his girlfriend. The coma based story may not sound exciting but this is a most riveting outing from Aldo Lado in his first directorial effort. Lots of happenings that surprise and perplex and the Kafkaesque nature of the piece appropriate, it being set in Prague. The Morricone soundtrack is mesmerising and when it merges with Sorel's…

I liked that a lot. Essentially a chap wakes up dead. That is, he has no life signs/functions, but is conscious and aware of what is going on.

The structure is kind of non linear. I guess I'd like it to turnery form in that we keep coming back to the present day after each flashback. The rest of the film is told in flashback as our main character tries to remember what got him to ilhis present state. Each segment begins with a very short series of images which again keeping with the musical analogy is like a mini overture.

What we effectively end up with is a mystery within a mystery. It turns out that in trying to…

#Giallotober Fest #5 Short Night of Glass Dolls, Aldo Ladd, 1971

4/5

Kinda a strange “out of this world” horror-fused giallo, incorporating a flashback/non-linear narrative to roll out it’s pretty unique entry into this genre. Italian Director Aldo Ladd successfully balances a decent whodunit with pending dread.

The film opens with the point of view from a (supposed) corpse, as the plastic covering over the body is unzipped, which was a cool. It begins to dawn on the awakening man, who can’t move a muscle or speak, that he’s lying on a slab at a morgue in Prague. One of the attendants notices that the body is not cold, despite the amount of time since being pronounced deceased. This gives…