Cinque bambole per la luna d'agosto (1970)

Country of Origin: Italy/Spain
Year of Production: 1970
Running Times: 80 mins (USA) 88 mins (Italy)
Format: Eastmancolor
Ratio:
Sound:

PRODUCTION
Production Company: Produzione Atlas Cinematografica
Producer: Luigi Alessi
Production Managers: Alfonso Cucci, Adolfo Martello

SCRIPT
Script: Mario Di Nardo
Novel: Ten Little Niggers by Agatha Christie

DIRECTION
Director: Mario Bava
Assistant Director: Mario Bianchi

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Antonio Rinaldi, Mario Bava (uncredited)
Camera Operator: Emilio Varriano
Assistant Camera Operator: Gianlorenzo Battaglia
Labs: S.P.E.S., E. Catalucci

EDITING AND POST-PRODUCTION
Editor: Mario Bava
Assistant Editor: Liliana Serra

MUSIC
Music: Piero Umiliani
Song: Jerusso/Simonelli (Neve Calda)
Song Performed By: I. Cantori Moderni
Music Publishers: Bixio

SOUND
Sound: Leopoldo Rosi, Marvel Sound
Dubbing: C.D.C.
Synchronisation: Fono Roma

MAKE-UP AND COSTUMES
Make Up: Orietta Melaranci
Costumes: Giuliana Maffai
Assistant Costume Designer: Roberto Ranucci

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Production Designers: Giuseppe Aldrovandi, Giuliana Mafai
Sets: Giuliana Maffai

OTHER SOURCES
Continuity: Larisa Agostini
Edition Secretary: Marisa Agostini
Production Secretary: Franco Tupini

CAST
William Berger (Farrell)
Ira Furstenberg (Trudy)
Edwige Fenech (Mary Chaney)
Howard Ross (rn: Renato Rossini) (Jack Davidson)
Helena Ronee (Peggy Davidson)
Teodoro Corrą (George Stark)
Justine Gall (Ely Galleani) (Isabelle)
Edith Meloni (Jill Stark)
Mauro Bosco (Jacques)
Maurice Poli (Nick Chaney)

Professor Gerry Farrell generates a formula for creating synthetic resin. He's invited to the remote island home of wealthy industralist George Stark for a much needed vacation. But his idyll is shattered by the arrival of three rival businessmen and their wives. The new arrivals are determined to get their hands on the formula and will do whatever it takes - when bribery fails, one of them begins murdering their way through the others.

Not Bava's best by a long way, this is a painfully dull giallo, enlivened only by the director's customary eye for the unusual and bewtiching visual. The script, as Bava was the first to admit, is the film's biggest liability, and the excellent cast is wasted on seriously sub-standard material. A strange anomoly in Bava's canon, and really one for completists only.

UK
Video Distributor: Redemption (RETN025)

USA
Video Distributor: Video Search of Miami

UK
Rating: 18

1970
February
14: Italy - theatrical release

1972
November
22: France - theatrical release

1994
January
31: UK - video release (Redemption RETN025)

5 filles dans une nuit chaude d'ete
Cinco munecas para la luna de agosto
Five Dolls For an August Moon
L'ile de l'epouvante
Island of Terror - USA title

MAGAZINES

Delirium no.1 (UK)
credits, review

European Trash Cinema vol.2 no.6 p.10 (USA)
review

Giallo Guide 1987 (UK)
credits

Necronomicon no.7 pp.4-5 (UK)
illustrated review

BOOKS

Aurum Encyclopedia of Film: Horror pp.217-218
credits, review

Horror and Science Fiction II p.135
credits

giallo; islands; serial-killers; industrialists; scientists