(1971)
Dir - Aldo Lado
Overall: MEH
The debut from director Aldo Lando, Short Night of Glass Dolls, (La Corta notte delle bambole di vetro), is a somewhat unique and unnerving yet poorly paced giallo. Like all films in the sensationalized, Italian sub-genre, it is all about stylishly building up a central mystery, one that only gets solved in the final few minutes and usually laughably so. Here, Lando and screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi forgo centering their story around yet another black-gloved killer and littering it with red herrings. Instead, they go for very gradually teasing at some sort of secret society with political and law enforcement backing who has possibly been making young women disappear for years. Visually, the film is nowhere near as striking as other giallos from the era, but it has some singular touches and a thoroughly tense, creepy finale that make up for it. Sadly, the first two acts are largely unmoving though and the film very much feels its length. It may be worth sitting through some of its lackluster hangups to get to the expertly done finale, but it fails to come together completely enough to assuredly recommend.
(1974)
Dir - Paul Morrissey
Overall: MEH
Shot in Italy immediately following the production of Flesh for Frankenstein and released the following year, Paul Morrissey's companion horror spoof Blood for Dracula is quite similarly absurd. The pluses to these two films is that Morrissey and company are willfully lampooning not only the horror genre but standard movie presentation conventions as well. The gore is excessive, the sleaze prominent, the plot moronic, the dialog is pure laughable nonsense, the class system critiques abundant as well as elementary, and the performances are deadpan and committed. As he was in Frankenstein, Udo Kier in particular is delightfully ridiculous, tackling the "Wait, are they serious?" material with his eccentric accent and mannerisms like he is trying to make the utmost buffoon of himself. While all parties involved know they are making something essentially dumb and there are plenty of chuckles to be found because of this, the combination of competent technical aspects with a deliberately amatuerish script and intention is frequently more monotonous than particularly entertaining. It is perhaps worth it for Kier and a laugh out loud funny ending though.
(1975)
Dir - Pier Paolo Pasolini
Overall: MEH
If not the most equally polarizing and disturbing of all films, Pier Paolo Pasolini's swansong Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, (Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma), is at least in the upper running. Few works in any genre are as relentlessly challenging for practically any audience member, the squeamish being chief among them. As an adaptation of Marquis de Sade's infamous The 120 Days of Sodom re-contextualized for 1944 in the fascist-occupied Republic of Salò, Pasolini's brazen attempt to brutally depict power corruption in both fascism and consumerism strips all humanity out of both. In its place, the viewer is given no choice but to voyeuristically endure mind-numbing amounts of torture, humiliation and debauchery the likes of which few if any theatrically released movies ever dared portray. The film is undeniably powerful and leaves a sickening, intentionally hopeless impression. Because there is no camp, no humor, no attempt whatsoever to entertain, it is an almost impossible work to re-visit let alone stomach but once in a lifetime. For cinephiles or anyone craving an intellectual discussion on the psychology of sadism, morality, nihilism, and many other such heavy themes, this is a one-stop shop that needs come with the gravest of warnings.
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