Short Night Of Glass Dolls (1971) ****
I'm not sure why, but before rewatching Short Night Of Glass Dolls (1971), I didn't seem to recall much from my initial 2010 viewing. Some scenes and plot points came back to me as the film played out, but it felt like watching Dolls for the first time, which was exciting—it shot way up to my Top 10 Gialli. This is most definitely an atypical giallo—there are no black gloves, no POV stalking, and almost no body count.
Naturally though, there is an investigation conducted by our main character (played by Jean Sorel), who is searching for his missing girlfriend (played by Barbara Bach), but it's difficult to go into detail without spoiling the film. A much more nuanced mystery and lacking the exploitative sex and violence that is common to the giallo genre, Dolls, as with All The Colors Of The Dark (1972) (my review here), does however feature a(n) (affluent) cult pulling the strings.
One of the most impressive aspects of Dolls is that it was Aldo Lado's directorial debut. It feels incredibly assured—from the cinematography (Lado shot a number of films as assistant director before this) to the performances to the editing. He even netted maestro Morricone to deliver an excellent, somber score. Lado made another great giallo the following year, with Who Saw Her Die?.
Short Night Of Glass Dolls is a slow but rewarding, Kafkaesque thriller with a gut punch of an ending—the story of one man's futile pursuit for answers in a sociopolitical system designed to crush him under its weight.
You can find my Giallo Feature Films Ranked list here.
Naturally though, there is an investigation conducted by our main character (played by Jean Sorel), who is searching for his missing girlfriend (played by Barbara Bach), but it's difficult to go into detail without spoiling the film. A much more nuanced mystery and lacking the exploitative sex and violence that is common to the giallo genre, Dolls, as with All The Colors Of The Dark (1972) (my review here), does however feature a(n) (affluent) cult pulling the strings.
One of the most impressive aspects of Dolls is that it was Aldo Lado's directorial debut. It feels incredibly assured—from the cinematography (Lado shot a number of films as assistant director before this) to the performances to the editing. He even netted maestro Morricone to deliver an excellent, somber score. Lado made another great giallo the following year, with Who Saw Her Die?.
Short Night Of Glass Dolls is a slow but rewarding, Kafkaesque thriller with a gut punch of an ending—the story of one man's futile pursuit for answers in a sociopolitical system designed to crush him under its weight.
You can find my Giallo Feature Films Ranked list here.
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