Short Night Of Glass Dolls (1971) ****

Short Night Of Glass Dolls (1971) is an atypical giallo—there are no black gloves, no POV stalking, and a very low 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 nuanced mystery, lacking the exploitative sex and violence that is common to the giallo genre, Dolls—as with All The Colors Of The Dark (1972) (review)—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?.

SNOGD is a slow but rewarding, Kafkaesque thriller with a gut punch of an ending—the nightmarish story of one man's futile pursuit for answers in a sociopolitical system designed to crush him under its weight.

Aldo Lado Films Ranked

Giallo Feature Films Ranked