Short Night of the Glass Dolls (1971) - October 16, 2018

[oildude]

Aldo Lado's stylish giallo Short Night of the Glass Dolls (1971) will be released October 16, 2018, from Twilight Time. This will be a limited edition of 3000 copies.

From IMDb....Greg Moore, an American journalist visiting Prague with his girlfriend, Mira, is found dead. However, he's actually only temporarily paralyzed, but the coroner fails to realize this and proceeds to prepare him for the autopsy. While Moore awaits his doom, he tries to recollect what has happened to him. It all starts when his girlfriend disappears. He asks his friend, a local journalist, for help. They discover that this was just the latest in a series of disappearances of young pretty girls in the area. Their investigation leads them to a strange high profile private club, whose affluent members practice odd ritualistic orgies and bizarre dark rites.

Directed by Aldo Lado (Who Saw Her Die?, Last Stop on the Night Train, La cosa buffa, Born Winner, Humanoid)

Starring:

Ingrid Thulin (Wild Strawberries, Hour of the Wolf, Cries and Whispers)
Jean Sorel (Belle de Jour, A Lizard in a Woman's Skin, The Day of the Jackal, The Man Who Laughs)
Barbara Bach (The Spy Who Loved Me, The Unseen, Caveman, The Great Alligator, Humanoid)

Music by Ennio Morricone

[cakefactory]

This is the last label I expected to see put this out. I'm guessing it might have something to do with the really icy Morricone score.

Anyone that's anti-import that has the slightest interest in Italian genre cinema should get this, it's easily one of the best of the giallo genre IMO.

[Telstar]

Promised myself I'd never buy another TT title but may have to cave for this.

[dwk]

Yeah, I think I'll pick this up, if the master is up to snuff.

[Dailyan]

I might pick this up. I’m not particularly a horror film but I gotta have at least one or two Italian Horrors.

[Member-222782]

I own the German release but would've probably double dipped if someone other than TT were doing this. Not paying another thirty bucks for an extras-lite release in generic packaging.

[The Great Owl]

I already own the import, but I'll gladly double-dip, since this is one of my top 10 giallo films. Woo hoo!

[oildude]

Pre-order date: Wednesday, October 3rd at 4 pm EST


Directed by Aldo Lado (Who Saw Her Die?, Last Stop on the Night Train, La cosa buffa, Born Winner, Humanoid)

Starring:

Ingrid Thulin (Wild Strawberries, Hour of the Wolf, Cries and Whispers)

Jean Sorel (Belle de Jour, A Lizard in a Woman's Skin, The Day of the Jackal, The Man Who Laughs)

Barbara Bach (The Spy Who Loved Me, The Unseen, Caveman, The Great Alligator, Humanoid)

Music by Ennio Morricone (one of the greatest film composers, whose work spans decades and over 500 films, including the iconic The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West, Four Flies on Grey Velvet, A Lizard in a Woman's Skin, 1900, The Great Silence, The Professional, and many more.

Cinematography by Giuseppe Ruzzolini (Arabian Nights, Duck, You Sucker, Oedipus Rex, My Name is Nobody, Firestarter)

Special Features: Isolated Music Track / Audio Commentary with Film Historians David del Valle and Matteo Molinari / English and Italian Language Trailers

[Dr Lenera]

I think this is a stunning yet still not widely appreciated [i think] giallo, truly nightmarish in a way, and almost up there with the very best of Bava, Argento and Fulci in my view. I'm going to have to bite....

[Katatonia]

Originally Posted by Dr Lenera

I think this is a stunning yet still not widely appreciated [i think] giallo, truly nightmarish in a way, and almost up there with the very best of Bava, Argento and Fulci in my view. I'm going to have to bite....

It's definitely in my top 10 list of giallos, but I don't feel the need to double dip here... at least until the inflated price comes way down in a future sale. The English commentary might be nice to have, but the German release from Camera Obscura is near perfect in terms of the A/V presentation. I don't think TT have yet mentioned whether the master they'll be utilizing is the same as the 88 Films release or the Camera Obscura release.

It is good news that it's being released here for region-locked fans of the film though.

[Member-222782]

I also have the Camera Obscura release and it is near perfect. TT will be shooting themselves in the foot if they release a lesser-quality BD. My money is on Camera Obscura being the definitive release. TT's specialty is soundtracks so this is probably the only reason they even licensed this one.

[WesReviews]

Twilight Time... whaaa?

[jcs913]

Strange, yet finally a strong release from TT. It will probably sell better than most of their releases. Too bad at $30, the extras are weak and the CO release is already great. They should sell through half in a fair amount of time though, as gialli sell well from all labels. TT may find this out, but maybe not, due to that price.

[LordSummerIsle]

I wish a label that works exclusively in horror and cult would've picked this up and given it the real care it deserves.

[MifuneFan]

Just blind-bought this for $9.95 (plus shipping) from TT's current sale. Premise sounds good, and lots of praise in this thread, so I think it'll be a safe buy for me.

https://www1.screenarchives.com/titl...IAL-PROMOTION/

[horroru]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

Just blind-bought this for $9.95 (plus shipping) from TT's current sale. Premise sounds good, and lots of praise in this thread, so I think it'll be a safe buy for me.

https://www1.screenarchives.com/titl...IAL-PROMOTION/

Thanks MifuneFan, been eyeing the 88 Films version but at this price I'll just grab it here.

[Monterey Jack]

Blind-bought this in the current TT sale...worth watching for my Halloween horror marathon next month?

[PowellPressburger]

Originally Posted by Monterey Jack

Blind-bought this in the current TT sale...worth watching for my Halloween horror marathon next month?

As long as your audience loves European horror films, then yes.

Most giallo and other Euro horror I prefer to watch them alone and take them in.

Short Night of Glass Dolls is a great one IMO. Really different from most.

[Aclea]

Twilight Time’s disc offers the choice of the US English dub and the original Italian (properly subtitled rather than dubtitled from the US script), both of which synch perfectly with the actors but which have a very different tone. In part the Italian dialogue is more poetic or simply better written/translated – a waiter’s joke “Don’t be startled, madame, a fireman is standing by” when lighting a flambé becomes the clumsier “Don’t worry, in emergencies I’m able to extinguish it” - but the English dub makes much of the corruption of Prague’s communist political system, even adding off-camera dialogue where none exists in the Italian version to ram home the point. Thus Jean Sorel’s paean to the city’s timeless character in the Italian dub becomes a paean to the survival of individualism in a communist system in the American dub.

The Italian version certainly takes the odd potshot at the system where the dollar trumps idealism every time, but it takes a more general view of the film’s menace not as a corrupt group of putrefying communist party elite but as the same kind of insulated old money and power feeding off the young they sacrifice and feed off, metaphorically or literally, that you can find in every country. The corruption that Lado is addressing is more universal than specific to any political ideology, exemplified by the physical decay all around, the semi-deserted streets often inhabited only by the infirm, the blind or the disabled.

Also of note is the fact that Matteo Molinari interviewed director Aldo Lado at length before doing the audio commentary, so while the director isn't present on the track there's nonetheless a lot of good information there that he provided.

[Monterey Jack]

I'm just wondering if this hews closer to a suspense thriller, or is it closer to outright horror? I have no problems with a good slow-burn, but I try to stick with "outright" horror for October.