1970 murder mystery
Rating: 10/20
Plot: Swingers attempt to swindle a chemist during a getaway on an island and then back stab each other literally and figuratively.
Don’t watch this movie. Watch Bava’s next feature, A Bay of Blood (or Twitch of the Death Nerve) which has a similar premise (people being murdered on an island) and is much better. This is an Agatha Christie type murder mystery that, to be perfectly honest, didn’t make a hell of a lot of sense. Did you know that her original story was Ten Little Niggers, by the way? I am not making that up. And I’m happy to provide you with that little bit of trivia because now my blog might enjoy more traffic from white supremacists who happen to be fans of Mario Bava. More than likely, that’s the demographic I’m writing for anyway. The only thing I really liked about this was that all the dead were hung in a meat locker which was always shown with this carousel music. For whatever reason, that struck me as funny. This has almost none of the style you’d expect from a Mario Bava movie except for a scene with some spilled glass balls rolling down stairs and the no-way-that-could-be-accidental placement of a carrot following one death scene. Of course, any bonus point I would have given this for the use of a carrot as a phallic symbol is taken away when there’s a continuity error in a later shot and the vegetable moves. This movie feels somehow more sleazy than the other island movie even though it lacks nudity. And it’s pretty boring with most of the murders taking place off-screen. The biggest bunch of nothing happens for the first 20 minutes or so. There are some swinging dancers or dancing swingers, a peeping Tabitha, parlor games that oddly involve faux human sacrifice. Even the waiter guy is dancing. I’d not mind partying with these characters, but I’m not exactly glad I had to spend this hour and a half with them. This is a movie that is not as good as its title.
