‘Short Night of Glass Dolls’ is your one-stop-shop for Satanic giallo
By: Lucas Hardwick
Tags: Movie Review, Horror, Movies, Film, Giallo

Quarantine Film Fest — “Short Night of Glass Dolls” (“La Corta Notte Delle Bambole di Vetro”), 1972, dir. Aldo Lado

You’ve probably asked yourself, “Where can I find a story that features a group of Satan worshipping elders sucking the life-force from the bubbling post-Prague Spring youths of Eastern Europe in a political commentary under the guise of a giallo film as an American journalist is frozen inside his presumably dead body and is forced to retrace his steps to learn what happened to his missing girlfriend?” Well, say no more! You needn’t look further than “Short Night of Glass Dolls.” The original, better title was “Short Night of the Butterflies,” and the original, original title was simply “Mala Strana” reflecting the middle-class area of Prague where the film is set, however, in Italian “mala strana” means something akin to “weird crimes,” — let’s be honest, this thing was pretty weird at “Satan worshipping elders,” — which really isn’t a great idea for selling your movie. “Butterflies” was abandoned due to the overuse of the term in a few Italian titles around the same time (i.e. “The Bloodstained Butterfly,” and “The Butterfly Affair,”), so we get it, and for some reason “glass dolls” seemed the appropriate new metaphor.

Title card for “Short Night of Glass Dolls.”

American journalist Gregory Moore (Jean Sorel) is found lying lifeless and is presumed dead by a greenskeeper in a plaza in Prague. Once his “body” arrives at the local morgue, we hear Greg’s internal dialogue trying to get the attention of the sandwich eating examiner to tell him that he’s not actually dead, or at least he hopes he’s not. And we kick off a great mystery driven by a series of flashbacks as Greg tries to remember what happened that got him into this cataleptic state. Greg’s flashback story reveals his courtship with the dreamy Mira Svoboda (Barbara Bach) and her disappearance after an evening with Czech socialites. And in spite of actually acknowledging no signs of rigor mortis in Greg, the present story is Greg’s desperate voice-over begging to be heard before a group of shady medical officials begin with their imminent autopsy.

Before we get too lost in the sticks, we’ve got two angles going on here: one is Greg’s memory as it leads up to Greg’s horizontal predicament, and the second is Greg’s horizontal predicament that continues forward to what will eventually be the denouement, which on paper sounds like a pretty terrific Christopher Nolan film so it’s easy to get mixed up and ahead of ourselves — hang in there.

Greg and his journalist pals Jacques (Mario Adorf) and Jessica (Ingrid Thulin), who is also an ex-girlfriend, are investigating the disappearance of several young girls in the city. Sound familiar? And the closer Greg and company get to the truth, and the closer Greg’s memory gets to lining up with his present-day inert condition, the more our heroes get pushed around by the elder elite and political so-and-sos, clearly indicating that something fishy is going on.

There’s a lot of fuss over whether or not this movie is technically a “giallo” film because it lacks stuff like a black-glove-wearing-mystery-man who likes to cut up pretty girls. Instead, it looks more and more like we’ve got a case of Satan worshipping vampiric rich old folks who call upon the Prince of Darkness in a pretty enthusiastic orgy to suck the life from progressive young girls to keep things going in their favor — in my opinion, more exciting than a black-gloved murder man. Anyway, this implies a supernatural element, and while it’s allowed to be giallo, it isn’t necessarily common giallo especially in this case since the supernatural element of the occult activity satisfyingly is never explained away giving us a pretty damn creepy climax and an even more apocalyptic and threatening ending. What this movie also doesn’t have that you’ll find in a lot of gialli, is pretty significant schlock. But in it’s favor, it has a guy who isn’t a police, playing detective who becomes a target for the unseen antagonist, it’s stylishly Italian, and while it’s not slicing up babes, the crimes ultimately depicted are pretty heinous. So, I guess if you want to get caught up in the politics of how to classify this film in terms of sub-genre, knock yourself out because it could honestly go both ways. For my money, it feels like a gold standard giallo flick.

This was Aldo Lado’s first go at directing a film after putting in time as a screenwriter. Lado’s inspiration for the story of “Short Night of Glass Dolls” came out of how Italian judges who went against the system would be dealt with — often promoted and set up in a private location and told to keep their mouths shut — and he spun that into the idea of a journalist essentially flying too close to the sun in search of the truth. It’s kind of a stretch, but I get it.

The role of Gregory was originally supposed to be Terence Hill who demanded that — SPOILER ALERT — the main character live in the end, but you’ll see the story just wouldn’t pack the apocalyptic punch to have it Terence’s way. Alain Delon was also considered for the role of Gregory — you might remember him as Gauche in Terence Young’s “Red Sun,” which was released the same year and maybe why we ended up with the similar looking Jean Sorel.

Morricone amps up the anxiety in the opening sequence as the ambulance carrying Greg pulses through the streets of Prague. Bravo, Ennio, as always. And while Lado didn’t really get along with cinematographer Guiseppe Ruzzolini, the two managed to conjure up plenty of unsettling and dynamic imagery from noir-ish Venetian blind moods to a group of eccentric ghoulish elite statically listening to a concert pianist in a Victorian ballroom.

Many people cite the “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” episode “Breakdown” starring Joseph Cotten, as an inspiration for this film. Cotten’s character is in a car wreck and unable to move for the entire episode. There’s also lots of clear reference to “Rosemary’s Baby” since we’re into old people worshipping Satan. What struck me is how the themes and narrative from this film live on in movies like Brian Yuzna’s “Society,” Kubrick’s “Eyes Wide Shut,” Nolan’s “Memento,” and less so, but with some similar elements, Stuart Gordon’s “Re-Animator” (mainly because they attempt to “re-animate” Greg at one point).

The weakest moment in the film is the weird street busker hippie, played by German actor Jürgen Drews — who is still working in television today — in the second half of the film who’s singing a pretty stupid song about butterflies, which is no longer really relevant, and also not a staple of conventional giallo.

Finally, in a not-so-Terence Hill-ending, Greg is on the autopsy table with a twitchy finger, which is his moment to shine. At the same time, Greg’s memory has caught us up to this point and we now know a Satanic cult is our “black gloved killer” whose sacrificial girlfriend orgy made Greg into a vegetable and is running the show. But since the cult knows what Greg knows, and since Greg is a vegetable, there’s not much he can do besides be the demonstration for an autopsy before a class of stone-faced medical students and handful Satanic overseers making sure Greg keeps his mouth shut forever.

For all that goes on in this film, there are several quiet moments and several moments that tease up the possibility of boredom, but it’s pretty aware of its pace and moves right along, never lingering and managing to avoid meandering. In fact, the mystery goes on so long, the not knowing is pretty nerve wracking even though I sort of guessed where it was going. What I didn’t guess is how committed it is to its diabolical conclusion, which makes it stand out in the touch-and-go, arguably tepid landscape of same-ol’ giallo. Kudos to Aldo Lado for keeping things freaky without getting campy and for the relentless horror that unravels up to the last second of film.

Four stars.

(Blu-ray release from Twilight Time.)