Nine Guests for a Crime

NINE GUESTS FOR A CRIME (1977, original title Nove ospiti per un delitto) is essentially the giallo version of Agatha Christie's AND THEN THERE WERE NONE. We begin with a mysterious and brutal beach murder before cutting forward 20 years when a yacht load of family members arrive on a beautiful island for some boozing, hunting and lots of extra-marital affairs. Before long, bodies start piling up... This is a film more mystery than giallo and it takes half the running time for things to really get going. However, there are a handful of brutal moments which really work, including a very nasty trap that had me wincing. The characters tend towards the unlikeable but the cast is pretty good, including Hammer's John Richardson (SHE), THE LIVING DEAD AT THE MANCHESTER MORGUE's Arthur Kennedy, LAST CANNIBAL WORLD's Massimo Foschi, and that teleporting priest guy from CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD. Overall, I'd say that this is never the best nor the worst of the genre.

Giallo directed by Ferdinando Baldi (taking a break from spaghetti westerns). Like Mario Bava's better-known Five Dolls for an August Moon from seven years earlier, this takes its premise from Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians/And Then There Were None. A wealthy family (patriarch, his sons and daughter, and all their respective spouses) take a boat to their villa on an otherwise deserted remote island. During the journey it becomes apparent that all these people pretty much hate each other - but all enjoy the family fortune and the trappings that come with it. These 'trappings', as we find out, include everybody sleeping with the spouse of somebody else - more out of boredom than anything. Once the family have disembarked a mysterious figure kills the crew of the boat and steals (or sinks - we never find out) the boat itself. The family, unaware of this, start to enjoy their holiday by indulging in adulterous sex every chance they get. But soon the same figure starts killing them off one-by-one, leading to paranoia and fear among the rapidly dwindling remaining members as they fight to stay alive...

As well as Five Dolls for an August Moon this put me in mind of another Bava film - the terrific A Bay of Blood, with family greed and betrayal also playing a big part here. Multi-Oscar nominated Arthur Kennedy (terrific as the thoroughly jaded cop in The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue) is the head of the family, whilst giallo/horror stalwarts John Richardson, Venantino Venantini, and Massimo Foschi round out the male cast. Euro-hotties Caroline Laurence, Loretta Perischetti, Flavia Fabiani, Dana Ghia, and Rita Silva supply the glamour. There's a fair amount of nudity (I'm assuming all Italian women in the 1970s kept their high heels on in the shower), a moderate amount of blood, and some nice kills (harpoon through the neck is probably my favourite).

With its obvious 'influences' this is far from groundbreaking; but if you want to watch a thoroughly dislikeable, amoral group of pampered rich get their just desserts in some entertaining ways, it's fun. 6/10.

This has a very good and unusual beginning but unfortunately not only do we not understand the brutal killing we have just witnessed, it is not really explained until some way into the film. Consequently as we are introduced to the nine family members visiting a deserted island we lack an initial interest and as the lovely dresses slip on and off we are further distracted.

This is aggravated by everybody sliding off with everyone else and we find it almost impossible to keep track of just who is who and who they are supposed to be with. Then when the main string of killings takes place we are left lacking any real involvement. Still, it is a very good looking film, the cast are very good, that is the men's acting is of a high standard and the ladies look super. I guess this just about slips into the giallo category but it is very marginal.

While vacationing on a remote Mediterranean Island a group of nine guests from bourgeois family are stalked and killed one by one by a mysterious killer."Nine Guests for a Crime" is an overlooked 70's Italian giallo with plenty of graphic nudity and some gory killings.The film is obviously inspired by Agatha Christie's stories including "Ten Little Indians".The appearances of zombie-like figures are pretty creepy as is wet-suited and black-gloved killer.The male cast is excellent and recognizable for fans of Eurohorror with Arthur Kennedy playing the patriarch and Massimo Foschi,Venantino Venantini and John Richardson.If you liked "Hatchet for the Honeymoon" or "Antropophagus the Beast" give this one a look.7 out of 10.

Admittedly this "Nine Guests for a Crime" isn't a great film per sé, but I personally loved it a lot and I'm incredibly biased because director Ferdinando Baldi put many of my favorite genres, themes and narrative styles together in a blender and then served a delicious cocktail of sleaze and violence! "While vacationing on a remote Mediterranean Island, nine guests from bourgeois family are stalked and killed one by one by a mysterious killer"… Well, from the one- sentence plot description, it's quite abundantly clear that the film is another umpteenth interpretation of Agatha Christie's legendary story "And then there were none/Ten Little Indians". But I swear that Miss Marple, as well as every other sophisticated and eloquent protagonist that Mrs. Christie ever invented, would instantly die from a heart attack if she saw what a typical Italian makeover of the story looks like! It's a whodunit thriller / giallo full of sleazy characters that shamelessly commit foul adultery, openly hate each other with a passion and desire to exterminate each other even though they are relatives! The pre-credits opening sequences show how a group of men hunt down a white-suited sailor because he was in the middle of making love to a cute girl on the beach. They shoot him at least seven times and his hand still emerges from the sandy grave they buried him in, so that gives you an idea of what good gunmen they are. All this takes place on a tropical Mediterranean island, and several years later the luxurious yacht of an obnoxious family moors here for their annual vacation. The couples are bickering about money and the loathsome personality of the patriarch, the selfish brothers have wild sex affairs with their lurid sisters-in-law and the old father's much younger hot wife does hanky-panky with one of the sons while his wife is allegedly sleeping in the very same room! In fact, these people are screwing around so much that I found it difficult to know how the couples are actually formed! The already unhealthy atmosphere gets ruined even more when they are offed one by one; butchered by a clearly frustrated killer in a black diving outfit. You guessed it; plentiful of gratuitous nudity, provided by a variety of Italian beauties, and a series of grisly murders that are occasionally inventive and occasionally mundane. The mystery aspect here is negligible, as the culprit's identity and the entire family feud sub plot are easy to predict from early on, but this film obviously has other trumps. Due to the similarities in plot, setting and Agatha Christie source material, "Nine guests for a Crime" is very reminiscent to Mario Bava's "5 Dolls for an August Moon". Bava's film is superior and has a far better denouement, but this is definitely one of the better efforts in Baldi's uneven career.