Nine Guests for a Crime

Apr 2021

Another fine giallo from 1977, so a late entry and unsurprisingly for the year it was made it features a bit more nudity than some.

This is a really good giallo, as the title suggests, it involves 9 people in a secluded place and its a whodunnit.

I love it, great location the island they used.

10 out of 10.

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.

'Nine Guests for a Crime' is a fun Giallo murder mystery thriller with an interesting narrative structure that takes full advantage of the whodunit aspect of the story. The movie is briskly paced with some genuinely tense moments. The island location is visually stunning with gorgeous scenery which gives this an eerie atmosphere and sets the tone perfectly for the murderous mayhem.

The plot - A group of family members sail a yacht to a deserted Mediterranean island for a holiday at the island's villa, only to be killed off one by one by a mysterious killer which may or may not be linked to a past murder that happened there many years ago.

The movie is a very standard 70's trashy thriller that boasts a strong cast with plenty of entertaining moments, but what lets this down is the poorly executed death scenes that needed better gore effect & therefore very lacking and while the film is nice to look at, the tense moments are poorly staged, despite a decent set-up with the opening flashback really setting the tone, but the direction largely feels like someone going through the motions instead of doing something that could have really elevated this flick.

Overall 'Nine Guests for a Crime' is entertaining enough Giallo fodder, but doesn't quite rise to the classic levels of the genre and could have done with a bit more energy.

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.

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.