Nine Guests for a Crime

Mixed bag of a giallo

Pros: The acting is well done - especially in the second half as the danger increases and the characters are under pressure.

It's a beautiful island location.

Even though the twist was predictable, it was well done. It's a pretty classic twist if you've seen a number of giallos.

Cons: The first half is very slow and filled with gratuitous melodrama and gratuitous nudity. Many of the cast members look similar and without establishing distinct visual clues to who is who - it's easy to confuse who is who. I wish the script and make-up/wardrobe spent more time making these characters more distinct.

I did not like the soundtrack.

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.

A family consisting of a patriarch, his much younger wife, his troubled sister, his sons, and their wives go on a vacation to a remote Mediterranean island where years earlier the father and sons had murdered the lower-class lover of their sister/aunt. At first there are a lot of sexual shenanigans--one of the brothers succumbs to the temptation of his impotent brother's hot-to-trot wife, the father's young wife is carrying on with his other son right in the room where the man's own wife slumbers. Eventually though the guests begin to be picked off one-by-one in rather grisly fashion, and the movie gets a lot more interesting. As others have said, this movie greatly resembles the Agatha Christie murder-mystery "Ten Little Indians", even more so than some of the other Italian gialli that also mined that famous book for inspiration like "Five Dolls for an August Moon" and "The Weekend Murders". (In fact, if you're very familiar with the book, you might be able to guess the identity of the murderer in this one).

The male cast here is indeed quite impressive including Arthur Kennedy (as the father) and John Richardson, Massimo Foschi, and Venatino Venetini as the sons. As for the female cast, well, they do take off their clothes a lot. Actually, the most recognizable might be Sofia Dionisio (aka Fabiani Flavi), the sister of Silvia Dionisio and one-time sister-in-law of director Ruggiero "Cannibal Holocaust" Deodato.

The director of THIS movie, Fernando Baldi, was talented if rather erratic. He's most well-known for spaghetti Westerns like "Texas Addio" and "Blindman", but he also did some risible crap like "Terror Express". This movie is definitely better than the latter, but perhaps not quite as good as the former. It's not a classic giallo,but it is a respectable effort.

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.