Short Night of Glass Dolls

Short Night of Glass Dolls (1971)

Gregory is an American journalist assigned to Yugoslavia and he is dead, or is he? We the viewers realize that he is alive, but unable to move. While waiting for someone to notice he tries to remember how he ended up “dead”. He is engaged to a beautiful young Yugoslavian woman who he is trying to get out of the country. When she disappears he begins his own investigation as to what happened. This leads him to the disappearances of even more women and a strange club whose members are made up of some very powerful people. This club, 99, has branches all over the world and seems to have much influence. But when he digs too far into the club he meets up with his unfortunate end. Will anyone notice him starting to move before the autopsy starts? By the end of this long boring movie will any of us care?

So I sort of let the cat out of the bag there. For the first 15 or 20 minutes I was really getting into the movie as it slowly laid out what happened to the Gregory character. The story was very interesting and the sight of Gregory laid out on a slab were very creepy. But then the movie slows down even further, and nothing much happens for a good 30 or 40 minutes. I found myself watching the clock and wishing for the movie to be over, which is never a good sign. And when the movie starts to get rolling again it does so just long enough to wrap itself up in a very predictable and disappointing way. The motivations of the villains aren’t ever really explained and our hero ends up acting very foolish and deserves to get killed. Plus I was very disappointed in how little tension the movie builds for it’s big ending, which is anticlimactic. Toss in one of the most uncomfortable and unpleasant orgy that I’ve ever seen filmed and you have the makings of a very bad film.

The performances are all okay, without anyone of the cast standing out. Jean Sorel is a bit stiff (pun not intended) at times and really doesn’t have the charisma to carry a movie by himself. Barbara Bach is hardly in the movie and doesn’t show off her assets. Both of these points making her top billing nothing more than a big tease to the viewer. Director Aldo Lado does use the locations to his advantage and the movie does look gorgeous. But there are way too many establishing shots of the beautiful exteriors, which do nothing but slow the already plodding movie down even further.

If I were to recommend an Aldo Lado movie I would have to pick Who Saw her Die?, which is a much better film. Short Night of the Glass Dolls is an interesting idea that just didn’t work over the length of a feature film. I can’t recommend this movie. If you really feel the need to watch it then rent it because you will only ever watch it once.

1 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer