Short Night of Glass Dolls



Short Night of Glass Dolls is another Italian giallo, this one with a great setup. Gregory is dead… or at least that’s how he appears as he wheeled into the morgue. He’s actually still alive and conscious (inexplicably his eyes are left open; one of the attendants says “it’s too late now” when the fact is brought to his attention) and desperate to convince somebody that he’s not really dead. Unable to move, Gregory tries to remember what happened to him that left him in this condition.


Gregory graduated top of his class in smarm.

Gregory is an American reporter working in Communist Czechoslovakia. He’s in love with Mira (Barbara Bach), a local woman he’s planning on smuggling to London with him. Before he can do this Mira disappears from his apartment with no explanation. Gregory begins his own investigation, and finds out that there has been a series of mysterious murders in the city, all young women, none with any obvious cause of death. Gregory shares his findings with his colleagues, Jessica, an ex-girlfriend who thinks Mira just dumped Gregory), and Jacques, who despite the name is dubbed with an Irish or Scottish accent. As Gregory gets closer to the truth people start dying…


"Does this heroin addict go with the drapes?"

Like I said, Short Night of Glass Dolls has a great set-up, but as it moves forward it paints itself into a corner that only the last minute introduction of supernatural forces can get the movie out of. In the end the villains’ motives are as silly as any comic book despot, with their decision to leave Gregory alive making so sense at all. The very last scene of the movie might have been quite shocking if it weren’t bungled in the editing.

Posted: Tue - July 13, 2004 at      

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