Nine Guests For A Crime — Nine Guests For A Crime ( Blu Ray)
Nine Guests For A Crime is a late 70’s giallo set on a Mediterranean island- with a selection of bickering ‘n’ bitchy of rich folks, glimpses of female flesh, touches of eerier atmospherics, and odd dabs of gore. Here from 88 Films is a new Blu-ray release of the film, featuring a new commentary from three genre experts, and a mix of new/ archive extras.
Nine Guests For A Crime ( aka Nove Ospiti Per Un Delitto) is from the year 1977- it was filmed around a ragged rock ‘n’ sea coast house on Palau, Sassari, Sardinia, Italy, with interiors shot in Elios Studios, Rome. The film was directed by Cava de' Tirreni, Campania Ferdinando Baldi- between the early 50’s and late 80’s, he had thirty-eight feature credits to his name. These run from the Cossack period drama/ action film Taras Bulba, the Cossack(1962), spaghetti western/comedy Get Mean (1975), sleazy train set thriller Terror Express (1980), and Namsploitation War Bus( 1985).
The just over hour and a half film kicks off with one of its most gruesome murder- as we see a man wearing white pyjamas making out on the beach with a woman, then four faces unseen men stride onto the beach with shotguns- they fire at his legs and back, with slowmo bloody explosions happening in both areas.
We then shift to the boat that is bringing in our nine characters/potential victims- these take in a mix of couples, and a few single women, numbering of course nine people- these include the slightly older Ubtero( Arthur Kennedy), ragged-haired/side-burned Lorenzo(John Richardson), and claiming to be-psychic/ slightly potty Elisabetta(Dana Ghia).
The film opens with the nine settling into the seaside house, and fairly quickly, they get involved in open-couple swapping with related husbands/wives looking daggers at each other. One of the female members of the group is drowned off the coast, the boat crew are murdered, then the rest of the party are knocked off- one by one, by a figure wearing black gloves & bloody white pyjamas.
The film mixes campy & bitchy dialogue, not so secretive soft core bounding’s, and eerier stalking/ atmospherics with the use of desk top executive puzzles is effective. The murders themselves are a little underwhelming/ not creative- these include found in bed decapitation, spear gun dart through the net, pushed off a rock bloodiness, and a gunned down through a fish net before being set on fire killing.
This new region B Blu-ray features an HD scan, both with an English & Italian track, the latter featuring new English subs. The scan itself is largely fine, though the pre-credits look a little ropy.
On the extras side, we get a decent selection of things, mostly on the new side. So, first up on the new stuff, we get a commentary with Italian cinema experts Troy Howarth, Nathaniel Thompson and Eugenio Ercolani- this, as you expect from these track pros, is a very well-researched and observed affair. They start off by letting us know that this was director Baldi's only giallo. The comment on the use of pre-credits, mentioning other notable films in the genre that use this trope. They discuss the film's pre-release titles, which suggest its makers were unsure how to market it. They talk about how the film rather sits between soft core sexploitation and giallo, and how this trend continued with later films, in an often more nasty/ extreme manner. They chat about the film's soundtrack, which liberally steals from a few other scores. They discuss how the English and Italian tracks vary. We get talk about Baldi's career- they say that his best work appeared in the western genre. We find out the film started shooting in July 1976, with a total film time of between four and five weeks. Later on, they discuss other notable films the actors appeared in. We find out the film didn’t get a release in the US at its time of original release- only been available in the early 2000s as an imported German release. They talk about how there is no humour in the film, which is somewhat surprising since Baldi's filmography in the 70’s featured a fair few comedies. All in all, an excellent track, which I can see myself revisiting.
Otherwise, on the new side, we get the following: One Of The Nine ( 26.29) interview with actor Massimo Foschi. Two Designers For A Crime ( 36.59) interview with production designers Giovanni Licheri and Alida Cappellini. A Professional For A Crime (23.07) interview with cinematographer Sergio Rubini.
On the archive side, we have: Nine Little Indians ( 27.12) with actor Massimo Foschi, and an original trailer. The finished release comes with a perfectly bound inlay booklet
In finishing, Nine Guests For A Crime is an entertaining, if lightly sleazy, late 70s giallo. This new release from 88 films offers up a good/interesting selection of extras, so certainly something fans of the genre will want to be picking up.