Diagonaldi Very well executed

Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Roy Hart If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Patience Watson One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

jadavix It's not every day that you see an entry into an Italian exploitation subgenre - giallo - and see possible inspirations for Stanley Kubrick's later career.But then, "Short Night of Glass Dolls" really isn't a giallo. There's very little violence here, or lurid shock tactics. The sex and nudity isn't gratuitous or erotic and is saved for one very specific scene.What "Short Night of Glass Dolls" is, is a brilliantly understated and gripping thriller, the horror of which gradually dawns on you just as it closes in on the comatose hero. The atmosphere is stifling, as in a room slowly filling with odorless gas. This is one mystery you almost wish you hadn't started to follow, but the execution of it is masterful.

gridoon2018 And perhaps the only one, as well. I mean, how many others in this genre were even set in a Communist city (here, Prague), let alone had such a strong political subtext? Though this isn't really a giallo in the traditional sense, it's more of a straight mystery (there is no gore, but some nudity - even senior-citizen nudity!). The "hook" of the film (a man who appears to be dead to everyone but whose mind is still working and is trying to remember what happened to him) is original and gripping. The final 5 minutes are suspenseful. But in the middle the movie fizzles and becomes dull, with a more or less obvious plot, a lack of pace, and uninspiring performances. It also features one of Ennio Morricone's less memorable music scores. ** out of 4.

ferbs54 As far as I know, there exist only two films that are narrated by corpses telling their story from "the other side": the 1947 Bela Lugosi vehicle "Scared to Death," one of the world's worst, and Billy Wilder's 1950 offering, "Sunset Blvd.," one of the world's best. And then there's Aldo Lado's meaninglessly titled "Short Night of Glass Dolls" (1971), in which a man, only supposedly dead, lies in a morgue and thinks back on how he came to be there. It turns out that the semistiff is an American journalist named Greg Moore (sympathetically played by Jean Sorel), who had been working in Prague and dating a beautiful young local named Mira. When Mira mysteriously disappeared, Moore had entered into an investigation that soon broadened into an attempt to learn why so many other young women had recently vanished.... Featuring as it does only a small handful of virtually bloodless killings, "Short Night" hardly qualifies as a giallo--a mystery thriller would be a more apt description--but still has much to offer. Lado, in this, his first film, does a fine job (I much prefer this one over Lado's "Who Saw Her Die?" from 1972), and Ennio Morricone's waltzlike score for the film is at once somber, atmospheric and dreamlike. Prague itself is shown to be as gorgeous a city as you may have heard, and speaking of gorgeous, Barbara Bach, in her small role as Mira, is very appealing and not a little sexy. Ingrid Thulin, here playing a fellow journalist of Sorel, looks much less severe than I am used to seeing her in Bergman pictures; a pleasant surprise. The film ends very strangely, and its decidedly downbeat suggestion of evil triumphant should linger long in the memory. In truth, this is not a bad little picture at all, and beautifully captured on the Anchor Bay DVD that I just watched.

preppy-3 American reporter Gregory Moore (played by French Jean Sorel) is in Prague with fellow reporters Jessica (Ingrid Thulin) and Jack (Mario Ardof). He prepares to leave and go to England with Czech girlfriend Myra (Barbara Bach). However she suddenly disappears without a trace. Moore starts to investigate but the police try to block him, his friends tell him to forget her and a mysterious man is following him...This is advertised as an Italian giallo but I don't think it really is. At the end it becomes one but about 85% of the movie is just a thriller--a good thriller but not a giallo. The title means next to nothing (as the director says in a short interview on the DVD). It was supposed to be called "Short Night of the Butterfly" (which does work) but it had to be changed at the last minute. "Glass Dolls" was just picked out of thin air. The film is hurt by poor dubbing--some of the dialogue is virtually incomprehensible. I had to keep turning the volume up and down to hear! That aside this is a good movie. The plot is complex and it's beautifully directed. The DVD of this has a gorgeous transfer. The acting is good by everybody--especially Sorel and Thulin. There's also a beautiful score by Ennio Morricone that perfectly fits the film. All in all a good strong thriller worth catching.