Nove ospiti per un delitto

I recently watched the Italian giallo Nine Guests for a Crime (1977) on Tubi. The storyline revolves around a family gathering on a Mediterranean island, where it becomes apparent that the family's skeletons may never truly be buried. When their boat to the mainland mysteriously disappears and a killing spree ensues, targeting various family members, it becomes clear that someone is ready to settle old scores, albeit not in the way the vacation was intended.

Directed by Ferdinando Baldi (War Bus), the film features a cast including Arthur Kennedy (Lawrence of Arabia), John Richardson (War of the Planets), Caroline Laurence (Emmanuel 3), Massimo Foschi (Otezla) and Sofia Dionisio (My Dear Killer).

Nine Guests for a Crime maintains a high level of intensity from start to finish. The backstory and opening shootout, while more entertaining than exceptional, effectively set the tone for the film. The acting is solid, and the characters generate a sense of intrigue regarding their fates. Unfortunately, the kills and corpses in the film are rather ordinary. The female characters are stunning, and there are random shower scenes that add an element of amusement, especially the shower sequence in high heels, which had me chuckling. The film also effectively depicts how the characters' psyches evolve as the body count rises. While the ending reveal is decent, it's not enough to elevate the movie significantly.

In conclusion, Nine Guests for a Crime is worth a watch for giallo enthusiasts but stands as an only average addition to the horror genre. I would give this a rating of 5/10 and recommend watching it once for its giallo elements.

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.

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.

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.

Admittedly this "Nine Guests for a Crime" isn't a great film per sé, but I personally loved it a lot and I'm incredibly biased because director Ferdinando Baldi put many of my favorite genres, themes and narrative styles together in a blender and then served a delicious cocktail of sleaze and violence! "While vacationing on a remote Mediterranean Island, nine guests from bourgeois family are stalked and killed one by one by a mysterious killer"… Well, from the one- sentence plot description, it's quite abundantly clear that the film is another umpteenth interpretation of Agatha Christie's legendary story "And then there were none/Ten Little Indians". But I swear that Miss Marple, as well as every other sophisticated and eloquent protagonist that Mrs. Christie ever invented, would instantly die from a heart attack if she saw what a typical Italian makeover of the story looks like! It's a whodunit thriller / giallo full of sleazy characters that shamelessly commit foul adultery, openly hate each other with a passion and desire to exterminate each other even though they are relatives! The pre-credits opening sequences show how a group of men hunt down a white-suited sailor because he was in the middle of making love to a cute girl on the beach. They shoot him at least seven times and his hand still emerges from the sandy grave they buried him in, so that gives you an idea of what good gunmen they are. All this takes place on a tropical Mediterranean island, and several years later the luxurious yacht of an obnoxious family moors here for their annual vacation. The couples are bickering about money and the loathsome personality of the patriarch, the selfish brothers have wild sex affairs with their lurid sisters-in-law and the old father's much younger hot wife does hanky-panky with one of the sons while his wife is allegedly sleeping in the very same room! In fact, these people are screwing around so much that I found it difficult to know how the couples are actually formed! The already unhealthy atmosphere gets ruined even more when they are offed one by one; butchered by a clearly frustrated killer in a black diving outfit. You guessed it; plentiful of gratuitous nudity, provided by a variety of Italian beauties, and a series of grisly murders that are occasionally inventive and occasionally mundane. The mystery aspect here is negligible, as the culprit's identity and the entire family feud sub plot are easy to predict from early on, but this film obviously has other trumps. Due to the similarities in plot, setting and Agatha Christie source material, "Nine guests for a Crime" is very reminiscent to Mario Bava's "5 Dolls for an August Moon". Bava's film is superior and has a far better denouement, but this is definitely one of the better efforts in Baldi's uneven career.