La Corta Notte delle Bambole di Vetro [Short Night of Glass Dolls] *** (1971, Ingrid Thulin, Jean Sorel, Barbara Bach, Mario Adorf) – Classic Movie Review 14,032

Aldo Lado’s 1971 Italian giallo thriller film Short Night of Glass Dolls stars Ingrid Thulin, Jean Sorel and Barbara Bach. Told by a man in a coma, it is a really crazy movie.

Debut director Aldo Lado’s 1971 Italian giallo thriller film La Corta Notte delle Bambole di Vetro [Short Night of Glass Dolls] stars Swedish actress Ingrid Thulin, French actor Jean Sorel, American actress Barbara Bach, and German actor Mario Adorf. Told by a man in a coma, it is a really crazy movie, un film davvero pazzo!

Jean Sorel plays Gregory Moore, an American journalist in Prague who is found apparently dead in a park, but wakes up paralysed in a morgue, mentally retracing the events of the previous days, focusing on the sudden disappearance of his Russian escapee girlfriend Mira Svoboda (Barbara Bach) and his increasingly desperate search for her. The trail leads to Klub 99, an international collection of loonies practising black magic. 

Meanwhile, Moore hopes that someone is going to find out that he is still alive, and pull him out of his coma. But morgue technicians are contemplating whether to perform an autopsy on him in the surgical theatre.

Ingrid Thulin plays Jessica, another journalist and Gregory’s former lover, who is jealous of his interest in Mira and makes attempts to seduce him, but later joins his quest to find Mira.

Short Night of Glass Dolls is a totally weird movie, with mounting fear type tension and suspense, an eerie, unsettling atmosphere, and stylish Prague widescreen colour location cinematography by Giuseppe Ruzzolini, plus the luxury of Ennio Morricone’s haunting score.

It’s not about the story, which is thin and logic defying. Is it the only film narrated by a man in a coma? It’s not about the acting either, but Jean Sorel is strong and solid at the centre, and Barbara Bach appealing till her sudden disappearance, but Ingrid Thulin lost and miscast as top billed star, wandering through it like she’s in a Bergman movie.

Plus, an assorted bunch of actors have a rare old time over-acting like mad: Mario Adorf as Jacques Versain, Fabijan Šovagović as Professor Karting, José Quaglio as Valinski, Relja Bašić as Ivan and Piero Vida as Kommissar Kierkoff.

Short Night of Glass Dolls doesn’t run in the usual way. It’s not really an Italian giallo thriller film at all. It’s a visual, and possibly personal nightmare. It’s best to sit back, relax, let it all wash over you, and admire the film for its enormous self-confidence, huge cheek and its unique bizarreness.

In the end, the film is as nonsensical, intriguing and amusing as its title, so no one could possibly feel misled or short changed. Is it trashy or classy? Well I’m sure I don’t know. One thing, it’s certainly not dull.

The Italian version is dubbed, but okay, with creative English subtitles. The international version is dubbed into English, but not at all okay.

Release date: 28 October 1971 (Italy).

Jean Sorel (born Jean Bernard Antoine de Chieusses de Combaud de Roquebrune, 25 September 1934).

Ingrid Thulin (27 January 1926 – 7 January 2004).

Ingrid Thulin became a resident of Sacrofano, 25 kilometres north of Rome, Italy, in 1970 and lived there for 34 years.

Barbara Bach, Lady Starkey (born Barbara Goldbach, August 27 1946)

American actress Barbara Bach played Bond girl Anya Amasova in The Spy Who Loved Me. She is married to former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr since 1981. She is fluent in Italian.

Mario Adorf (8 September 1930 – 8 April 2026).

German actor Mario Adorf was one of the great veteran character actors of European cinema.

© Derek Winnert 2026 – Classic Movie Review 14,032

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