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The apparently dead body of journalist Greg (Jean Sorel) is found
somewhere in the streets of Prague, and brought to the hospital, where
Ivan (Relja Basic), an old friend of Greg's does try to revive him against
better judgement, but in the end even he has to give up ... thing is, Greg
is not really dead but in suspended animation, and while lieing there and
hoping to be saved after all, he tries to remember how he got here ...
It all started several days ago, Greg had a beautiful girlfriend, the
lovely Mira (Barbara Bach), who one day just disappeared, without warning.
Greg takes up investigations as to where his sweetheart has gone with his
ex Jessica (Ingrid Thulin) and his editor Jack (Mario Adorf) - despite the
fact that the local police and especially inspector Kiekroff (Piero Vida)
do not want any interference, and repeatedly threaten to have him
arrested.
Be that as it may, Greg's investigations soon lead to a series of
disappeared girls, who all eventually turned up somwhere, completely
naked, and al the girls were chamber musicians, like Mira, and have
travelled the world - well at least the communist world - like Mira. And
none of the relatives of the disappeared girls seem to be ready to talk -
except for an old man, who is thrown a bridge though before Greg's very
eyes.
However the old man lives just long enough to provide Greg with a clue
to Club 66 ... but it seems to no avail, first Greg himself is pushed from
a bridge into a river, but survives the fall, then he finds the (naked)
sorpse of Mira in his own refridgerator, then the police knock at his door
... and since Greg knows he might be suspected as being the killer, he
makes a daring escape, and finally visits Club 66 ... which turns out to
be a satanists' coven (led by José Quaglio), satanists who need
travelling, lovely young girls like Mira to recrute new devotees - and
when the young girls have served their purpose, they are just done away
with. And since Greg has now become a problem too, he is administered a
serum and put into suspended animation ...
Back in the here and now, Greg is rolled into an auditorium where a
public post mortem is to be performed on him ... when he feels his senses
(and essentially his life) coming back to him. But to his horror, he has
to realize that Professor Karting (Fabijan Sovagovic) is one of the key
figures of the coven, and he shows no hesitation to make a lethal incision
just when Greg realizes he is able to move his hand ...
What might sound like a silly little horror thriller in my synopsis is
actually a morbid, even surreal masterpiece, in the tradition of writers
like Leo Perutz or Franz Kafka ... which is only one reason why the choice
of Prague as backdrop for the story seems to be a logical one. The other
is of course that Prague ahs a morbid atmosphere all of its own, which
naturally also contributes to the film's effect. Competent acting, great
direction and fantastic cinematography by Giuseppe Ruzzolini, who is more
famous for his collaborations with Pier Paolo Pasolini, all make
Malastrana a masterpiece, and maybe the most unique of the then
fashionable Italian giallos (= a specifically Italian version of the
whodunnit murder-mystery, often featuring a serial killer as well as heaps
of sex and graphic violence).
By the way, intitally, Terence Hill, then an immensely popular comedy
actor in Italy, was supposed to play the lead, but his management refused
to put him into a movie where he dies in the end.
And another thing, Jürgen Drews, who plays a street musician here and
sings a song, soon became a big Schlager (= a specifically German version
of pop music invariably from the cheesy end of the genre) star in Germany,
whose career, with its ups and downs, lasts to this day.
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find Short Night of the Glass Dolls at adultvideouniverse.com
