Four Times That Night (Italy, 1969) 81 min color DIR: Mario Bava. PROD: Zeljko Kunkera, Claudio Rainis. SCR: Mario Moroni, Charles Ross. DIAL: Guido Leoni. MUSIC: Lallo Gori. DOP: Antonio Rinaldi, Mario Bava. CAST: Daniela Giordano, Brett Halsey, Pascale Petit, Robert H. Oliver, Dick Randall, Valeria Sabel, Rainer Basedow, Brigitte Skay, Calisto Calisti.
Like any other Italian genre filmmaker, that country’s greatest fantasy director, Mario Bava, did his share of work in other genres than the horror films for which he is best remembered, like sword-and-sandal, or even spaghetti westerns. This, his sole contribution to the “saucy sex farce”, may be worth a look for the curious, but it is clear he had little interest in this project (typified by the sledgehammer use of the “let’s get this over with quick” zoom lens). For the record, it is a feeble “Swingin’ 60’s” version of Rashomon, in which four points of view are offered over whether pretty virginal Tina (Daniela Giordano) was sexually assaulted at Gianni’s groovy pad, and to a lesser extent, how Gianni (Brett Halsey) got those scratches on his forehead.
Tina’s version, given to her mother who frets over her daughter’s torn dress, asserts that Gianni attempted to ravage her, yet she managed to escape by locking him in the bathroom. The scratches came from a self-defense maneuver. Gianni explains to some lonely bachelor friends that he brought the girl over to her place and even this sex machine was quickly expired by the girl’s unending appetite for sexual fulfillment. The scratches in this version, are the result of the throes of passion. Most depraved of all, is the recount by the doorman (Dick Randall) of Gianni’s apartment building, who tells his leering friend of that night’s exploits. From this peeping tom’s vantage point, he could see that the pair were visited by a neighbouring couple, each nonetheless cruising for members of their own sex. (We see this couple peripherally in the other recounts, as well as the doorman, who is busily cutting out nude pictures.) This tasteless segment features grotesque sexual stereotyping and ends with an offensive gang-bang sequence. Here is flashback filmmaking at its sloppiest. From the pervert’s vantage point in the tree, we are nonetheless had to believe that he can not only hear their dialogue from so far away, but even fill us in on a flashback sequence within this flashback, in which the swinging female neighbour explains how she switched to same-sex preference.
Then we shift to the fourth, most idiotic and most bizarre sequence, given by some onscreen narrator, who poses as a psychiatrist, I guess, but his function is eerily similar to Bela Lugosi’s in Glen or Glenda. First he rambles on about how all or none of the previous accounts could be true, which he then compares to the ambiguous accounts of the story of Noah’s Ark! Finally, a fourth (and throwaway) explanation of that night purposely discounts the other three, and yet says that it too could or could not be true. Okay then.
As infantile, morally ambiguous and skin-deep this effort is, Four Times That Night is beautifully shot, which is typical of Bava’s films, with pastel colouring and otherworldly art decoration (the swing in Gianni’s living room might be a pun) that now appears as an exaggerated time capsule of its period. That said, it is a good-looking package with nothing inside. Available on DVD from Image Entertainment.