Director: Ferdinando Baldi
Screenplay: Fabio Pittorru
Starring: Arthur Kennedy, John Richardson, Caroline Laurence, Venantino Venantini, Dana Ghia, Massimo Foschi, Loretta Perischetti, Flavia Fabiani, Rita Silva
Country: Italy
Running time: 91 min
Year: 1977
BBFC Certificate: 18
Screenwriter Fabio Pittorru began his career as a documentarian and journalist before turning to screenwriting and penning giallo novels, a blend of murder mystery fiction which spawned an entire genre of Italian cinema. It was perhaps inevitable, then, that some of the films Pittorru would write screenplays for would be giallo, and this became the case and saw him write several classics of the genre in the early 1970s pair of The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave and The Red Queen Kills Seven Times, both directed by Emilio P. Miraglia.
That pair received a lavish double bill release from Arrow some years ago, and now 88 Films are continuing their fantastic Italian Collection with a deluxe collector’s edition release of Nine Guests for a Crime, written by Pittorru and directed by Ferdinando Baldi.
Nine Guests For A Crime is an Agatha Christie like giallo and very much a whodunnit. It opens with the murder of a man as he has sex with a woman on the beach on a small island. Fast forward 20 years, and a wealthy villa owner, Ubaldo (Arthur Kennedy), organises a tourist trip on the island where the murder took place.
We’re introduced to a large cast of characters, including Ubaldo’s children Lorenzo (John Richardson), Michele (Massimo Foschi) and Patrizia (Loretta Perischetti) and their respective spouses Greta (Rita Silva), Carla (Flavia Fabiani) and Walter (Venantino Venantini), Ubaldo’s wife Giulia (Caroline Laurence) and his sister Elisabetta (Dana Ghia), who just happens to be the lover of the man who was murdered two decades prior.
Once the trip begins they all find themselves trapped on the island, hunted down by a mysterious killer, who murders them one-by-one, the plot punctuated by some mystery, lots of sex and nudity, and plenty of bickering between the couples and the wider family.
Firstly, the good. The Mediterranean scenery is used to beautiful effect; it is simply stunning, with plenty of the film taking place during the day including some of the murder set pieces, which makes it feel like a travelogue at times. The cinematography by Sergio Rubini is great, with some interesting shots, like a first-person view in the opening and other parts of the film, and a shot of the murdered man’s hand coming out of the sand after he’s been buried, fingers twitching.
The score, credited to Carlo Savina but also containing music re-orchestrated from other films, is also a joy, jazzy on one hand but also quite eerie and sci-fi-esque at times. It doesn’t always feel as though it fits the film, but is very memorable soundtrack in its own right.
The cast all play their parts well, with plenty of good eye acting and reaction shots as characters watch others with intrigue, shock and horror at times. There’s always a sense of something under the surface that’s eating away at the characters and they all seem to have a general dislike or sense of apathy about each other.
There’s a decent jump scare involving a skeleton and the final act has a few reasonable scares, set-pieces and suspenseful moments, as well as a good reveal which brings everything back to the pre-credits murder sequence that opens the story. But despite all of this I, unfortunately, felt the film was lacking in quite a few areas, and is a distinctly average giallo at best.
The murder sequences for the most part aren’t up to the standard of the best of the genre; they’re quite pedestrian and matter of fact. There’s little of the style of the films of Mario Bava, Dario Argento or Lucio Fulci. For a giallo film, this is a major issue.
The story as well, isn’t as interesting as it could be and runs through a number of cliches in both its script, murder set-ups and characters and lacking in tension until the final act. But, perhaps a major reason I didn’t warm to it as much as other giallos, is down to the fact that none of the characters were likeable. I personally need to like or empathise with at least one character in the film, and these were just all despicable or unpleasant characters.
I found Nine Guests For A Crime to be a disappointment, particularly given its screenwriter Pittorru wrote two giallos I have a lot of time for in The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave and The Red Queen Kills Seven Times. Its story and set pieces are quite dull until the final act and its characters all unlikeable, but it does look beautiful thanks to the location scenery and cinematography, and the score is certainly very interesting. One for giallo completists.
Film: 
Nine Guests For A Crime is released as a deluxe collector’s edition on 12th May 2025 by 88 Films as number 87 in their Italian Collection.
The transfer is mostly fine, but the opening pre-credits scene, in particular, looks poor, soft, colours feels wrong, and a lot of print damage. Things improve after the opening credits, but it still felt a little soft to me at times. English and Italian audio tracks are provided, and both are absolutely fine.
Special Features:
High Definition Blu-ray presentation in 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio
English Mono 2.0 Audio
Italian Mono 2.0 Audio with New English Subtitles
Audio Commentary with Italian cinema experts Troy Howarth, Nathaniel Thompson and Eugenio Ercolani
Interview with Massimo Foschi
Interview with Giovanni Licheri and Alida Cappellini
Archive interview with Massimo Foschi
Interview with Sergio Rubini
Original Trailer
Italian cinema experts Troy Howarth, Nathaniel Thompson and Eugenio Ercolani provide another fascinating, richly detailed, entertaining and simply brilliant audio commentary, which almost made me like the film more than I did. The trio complement each other well and each add their own expertise about the film, with plenty of background and analysis.
One of the Nine is an interview with Massimo Foschi, who plays Michele, and runs for 26 minutes. Foschi is on fine form sharing insights into his early life, and what got him into acting. There’s plenty of interesting anecdotes, including one about an early TV interview he did, recollections of the films he acted in and his reflections of some of the people he worked with.
Two Designers For A Crime is a 37-minute featurette with production designers Giovanni Licheri and Alida Cappellini. They both give good overviews of their careers, entries into the film industry and memories of some of the movies they worked on. For Licheri, Nine Guests For A Crime was his debut and he shares some warm memories of working on it. Licheri is interviewed for the first half, and then Cappellini joins the interview and shares her own memories. Both are good value.
Nine Little Indians is a 27-minute archival Camera Obscura interview with Foschi. There’s understandably some crossover with the newer interview with him but he’s a great listen in both and is very engaging and easy to listen to, as well as sharing some wonderful anecdotes.
A Professional For A Crime is a 23-minute interview with cinematographer Sergio Rubini, which is similar to the others in running through his early career and how he got started in movies before looking at some of the films he made. It’s a really good interview though and according to the commentary something of a coup.
The trailer runs for two minutes and makes the film look far more interesting that I found it to be.
The deluxe edition also comes with a rigid slipcase with newly commissioned artwork by Graham Humphreys and a perfect bound book and art card, which I wasn’t provided with for this review.
So, my reservations about the transfer aside, 88 Films have put together an excellent package of extras with a fabulous commentary and over two hours of interviews, which fans of the film should enjoy.
Disc/Package: 
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