Nine Guests for a Crime (AKA Death Comes From the Past, and A Scream in the Night ~ 1977)
Giallo directed by Ferdinando Baldi (taking a break from spaghetti westerns). Like Mario Bava's better-known Five Dolls for an August Moon from seven years earlier, this takes its premise from Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians/And Then There Were None. A wealthy family (patriarch, his sons and daughter, and all their respective spouses) take a boat to their villa on an otherwise deserted remote island. During the journey it becomes apparent that all these people pretty much hate each other - but all enjoy the family fortune and the trappings that come with it. These 'trappings', as we find out, include everybody sleeping with the spouse of somebody else - more out of boredom than anything. Once the family have disembarked a mysterious figure kills the crew of the boat and steals (or sinks - we never find out) the boat itself. The family, unaware of this, start to enjoy their holiday by indulging in adulterous sex every chance they get. But soon the same figure starts killing them off one-by-one, leading to paranoia and fear among the rapidly dwindling remaining members as they fight to stay alive...
As well as Five Dolls for an August Moon this put me in mind of another Bava film - the terrific A Bay of Blood, with family greed and betrayal also playing a big part here. Multi-Oscar nominated Arthur Kennedy (terrific as the thoroughly jaded cop in The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue) is the head of the family, whilst giallo/horror stalwarts John Richardson, Venantino Venantini, and Massimo Foschi round out the male cast. Euro-hotties Caroline Laurence, Loretta Perischetti, Flavia Fabiani, Dana Ghia, and Rita Silva supply the glamour. There's a fair amount of nudity (I'm assuming all Italian women in the 1970s kept their high heels on in the shower), a moderate amount of blood, and some nice kills (harpoon through the neck is probably my favourite).
With its obvious 'influences' this is far from groundbreaking; but if you want to watch a thoroughly dislikeable, amoral group of pampered rich get their just desserts in some entertaining ways, it's fun. 6/10