Four Times That Night

Last updated
Four Times That Night
FourTimesThatNight.png
American film poster
Directed by Mario Bava
Screenplay byMario Moroni
Charles Ross
Dialogue:
Guido Leoni [1]
Produced byZeljko Kunkera
Claudio Rainis [1]
Starring Brett Halsey
Daniela Giordano
Pascale Petit
Brigitte Skay
Cinematography Antonio Rinaldi
Mario Bava [2]
Edited by Otello Colangeli [1]
Music by Lallo Gori [1]
Color process Eastmancolor
Production
companies
Delfino Film
Hape-Film
Arlington International Pictures [1]
Distributed byAlexa Cinematografica (Italy)
Cinevision Films (US) [1]
Release dates
  • 15 July 1972 (1972-07-15)(Italy)
[1]
Running time
81 minutes (Italy)
83 minutes (US) [1]
CountriesItaly
West Germany
United States [1] [3]
LanguagesEnglish
Italian [1]

Four Times That Night (Italian : Quante volte... quella notte) is a 1971 commedia sexy all'italiana film directed by Mario Bava. [4] [5]

Contents

Plot

Male model John Price encounters Tina Bryant while walking her poodle, "Cool Rump", in a park. Although she initially resists his advances, they flirt after John accidentally trips over the dog, and agree to a date that evening. While picking her up, John is cautioned by Tina's strict, widowed mother Sonia that her daughter is a Catholic and a virgin, and is not to be taken advantage of. After dancing at a discoteque, Tina becomes uncomfortable with John's insistent leering, and the pair agree to return home.

Early next morning, Tina returns to her mother's apartment with her expensive mini-dress torn beyond repair. When Sonia questions her, Tina declares that John tried to rape her.

Tina's story

On their way home, John invited Tina back to his apartment as he was expecting a business call. She opted to wait outside, but after being teased by two gay neighbours, George and Esmeralda, she decided to go into the apartment, a stereotypical swinger's pad. John left the room to change into a sweater, but returned in his underwear and attempted to mount Tina; during the altercation, he tore through the dress and she scratched his forehead in self-defence. After barricading herself in the bedroom, she escaped.

John's story

John returns to the discoteque and drinks with three of his friends. Their curiosities are piqued by his forehead injury, prompting him to share his side of the story.

In his recollection, both Sonia and Tina were unrelentingly coquettish towards him, and the latter was more than willing to return to his apartment. The pair had sex multiple times throughout the night, and Tina's libidinousness eventually tired John; she unwittingly scratched him while stroking his hair. Tina's chance for another tryst was lost when they were visited by George and Esmeralda, forcing them to end their date with light conversation.

The Doorman's story

As John returns home, his sex-crazed, voyeuristic doorman converses with a milkman, claiming to have watched the encounter through binoculars.

John had brought Tina home to provide Esmerelda with company while he and George had sex in his bedroom. To dissuade Tina's disbelief about John's homosexuality, Esmeralda told her of how they met at the Club Kama Sutra, which turned out to be a story of how she convinced a German woman to pose for nude photographs. When Tina reacted in shock to John and George's lovemaking, Esmeralda drugged her drink, rendering her unconscious, and raped her. When Tina awoke and tried to escape, her dress was torn as she tried to retrieve it from John, who she scratched as he held her down for Esmeralda to take advantage of again.

The Scientist's story

After presenting a lecture on perception, a scientist proposes a fourth version of the story.

Here, John and Tina's initial encounter and date were friendly and without conflict. John suggested that they share a drink at his apartment, offering to keep his door open as a sign of trust. There, both admitted their mutual attraction, but decided that they would share intimacy once they knew each other better. As John and Tina left, they discovered that the front gate was jammed; their attempts to call for the doorman were fruitless due to him being distracted by his pornography collection. John tried to lift Tina over the gate so she could unlock it from the outside, but her dress got torn on the gate, and she scratched his forehead after she nearly fell to the ground; when Tina worried about how Sonia would respond to the torn dress, John jokingly suggested that she tell her that he tried to rape her. They then waited until another occupant was able to let them out. Upon George and Esmerelda's arrival, the doorman arrived to fix the gate, and John and Tina drove away.

The scientist is dissatisfied with this apparently "true" account, and questions the logic of the "open door" policy, as well as the couple's response to the jammed gate. Suggesting that the truth is hidden amid the embellishments and falsehoods provided by these four accounts, he reveals that the only fact he is certain of is that rather than immediately returning to Sonia's, the couple drove to the seaside to watch the sunrise together.

Cast

Release

Four Times That Night was shown in Montreal on March 12, 1971. [2]

Related Research Articles

<i>Black Sabbath</i> (film) 1963 film by Mario Bava

Black Sabbath is a 1963 horror anthology film directed by Mario Bava. The film consists of three separate tales that are introduced by Boris Karloff. The order in which the stories are presented varies among the different versions in which the film has been released. In the original, Italian print, the first story, titled "The Telephone", involves Rosy who continually receives threatening telephone calls from an unseen stalker. The second is "The Wurdulak", where a man named Gorca (Karloff) returns to his family after claiming to have slain a Wurdulak, an undead creature who attacks those that it had once loved. The third story, "The Drop of Water", is centered on Helen Corey, a nurse who steals a ring from a corpse that is being prepared for burial and finds herself haunted by the ring's original owner after arriving home.

Tim Lucas is a film critic, biographer, novelist, screenwriter, blogger, and publisher and editor of the video review magazine Video Watchdog.

Lamberto Bava Italian film director

Lamberto Bava is an Italian film director. Born in Rome, Bava began working as an assistant director for his director father Mario Bava. Lamberto co-directed the 1979 television film La Venere d'Ille with his father and in 1980 directed his first solo feature film Macabre.

<i>Blood and Black Lace</i> 1964 film by Mario Bava

Blood and Black Lace is a 1964 giallo film directed by Mario Bava and starring Eva Bartok and Cameron Mitchell. The story concerns the brutal murders of a Roman fashion house's models, committed by a masked killer in a desperate attempt to obtain a scandal-revealing diary.

<i>The Girl Who Knew Too Much</i> (1963 film) 1963 Italian film

The Girl Who Knew Too Much is a 1963 Italian giallo film. Directed by Italian filmmaker Mario Bava, the film stars John Saxon as Dr. Marcello Bassi and Letícia Román as Nora Davis. The plot revolves around a young woman named Nora, who travels to Rome and witnesses a murder. The police and Dr. Bassi don't believe her since a corpse can't be found. Several more murders follow, tied to a decade-long string of killings of victims chosen in alphabetical order.

<i>Black Sunday</i> (1960 film) 1960 film

Black Sunday is a 1960 Italian gothic horror film directed by Mario Bava in his official directorial debut, and starring Barbara Steele, John Richardson, Andrea Checchi, Ivo Garrani, Arturo Dominici and Enrico Oliveri. Loosely based on Nikolai Gogol's short story "Viy", the film takes place in Moldavia and tells the story of a witch who is put to death by her brother, only to return two centuries later to seek revenge upon his descendants.

<i>Danger: Diabolik</i> 1968 film directed by Mario Bava

Danger: Diabolik is a 1968 action and crime film directed and co-written by Mario Bava, based on the Italian comic series Diabolik by Angela and Luciana Giussani. The film is about a criminal named Diabolik, who plans large-scale heists for his girlfriend Eva Kant. Diabolik is pursued by Inspector Ginko, who blackmails the gangster Ralph Valmont into catching Diabolik for him.

<i>Inferno</i> (1980 film) 1980 Italian horror film directed by Dario Argento

Inferno is a 1980 Italian supernatural horror film written and directed by Dario Argento, and starring Irene Miracle, Leigh McCloskey, Eleonora Giorgi, Daria Nicolodi and Alida Valli. The plot follows a young man's investigation into the disappearance of his sister, who had been living in a New York City apartment building that also served as a home for a powerful, centuries-old witch. The cinematography was by Romano Albani, and Keith Emerson composed the film's musical score.

<i>Minnesota Clay</i> 1964 film directed by Sergio Corbucci

Minnesota Clay is a 1964 Spaghetti Western directed by Sergio Corbucci.

<i>Demons 2</i> 1986 film

Demons 2 is a 1986 Italian horror film directed by Lamberto Bava and produced by Dario Argento. It is a sequel to Bava's 1985 film Demons and stars David Knight, Nancy Brilli, Coralina Cataldi Tassoni, as well as Argento's youngest daughter, Asia Argento, in her debut film performance at age 10. In the film, demons invade the real world through a television broadcast, turning the residents of an apartment building into bloodthirsty monsters.

<i>The Day the Sky Exploded</i> 1958 film

The Day the Sky Exploded, released in the United Kingdom as Death Comes From Outer Space, is a 1958 science fiction film. It is known as the first Italian science fiction film, predating even the science fiction films of Antonio Margheriti.

<i>Five Dolls for an August Moon</i> 1970 film directed by Mario Bava

Five Dolls for an August Moon is a 1970 Italian giallo film directed by Mario Bava. It concerns a group of people who have gathered on a remote island for fun and relaxation. One of the guests is a chemist who has created a revolutionary new chemical process, and several of the attending industrialists are eager to buy it from him. Business problems become moot when someone begins killing off the attendees one by one.

<i>Shock</i> (1977 film) 1977 Italian horror film directed by Mario Bava

Shock is a 1977 Italian horror film directed by Mario Bava and starring Daria Nicolodi, John Steiner, and David Colin, Jr. Its plot focuses on a woman who moves into the home she shared with her deceased former husband, where she finds herself tormented by supernatural occurrences. It was Bava's last theatrical feature before he died of a heart attack in 1980.

<i>Kill, Baby, Kill</i> 1966 film directed by Mario Bava

Kill, Baby, Kill is a 1966 Italian gothic horror film directed by Mario Bava and starring Giacomo Rossi Stuart and Erika Blanc. Written by Bava, Romano Migliorini, and Roberto Natale, the film focuses on a small Carpathian village in the early 1900s that is being terrorized by the ghost of a murderous young girl.

<i>Hatchet for the Honeymoon</i> 1970 film

Hatchet for the Honeymoon is a 1970 giallo film directed by Mario Bava and starring Stephen Forsyth, Dagmar Lassander, Laura Betti, and Femi Benussi. The story follows John Harrington, a hatchet-wielding madman who murders young brides in an effort to recall a childhood trauma.

Dagmar Lassander German actress

Dagmar Lassander is a German actress.

<i>Baron Blood</i> (film) 1972 film

Baron Blood is a 1972 horror film directed by Mario Bava. An international co-production of Italy and West Germany, the film stars Joseph Cotten as Baron Otto Von Kleist, a murderous noble who is resurrected from the dead by his great-grandson Peter and a former college student named Eva.

Ely Galleani Italian film actress

Ely Galleani, sometimes credited as Justine Gall and Ely Gall, is a retired Italian film actress.

<i>The Young, the Evil and the Savage</i> 1968 film

The Young, the Evil and the Savage is a 1968 Italian giallo film directed by Antonio Margheriti.

<i>Goosebumps The Musical</i>

Goosebumps The Musical: Phantom Of The Auditorium is a musical with book and lyrics by John Maclay, and music and lyrics by Danny Abosch. It is based on "Goosebumps: Phantom of the Auditorium", book 24 of the bestselling Goosebumps book series by R.L. Stine, published by Scholastic Publishing.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Lucas, Tim (2007). Mario Bava: All the Colors of the Dark. Video Watchdog. p. 796. ISBN   978-0-9633756-1-2.
  2. 1 2 "Vier Mal heute Nacht". Filmportal.de . Retrieved 24 December 2019.
  3. Lucas, Tim (2019). Commentary by Tim Lucas (Blu-ray). Kino Lorber. Event occurs at 0:02:15. K23154.
  4. "Quante Volte…Quella Notte". Time Out . Retrieved 2018-03-26.
  5. Lucas 2013, p. 795.

Sources