Twilight Time delves into the giallo genre with their limited edition Blu-ray of Aldo Lado's chilly masterpiece SHORT NIGHT OF THE GLASS DOLLS.

The body of a young man is found in a public park in Prague, his eyes open and staring. He is pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital and moved to the morgue. The medical staff discover that the man is Gregory Moore (Jean Sorel, PERVERSION STORY), an American reporter working for the foreign press. What they do not know, however, is that he is not dead… or, at least, he does not believe he is dead. Able to see the doctors but unable to speak or move, Moore tries to recall how he got there even as he is wheeled into cold storage. When he was alive and well, Moore was planning on transferring to London and using his diplomatic ties to help get lover Mira (Barbara Bach, BLACK BELLY OF THE TARANTULA) out of the country with him. After they attend an upscale party in which Mira attracts much attention – as well as the jealousy of Moore's colleague and ex-lover Jessica (Ingrid Thulin, THE DAMNED) – Moore is called away from their bed by colleague Jacques (Mario Adorf, THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE) to what turns out to be a false tip and returns to discover that Mira has vanished. While Jessica, Jacques, and Party official Valinski (José Quaglio, WHO SAW HER DIE?) suggest that it is possible that she just ran off, even the fact that all of Mira's clothes, her purse, and her passport were left behind is not enough to convince Kommissar Kierkoff (Piero Vida, STAGEFRIGHT) that foul play was involved. Although Moore is warned not to get involved by Kierkoff, he starts investigating and discovers a string of disappearances of young women who shared common interests with Mira that takes him to the mysterious Klubb 99 whose clientele have a passion for chamber music, butterflies, and something else. Back in the morgue, Moore cardiologist friend notes that Ivan (Relja Basic) notes that the corpse's body temperature has not dropped and consults a colleague (Fabijan Sovagovic) who has scientifically determined that all living organisms (even tomatoes) demonstrate sensitivity to pain stimuli.

The directorial debut of Aldo Lado (NIGHT TRAIN MURDERS) – a much more auspicious one than Umberto Lenzi's THE MAN FROM DEEP RIVER which Lado penned and was slated to helm – SHORT NIGHT OF THE GLASS DOLLS eschews the giallo particulars of black gloved killers and an onscreen body count of pretty girls for the paranoia of surveillance and conspiracy of such thrillers as THE THIRD MAN. Whether they are responsible for Mira's disappearance and/or death, the monsters of the film are the wealthy and powerful in a world where the young cannot even imagine a future while the old try to blot out the past, where "the old bang the drum and the young go to battle" and the greatest threat to the order of things is the "awakening of conscience." Early in the film, Mira gifts Moore with framed butterflies, a particular species that possesses no instinct to fly. Ennio Morricone (THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE) provides some typically chilly dissonant strings and disembodied voices, while the more lyrical side of the score also seems to echo the Carol Reed film's zither theme more so than the giallo genre's lullaby themes. The photography of Gisueppe Ruzzolini (TEOROMA) draws little attention to itself apart from scenes in Moore's apartment in which the now cliché use of shadows cast by Venetian blinds in front of a cool blue moonlight source seem to be channeling Vittorio Storaro's work on Bernardo Bertolucci's THE CONFORMIST on which Lado served as assistant director. While the supporting cast is largely Czech, Luciano Catenacci (KILL BABY KILL) appears as a morgue attendant.

Unreleased theatrically in the United States, SHORT NIGHT OF THE GLASS DOLLS was released on panned-and-scanned videotape by Gorgon Video under the title PARALYZED. Its first widescreen release was from Anchor Bay separately or as part of The Giallo Collection featuring Lado's WHO SAW HER DIE, Antonio Bido's THE BLOODSTAINED SHADOW, and the set exclusive of Giuliano Carnimeo's THE CASE OF THE BLOODY IRIS. The DVD, reissued by Blue Underground, featured an anamorphic widescreen transfer and a short interview with Lado and the film's trailer. While this giallo arrived on DVD relatively early, it was long in coming to Blu-ray, with German company Camera Obscura rejecting an earlier HD master and delaying their release a number of times before putting out a two-disc special edition that could not include the English dub track due to rights but featured English subtitles for the film, commentary tracks – a new one with Lado and one with singer Jurgen Drews (who performs the film's theme song late in the film) ported over from the German DVD – and extras which included a lengthy interview with Lado and Sorel. Last year, 88 Films in the UK put out a region free (marked Region B) Blu-ray which included the English track (in addition to Italian with subtitles) but was barebones. That transfer was different from the German one, revealing more picture information on the sides during the first reel and then more or less on almost a shot by shot basis next to the German edition (it may indeed have been the earlier master Camera Obscura rejected).

Twilight Time's limited edition 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.35:1 widescreen transfer appears to be identical to the British disc going by online caps, looking more naturalistic and cooler overall than the German which has slightly richer blues and slightly warmer skintones (Moore's corpse excepted). Since the German release's image is still highly regarded in light of the US/UK master, preference for those who do not have one edition or another may be down to price with the higher end including over three hours of extras (five plus with the commentaries). Audio options include clean English and Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono tracks with optional English subtitles for the latter, as well as Morricone's score is also included as an isolated option in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0.