FIVE DOLLS FOR AN AUGUST MOON is Mario Bava’s deliriously mod spin on an Agatha Christie-style whodunit.

Bava was so closely associated with the horror genre that this twisting mystery was never released theatrically in the U.S., but it is deliciously entertaining all the same. A space age island retreat is visited by a group of friends and business associates, one of whom is a scientist who has invented a revolutionary chemical process, and is fending off various offers to buy it. Soon the vacationers start dying, and the survivors begin to wonder who has the most to gain from these murders most foul.

Anything but a drawing room mystery, Bava’s erotic thriller is enlivened by its psychedelic set design, a hip score by Piero Umiliani, and a swinging performance by giallo goddess Edwige Fenech (All the Colors of the Dark).