A pre-giallo obscurity, Death on the Fourposter plops six couples into a bona fide castle for one swingin’ weekend. The place is a “mansion of pleasure” as far as the guys are concerned, but maybe not so much for the ladies: It has only one bathroom.
Co-directed by Jean Josipovici and Ambrogio Molteni, neither prolific, this Italian mystery also saw release as Sexy Party, which although silly-sounding, is absolutely apt. Perhaps the film’s embodiment of the sensual is Serena (Antonella Lualdi from Claude Chabrol’s A Double Tour), who livens up the shindig beyond mere dancing to jazz LPs on the hi-fi when she proposes a rather carnal take on Truth or Dare, such as betting the boys she can seduce them within seconds. If she can — and she knows she will because she’s pretty hot and knows that, too — their girlfriends must submit to the desires of another man there for a few minutes. Gambling has never been so erotically charged.
So, uh, where does the Death come in? Without revealing too much, Serena’s head games give way to a séance; it works, and not everyone lives to see the sunshine. Viewers’ unfamiliarity with the no-star cast works to the distinct advantage of this rough gem, in that conceivably, anyone could make an early exit. The lone exception might be John Drew Barrymore, star of the JD-flavored teenpic High School Confidential and father of Drew, but could you pick him out of a lineup? Not likely, even after exposure here. —Rod Lott