Four Times That Night (Quante volte... quella note) – Indicator Series (4k UHD)

Theatrical Release Date: Italy/West Germany/USA, 1971
Director: Mario Bava
Writers: Mario Moroni, Charles Ross, Guido Leoni
Cast: Daniela Giordano, Brett Halsey, Pascale Petit, Robert H. Oliver, Dick Randall, Valeria Sabel, Rainer Basedow, Brigitte Skay, Calisto Calisti

Release Date: June 29th, 2026
Approximate Running Times: 83 Minutes 2 Seconds (Quante volte... quella note), 81 Minutes 27 Seconds (Four Times That Night)
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen / 2160 Progressive / HEVC / H.265 / Dolby Vision HDR10 (Both Versions)
Rating: 15 (UK)
Sound: LPCM Mono Italian (Quante volte... quella note), LPCM Mono English (Four Times That Night)
Subtitles: English (Quante volte... quella note), English SDH (Four Times That Night)
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: £24.99

"Handsome model John (Halsey) takes the virginial Tina (Giordano) on a date. When Tina returns to her overbearing mother in tears, her dress in tatters, everyone has a different account of what really happened that night..." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 4.5/5 (Both Versions)

Here’s the information provided about this release's transfer, “Four Times That Night was scanned in 4K Augustus Color in Rome using the original negative. 4K HDR color correction and image restoration work was undertaken at Filmfinity, London, when Phoenix and Diamant image-processing tools were used to remove many thousands of instances of dirt, eliminate scratches and other imperfections, and repair damaged frames. No grain management, edge enhancement, or sharpening tools were employed to artificially alter the image in any way.”

Here’s information provided about the differences between these two versions, “In addition to containing different opening titles and end cards, the US and Italian theatrical cuts of Four Times That Night diverge in a number of other ways. The US version includes two erotic scenes which proved too risqué for the Italian version, whilst the Italian version includes two unique experimental and comedic scenes, featuring the scientist character, towards the end of the film. The dialogue also differs markedly at times across the two cuts.”

Four Times That Night (Quante volte... quella note) comes on a 66 GB dual layer 4K UHD.

Disc Size: 60.3 GB

Feature: 50.4 GB

This release uses seamless branching for the two versions. Both versions have never looked better; they are a marked improvement over their previous home media releases. Flesh tones look healthy; colors are nicely saturated; image clarity, contrast, black levels, and compression are solid; and the image always retains an organic appearance.

Audio: 4.5/5

Quante volte... quella notte comes with one audio option, a LPCM mono mix in Italian with removable English subtitles. Four Times That Night comes with one audio option, a LPCM mono mix in English with removable English SDH. Both tracks sound clean, clear, and balanced. The main difference between these tracks is that dialogue sounds slightly fuller on the Italian language track.

Extras:

Extras for this release include an image gallery (16 images—stills/posters), the original US theatrical trailer (2 minutes 22 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), a video essay by critic Rachael Nisbet titled The ‘Rashōmon’ Effect (18 minutes 25 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with Roberto Colangeli, the son of prolific editor Otello Colangeli titled Like Father, Like Son (13 minutes 34 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with assistant director, and son of Mario Bava, Lamberto Bava, titled Scenes from a Memory (12 minutes 24 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an archival audio commentary with Mario Bava: All the Colors of Dark author Tim Lucas for Quante volte... quella notte, an audio commentary with genre-film experts Eugenio Ercolani and Troy Howarth for Four Times That Night, and an 80-page book with cast & crew information, an essay titled Swingers in a pop-Giallo World written by Leon Hunt, a new writing on the film’s Italian censorship history titled How Many More Times? written by Roberto Curti and Alessio Di Rocco, an archival interview with Mario Bava conducted conducted by Giuseppe Lippi and Lorenzo Codelli, an archival interview with Brett Halsey conducted by Phil Hardcastle, an archival interview with Daniela Giordano conducted by Chris Milewski, and information about the restoration.

Summary:

Although Mario Bava is most known for his horror films, his filmography was diverse, and he excelled in whatever genre he worked in. Comedy was the genre Mario Bava is least known for; he only directed two films in this genre, Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs (Le spie vengono dal semifreddo) and Four Times That Night (Quante volte... quella note). Where Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs (Le spie vengono dal semifreddo) was a satire of 1960s spy cinema, Four Times That Night (Quante volte... quella note) marked Mario Bava’s only foray into commedia sexy all'italiana. That said, humor was a central element throughout Mario Bava’s filmography.

Four Times That Night (Quante volte... quella note) employs the Rashomon effect, a storytelling method based on Akira Kurosawa's film of the same name. Narratives that use the Rashomon effect revolve around a collection of characters who each provide their memories of an event and each memory contradicts the others. Four Times That Night (Quante volte... quella note) revolves around a lecherous playboy and a virginal, virtuous young woman whose accounts of a date greatly differ. Two other characters provide their accounts of what happened that night: a peeping Tom doorman and a scientist.

While a narrative that features the same scenario four times might turn out redundant, Four Times That Night (Quante volte... quella note) always manages to engage with its four distinctly different recollections of that night; they are all equally entertaining. Most of the humour comes from characters' reactions to unwanted sexual advances and character stereotypes. That said, the funniest moments come from the guard character. There is a cartoonish-like quality to the moments with the guard.

All around the cast are outstanding in their roles, especially the two leads, Daniela Giordano (Violent Rome) and Brett Halsey (The Devil’s Honey). Another performance of note is Dick Randall in the role of the doorman. Although the female cast members provide plenty of eye candy, the male cast members are not left out; Brett Halsey’s character wears a speedo.

When discussing the cinema of Mario Bava, Four Times That Night (Quante volte... quella note), like all of his films, is beautifully photographed. Other areas where Four Times That Night (Quante volte... quella note) excels are its exemplary production design and Coriolano Gori’s (Massacre Time) score, which perfectly underscores the mood. Ultimately, Four Times That Night (Quante volte... quella note) is arguably Mario Bava’s most underrated film; it is a highly entertaining example of commedia sexy all'italiana.

Powerhouse Films gives Four Times That Night (Quante volte... quella note) its best home media release to date. Highly recommended.

Note about the 4K screenshots: It is not possible to make Dolby Vision or HDR10 screenshots that faithfully match the experience of watching a film in motion on a TV. Instead of not having any screenshots, all of the 4K screenshots are m2ts taken with a MPC-HC player and lossless PNGs.

Note: Limited edition of 5,000 individually numbered units (4,000 4K UHDs and 1,000 Blu-rays) for the UK.

 

Written by Michael Den Boer