Short Night of Glass Dolls 1971

In a park in Cold War-era Prague, the corpse of American journalist Gregory Moore, Jean Sorel, is discovered and brought to the local morgue. The mortician notes that the body is unusually warm, suggesting Gregory may still be alive, and as hospital technicians debate whether to perform an autopsy in the surgical theater, Gregory’s mind drifts back over the events of the preceding days. The memory-driven narrative unfolds as his body lingers between life and death, a tension that hangs heavy over the morgue and the nerves of everyone watching.

Days earlier, Gregory reunites with his partner, Mira Svoboda, Barbara Bach, who has escaped to Prague from the Soviet Union. The two attend a glamorous party full of journalists and elites who marvel at Mira’s beauty, while another journalist and former lover, Jessica, Ingrid Thulin, attempts to seduce Gregory, only to be rebuffed. As the night unfolds, Mira vanishes, leaving behind her personal belongings and a growing chill of unease. Gregory desperately seeks help from authorities, but their evasiveness and indifference deepen the sense that something unseen and dangerous is at work. Several guests claim they never spoke to Mira, further muddying the trail.

In the wake of Mira’s disappearance, Gregory and Jessica rally support from Jacques Versain, Mario Adorf who agrees to help, yet their search runs into the wall of police caution and official suspicion. The tension thickens when a subsequent woman’s body is found; Gregory fears it might be Mira, but the scene reveals otherwise, heightening the sense that a larger conspiracy is at play. The search leads them to Professor Karting, Fabijan Šovagović, a physician who had spoken with Mira at the party. Karting asserts that Mira told him she planned to return to Moscow, a claim Gregory struggles to accept as truth. He then dives into newspaper archives at the library, chasing reports of other missing women in Prague, his mind racing to connect the seemingly unrelated events.

A strange elderly man contacts Gregory, claiming to carry information about Mira. The two meet at a train station, but a shadowy figure pushes the old man in front of an oncoming train, killing him as the would-be informant’s papers scatter. Gregory discovers a matchbook bearing the cryptic clue “Klub 99.” Following the trail, he arrives at an ornate, anonymous recital hall that hides a secret room filled with antiques and butterfly collections. A hostile janitor threatens Gregory, and only after a tense confrontation does he reveal Mira’s corpse, lying among flowers in a secluded chamber.

Jacques finally confesses to having killed Mira, claiming she was disposed of in a sewer. He further reveals that the members of Klub 99 are an international cult that practices black magic. Jacques himself is killed, and Gregory is interrogated by police who accuse him of Mira’s murder. Valinski, the Minister of the Interior and leader of Klub 99, offers to take Gregory home from the station, but in his apartment Gregory discovers Mira’s body again, refrigerated like a grotesque trophy. He flees back to Klub 99, where he encounters an occult ritual led by Valinski. The cultists unleash a spell that paralyzes him and dumps his body in the park, leaving him vulnerable to whatever fate the cult has planned.

In the present, Professor Karting—a high priest within Klub 99—begins an autopsy on Gregory for his medical students, a macabre classroom spectacle attended by Jessica. Gregory summons every ounce of will to lift his hand, hoping the students will notice and intervene, but Karting blocks the movement and plunges a scalpel into Gregory’s heart, delivering a final, fatal act as Jessica’s scream tears through the room. The film closes on the stark image of the professor’s cold efficiency, and the park outside seems to echo with the unresolved questions of who controls what happens to Mira, Gregory, and the others entangled in Klub 99.