The Cat o' Nine Tails

I just can't understand the editors of the "Maltin Movie and Video Guide" sometimes. How could they possibly give their lowest "Bomb" rating to 1971's "The Cat O'Nine Tails," for example, citing its "graphic gore and sex" and "bad dubbing"? The uncut DVD that I just viewed had hardly any gore at all, one very brief topless scene and was excellently dubbed (indeed, the main characters look to be speaking English). This is actually a very fine mystery thriller that should have received 3 stars from this often-dubious guide. In the film, a blind ex-reporter played by Karl Malden teams up with journalist James Franciscus to investigate a string of murders that takes place following a break-in at a genetics lab. The two make a fine and believable team, especially when joined by Malden's cute little niece (Cinzia de Carolis); I could have easily seen the pair continuing on to a crime-busting TV series of their own. Speaking of TV, this film often reminded me of old "Avengers" episodes, what with a crazed killer doing away with folks around a scientific institution while our heroes scramble to track him/her down. Of course, though, this is a Dario Argento giallo--his least favorite of all his films, he tells us in one of the DVD's many extras, but a very entertaining one from where I sit. The picture has a complex plot that takes many unexpected turns, involving genetic anomalies, garrotings, a visit to a gay bar, a double poisoned-milk tribute to Hitchcock's "Suspicion," kidnapping, blackmail, an insult contest, a very-high-speed car chase, grave robbing, death by locomotive and elevator shaft, and on and on. Ennio Morricone here delivers yet another superb score, alternating between a creepy childish lullaby of sorts and discordant, pulsating, arrhythmic jazz. The film also features some excellent dialogue and handsome production values. A bomb? Hardly!

I saw this on The Horror Channel.

Having seen a few Dario Argento horror flicks on this channel now, I would dare say that Cat O' Nine Tails is the most restrained, at least in the gore/violence stakes, of those I've watched. There are moments of extreme but swift, clever nasty bits, though.

I guess you'll be watching this cos it is by this so-influential 'Italian Hitchcock' maestro rather than for its story, but having said that, it's decently far-fetched enough but with enough relevance to paranoia around government testing of miracle drugs and all that...

It looked to me to have been made in English, rather than dubbed, or could just that the brilliant, understated performance by Karl Malden was and everyone else were dubbed after. He plays a blind, retired journalist, who has a young orphaned girl as his visual aide and along with a current newspaper reporter,(James Franciscus) they uncover all these secrets after a man, they suspect, was pushed under a train, rather than falling and then, other murders.

I'm no expert on the horror genre but would dare say that this still has signs of the director's visual stylish daring, but is less operatic than some of his, being more workmanlike and 'American'. It still works well, but is more akin to a crime thriller than out-and-out horror, though we do get moments of terror and suspense and the odd twist in the tale.

This might be a lesser Argento (number of reviews and score on IMDb) but is still a heap better than many Hollywood affairs but somehow, doesn't have that magic ingredient that his best movies have. Quite good, but not great.

Okay, most critics even Argento lovers give this film poor reviews. I admit this is not his best work, but it's not a bad mystery Giallo film and I enjoyed it a lot. From the intricate plotting, to the impressive Argento style camera-work, and those trendy (circa 1971) sets this film is a winner. I saw this at the theater when it was released, as a teenager coming off seeing Bird W/ The Crystal Plumage 2 years before so I expected at least another stylish horror film. I got it black patent leather gloves and all. Argento himself said this is his most disappointing film. I disagree it delivered the goods in a well made, suspenseful, well plotted, never boring and good looking package. His worst film by far is the atrocious Phantom of The Opera (1998). Avoid that one. Although Cat O' Nine tails is no Suspiria or Deep Red, it still is a worthy addition to any Argento or Giallo horror film collection. I give it 8/10.

The former journalist Franco Arno (Karl Malden) is a retired blind man that likes crosswords and lives with his orphan niece Lori (Cinzia De Carolis) nearby the Terzi Institute. While walking with Lori on the street, he overhears a strange conversation of two men in a car parked in front of the institute and he asks Lori to watch their faces. In the same night, there is a break in the institute with an attempt of heist. On the next morning, the researcher Dr. Calabresi (Carlo Alighiero) dies in the train station and the police believe that it was an accident. However, Lori recognizes the picture of the scientist in the newspaper as one of the men in the car. Franco contacts the snoopy reporter Carlo Giordano (James Franciscus) and asks him to blow up the picture and examine the details. The photographer discovers that Dr. Calabresi was pushed off from the platform but he is also killed and the photograph vanishes. After their preliminary investigation, they find that the scientists are researching a revolutionary drug and a genetic experiment of XYY chromosomes associated to delinquency for the government and they conclude that there are nine leads to be followed: each of the five assistants of the institute (Dr. Calabresi; Dr. Esson; Dr. Mobelli; Dr. Casoni; and the gay Dr. Braun); the stepdaughter of Prof. Fulvio Terzi, Anna Terzi; the fiancée of Dr. Calabresi, Bianca Merusi; the missing photograph; and the robbery of the institute.

The suspenseful "Il Gatto a Nove Code" is the second film in the career of the director Dario Argento and despite the flaws, it is an entertaining conventional thriller. The association of Giordano with Arno is implausible; the unethical way that Giordano works, breaking in the residences is unacceptable for an experienced reporter; the one night stand of Giordano and Anna has no chemistry or eroticism; the car race of Anna is pointless; the edition of the accident of Dr. Calabresi is poor. But there are good moments, like the angles of camera in the stairways, or when Giordano brings two glasses of milk toward Anna. The deduction of Arno that Bianca has hiding the note in the watch in the necklace is unconvincing. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil) "O Gato de Nove Caudas" ("The Cat of Nine Tails")

Note: On 12 March 2016 I saw this film again.

Delivered in-between the far-superior "The Bird with the Crystal Plumage" and "Four Flies on Grey Velvet", this Dario Argento murder-mystery doesn't quite rise to those heights--and Argento himself was dismissive of it--but there's still a great deal to treasure here. Karl Malden is terrific as an ex-newspaperman man and puzzle-lover, blinded 15 years ago in an accident and living with his orphaned niece, who partners with reporter James Franciscus in a case involving a break-in at a forensic science institute wherein the burglar assaulted the night watchman but didn't take anything. Soon, a doctor at the institute is killed in a mysterious 'accident' involving a train, followed by the photographer who snapped a picture of the man's death--revealing that it was indeed a murder. Argento also had a hand in the original story and co-authored the screenplay with Bryan Edgar Wallace; he gives us fully-rounded characters with lives outside their jobs, including their extracurricular activities, their acquaintances, their sexual proclivities (including a stop at a gay bar that must have been eyebrow-raising in 1971). If his pacing is sometimes slow, it is deliberate, careful. He loves mounting his narrative with as much minutiae as he can stuff into a frame, although he may give viewers too much time to rethink the scenario and find faults with his plotting (on the crowded train platform, did no one notice the killer?). Argento-buffs probably won't mind the flaws, of course, and with that boffo finale you can hardly blame them. **1/2 from ****