Cat O' Nine Tails (1971)

Cat O' Nine Tails was Dario Argento’s second feature film, and his second giallo. It was released in 1971.

I first saw this movie many years ago, in the early days of DVD. The DVD copy I saw was truly atrocious. Image quality was mediocre VHS quality and it was pan-and-scanned. I liked the movie but it’s perhaps not surprising that I wasn’t totally blown away by it.

In fact most of the Argento movies I’ve seen I have only seen in poor quality early DVD versions which may be why I’m not as enthusiastic about as his work as some people are. One of my current move-watching projects is to rewatch Argento’s early films on Blu-Ray. I suspect that when this project is completed I may well rate Argento much more highly.

In any case I’m now the proud owner of the Arrow Blu-Ray release of Cat O' Nine Tails.

Blind former journalist Franco Arnò (Karl Malden) is walking down the street when he overhears an odd conversation taking place in a car. He obviously can’t see the man who is speaking but his ten-year-old niece Lori gets a good look at him.

That same night there’s a break-in at Professor Terzi’s genetics research laboratory. Nothing is stolen. That puzzles reporter Carlo Giordani (James Franciscus).

And one of the scientists at the institute is killed in a freak railway accident.

When Carlo and Franco get together and realise that the accident was no accident and that the scientist was murdered they decide they may have stumbled on to something big.

Carlo thinks that Professor Terzi’s wild free-spirited daughter Anna (Catherine Spaak) knows more than she’s prepared to admit. It’s a lead worth following up, and in the course of following it up he ends up in bed with her.

Carlo and Franco know they’re on to something when somebody tries to kill both of them. Presumably the same person who killed Carlo’s photographer friend who had uncovered a vital clue.

The murderer is clearly determined to cover his (or her) tracks by killing everyone who could possibly provide incriminating evidence and the corpses quickly start to accumulate.

There’s plenty of suspense. For Carlo and Franco it’s not just a matter of uncovering the truth, it’s a matter of doing so before the killer gets around to killing them as well. And before the killer gets around to killing too many more people. So there’s a race against time element, always a good way to ramp up the suspense.

There are a couple of very Hitchcockian moments. The very fine murder in the railway station set-piece struck me as having a very Hitchcock flavour.

Very few people could pull off spectacular visual set-pieces as well as Argento could and this movie contains some prime examples. The art design isn’t as lush as you’ll find in some of his other movies. Visually it’s rather restrained.

This is early Argento. In early Argento you get the spectacular visual set-pieces you expect but you don’t get all that much in the way of gore. It wasn’t until Deep Red in 1975 that Argento came to embrace the concept of artistic gore. There are only two very brief slightly gruesome moments but because Argento is so sparing in his use of shock effects in this film those moments actually have more impact than the more operatic gore effects of his later movies.

James Franciscus seemed headed for major stardom but it didn’t quite happen. He delivers a solid performance here. Karl Malden is of course excellent. Catherine Spaak is adorable, charming and slightly odd and mysterious. She was a superb actress who gave a magnificent performance in the wonderful sexy comedy The Libertine (1968).

Argento’s debut feature The Bird with the Crystal Plumage had been a huge hit not just in Europe but in the U.S. so the producers had high hopes for Cat O' Nine Tails which was rushed into production to capitalise on the success of his first movie. Cat O' Nine Tails flopped in the U.S. but did well in Europe.

The Arrow Blu-Ray looks terrific. The extras include an interview with Argento. This is apparently his least favourite of all his movies. He felt it was too Hollywood. He does however have very fond memories of working with Karl Malden and he has reasonably positive things to say about James Franciscus and Catherine Spaak. There’s an audio commentary with Alan Jones and Kim Newman. It’s a good commentary but they do reveal spoilers for a lot of Argento’s other movies!

I don’t think Cat O' Nine Tails is as good as The Bird with the Crystal Plumage but it’s still a fine thriller. The plot doesn’t make much sense (in fact it makes no sense at all) but plot coherence is not a necessary ingredient of a top-class giallo. Cat O' Nine Tails is enjoyable and it’s recommended.