Il gatto a nove code (1971)

Directed by Dario Argento [Other horror films: L’uccello dalle piume di cristallo (1970), 4 mosche di velluto grigio (1971), Profondo rosso (1975), Suspiria (1977), Inferno (1980), Tenebre (1982), Phenomena (1985), Opera (1987), Due occhi diabolici (1990, segment ‘The Black Cat’), Trauma (1993), La sindrome di Stendhal (1996), Il fantasma dell’opera (1998), Non ho sonno (2001), Il cartaio (2003), Ti piace Hitchcock? (2005), La terza madre (2007), Giallo (2009), Dracula 3D (2012), Occhiali neri (2022)]

Known primarily under the title The Cat o’Nine Tails, I had to say that this Dario Argento film started out strong, and remained strong for a good portion of the hour and 50 minute runtime, but aspects of the finale just didn’t sit well with me.

It’s a mostly engaging mystery – I love how a newspaper reporter (James Franciscus) and a blind man (Karl Malden) were working together in order to solve some mysterious deaths. I liked the relationship of respect they had, and of course, having a blind character working as a detective is a unique choice, and he did fantastically.

Following up on the nine leads was somewhat less than satisfactory. I guess my main problem is that of the five scientists (played by Emilio Marchesini, Tom Felleghy, Aldo Reggiani, Horst Frank, and Tino Carraro), only a couple of them got any real focus, and without a clear distinction of character, which I’m not sure we got all that well, distinguishing between some of these individuals is a bit more difficult, and also lacks somewhat of a personal touch, given we don’t know all of them, at least to any real degree.

That’s not to say that the mystery wasn’t good, but I have to say, I don’t think it was near as engaging or interesting as what we get from films like The Black Belly of the Tarantula, Deep Red, or The Case of the Bloody Iris. It just lacked a bit of the personal touch, so while time mostly flew by (which is good, given the film’s runtime), I don’t know if the finale was entirely worth it.

Regardless, that doesn’t take away from both Karl Malden’s (Phantom of the Rue Morgue) and James Franciscus’ (The Last Jaws) performances. I thought the both of them did a great job, especially Malden. I liked what we got from Horst Frank (The Head, Eye in the Labyrinth) and Emilio Marchesini, but I don’t think either character was that fleshed out, and we only got surface level stuff. I wasn’t overly fond of Catherine Spaak’s character, but at least Franciscus’ character liked her.

Part of the mystery here involved some genetics testing regarding unusual chromosome distribution. I don’t know the modern-day science behind this – it sounds as though it’s something that was debunked years ago. The movie doesn’t spend too much time on this, but it’s part of solving the mystery, and it was definitely unique, so I thought I’d mention it.

I also wanted to say that the sequence in which both of the main characters were almost killed was pretty solid. Technically Malden’s was off-screen, and we only learn about it from a phone call, but Franciscus’ milk gets poisoned, and we’re treated to some solid tension as to whether or not he’ll figure that out before drinking it.

Few of the kills here really did that much for me, and that’s primarily because this film lacks the flair of later Argento works. Most of the kills are competent, but few really stand out (save for someone being pushed in front of a train and one of the final scenes in which someone falls down an elevator shaft). Many of them are done through first-person view, which does give a little something extra, but they’re not always the most exciting (some just consist of simple strangling).

When all is said and done, The Cat o’Nine Tails is an okay giallo, but compared to so many others (including some of Argento’s own films, such as Deep Red, Four Flies on Grey Velvet, and Phenomena) around the time, it just felt sort of weak.

7.5/10