Review by Stephanie Scaife.
The Cat o’ Nine Tails (1971) Dario Argento’s second feature, and purportedly his least favourite, is the newest Blu-ray release from Arrow Video. Sitting in between The Bird with the Crystal Plumage and Four Flies on Grey Velvet as part of Argento’s loosely connected animal trilogy, The Cat o’ Nine Tails does not unfortunately feature an actual cat, just a metaphorical whip that relates to the nine different plot strands that slowly uncover the identity of the killer in this watchable but convoluted giallo murder mystery.
Karl Malden stars as Franco “Cookie” Arno, a blind puzzlemaker who lives with his young niece Lori (Cinzia De Carolis). One evening Arno happens to overhear a conversation about blackmail taking place between two men in a car parked outside The Terzi Institute, a genetic institute in Rome. Arno stops to tie his shoe laces and asks Lori to describe the men in the car; one of the men is obscured but the other turns out to be Dr. Calabresi (Carlo Alighiero) who soon ends up dead after being pushed in front of a train by an unseen assailant in the wake of a robbery at the institute.
Arno takes a great interest in the case and joins forces with local journalist Carlo Giordani (James Franciscus), revealing that he too was once a journalist before the accident that made him blind. As the list of murder victims grows the investigative duo are introduced to a selection of would be suspects including Anna Terzi (Catherine Spaark in an array of impressively hideous outfits) the beautiful femme fatale and adopted daughter of the Institute’s owner, Dr. Braun (Horst Frank) a high-brow homosexual and Dr. Carsoni (Aldo Reggiani) a young genius with a peculiar interest in chromosome configurations.
The Cat o’ Nine Tails starts off as a fairly average espionage thriller/murder mystery, but this being a giallo film it soon becomes overwrought with plot twists and increasingly difficult for the viewer to fathom. As the plot unfolded and our unique crime fighting duo began to close in on the killer I found myself not even particularly caring who it was or why they were doing it, instead my appreciation for the film lay more in its ambiance and permeating air of peculiarity. Having said that there is still much to admire here; particularly the Ennio Morricone soundtrack (although admittedly underused), and Argento’s emerging ability to create a sinister and ubiquitous threat through the use of extreme close-ups and POV shots from the killer’s perspective. Overall though I found The Cat o’ Nine Tails to be a little dull and often tricky to follow making it difficult to recommend, especially to those unfamiliar with Argento’s oeuvre. However, when you consider much of his output over the years (particularly of late) it is still easy to rank this amongst his better films. I’m not sure I’d specifically recommend the Blu-ray transfer either, there is only a marginal improvement from the DVD and there was some definite blurring and unnatural brightness in places. Making Cat o’ Nine Tails a slightly disappointing Arrow Video release from their generally very strong blu-ray output and one for collectors and Argento fans only.
The Cat o’ Nine Tails is currently available on all-region Blu-ray from Arrow Video. The special features include interviews with Argento, the documentary Dario Argento: An Eye for Horror, a trailer reel and an exclusive booklet.