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 The
Cat O' Nine Tails (1971)
R0 / NTSC DVD
Blue Underground / 2007
Directed by Dario Argento
Written by Dario Argento, Dardano Sacchetti & Luigi Collo
Cast: James Franciscus, Karl Malden, Catherine Spaak & Horst
Frank
Review by James Garfield
A break-in occurs at a genetic research company, followed by
several murders. An old blind man, Franco Arno, who lives
near the company with his young niece, thinks he overheard a
conversation relevant to these crimes, and links up with a
reporter, Carlo Giordani, to investigate further. The
killer, suffering from a genetic tendency to violence that
the company had been researching, threatens the lives of the
investigators as they get closer to the truth.
The second film of horror/thriller specialist Dario Argento
relies much more on plot than his other works. For me that’s
not really a virtue, as I tend to prefer his later
supernatural fantasies like Suspiria, where Argento lets his
imagination run wild, largely unburdened by structure, to
his more linear Giallo mysteries. The plot hinge in Cat O'
Nine Tails—genetics—seems odd in the modern era, and may
even alarm some. In the late nineteenth century, much
speculation was made about inherent biological
predispositions to crime, feeding the eugenics movement and
leading to many people advocating mandatory sterilization of
the lower classes and even of certain races. The appearance
in a movie of a killer predisposed to murder by having, as
Devo sang, “one chromosome too many” could probably anger
many viewers in this post-Nazi era.
Fortunately, I put art before politics, so I still think Cat
is a fine film. Argento is here in the process of perfecting
his trademark murderous set-pieces, the death by train and
the killer’s painful demise providing the film’s highlights.
We also have engaging performances by Karl Malden and James
Franciscus as our protagonists, and a beautiful Ennio
Morricone score to cap things off. |
