The Cat o' Nine Tails (1971)

 

You see the name Dario Argento, you would easily assume that this film is one of his surreal horrorstories. The title and marketing point towards that direction as well. Yet, this is not the case. What we have here is a detective story, a mystery that needs solving. It has no real link to the ghostly tales that Argento does so well. 

It's also not one of his best, I am sorry to say. 

The story centres around two people, one of which is a blind man (Karl Malden) who overhears a strange conversation late at night. He doesn't think too much of it, until it transpires the next day that there has been a break-in at the nearby Terzi Institute where they are developing some new type of DNA-treatment that would become a cure-all for a great many diseases. The bizarre thing is that nothing is stolen. 

Into this tale walks reporter Carlo Giordani (James Franciscus) who soon finds that the entire story is rather bizarre. He comes into contact with Malden's Franco Arno, and because Malden used to be a journalist, they team up to try and make sense of it all. The plot thickens when one of the scientists is killed. Soon, the unlikely pair try to unravel the strange proceedings as more and more people meet an untimely demise and there are several attempts on their lives. 

This is also where the expression and title comes from: the various loose ends that need tying up if you want to uncover what has been happening. 

I won't spoil it, but it's not that hard to figure out, although the film does a decent job of trying to get you to believe certain characters are the possible culprit of these rather unnecessary killings. 

As with most of Argento's work, the camerawork and use of various colours shines here. The man has always been able to give his work this surreal and dreamlike quality, effectively making you feel as if you're watching something that isn't entirely of this world. Our leads also do a decent job and Franciscus is a good enough 'hero'-figure to carry most of the film's weight. Malden is fun, but doesn't have a lot to do. 

But then, a lot of the acting of other people is rather wooden and it doesn't help that the typical dubbing is often wonky and distracting. Usually it isn't as noticeable, but as this story unfolds as a mystery and not a horrorstory, dialogue is much more important and when the voices feel disjointed, it comes across as rather weird. And truth be told: the mystery isn't that compelling. Heck, there's absolutely no reason for any of the murders save perhaps the first one. Everything else just feels convoluted and contrived. 

Yes, those things are nearly the same. 

The film also ends rather bafflingly abrupt. True, it's hard to see how they could have added maybe another two minutes, but still. Then again, this film does tend to drag in a lot of parts, so maybe that is a blessing. 

If you enjoy Argento's work, you might want to give this one a spin, but don't expect anything as intriguing or captivating as say 'Suspiria'.