‘The Cat o’ Nine Tails’ or — Gatto Giallo?

It’s hard to describe exactly why Dario Argento’s ‘The Cat O’ Nine Tails’ (1971) doesn’t quite work for me. It could be the story, which is silly and stupid, or it could be the pacing, which is choppy in a movie already struggling with a slightly indulgent run-time, or it could be the way exposition and plot points are clumsily served up to us as though by a drunken waiter and who’s brought everything in the wrong order (profiteroles for starter?!!). Personally I think it can be summed up in one word — restraint. And ‘restraint’ is not a word you want to use when talking about Dario Argento.

So Karl Malden plays a blind man called “Cookie” who overhears a plan to break into a scientific institute where they are “doing” “genetic research” (I’ll try and keep the sarcastic quotations to a minimum). The break-in occurs although nothing seems to be stolen and nobody caught. Yet when Dr Calabresi checks his files he knows exactly who broke in and why. Before he can tell anyone he is pushed in front of a train and decapitated at a busy station.

Meanwhile Cookie has teamed up with reporter Carlo (James Franciscus) and they start to investigate, determined to find out just what is going at with the Terzi Institute and their “research” into the criminal chromosome “XYY”, a chromosome sequence that if anyone carries results in murderous tendencies. However, people keep dying, milk becomes dangerous especially when it’s been left out on the counter during uninspired sex and the entire story becomes as tangled as a corrupted DNA helix.

Dario Argento called this film his most “American”, primarily because of his casting of two Americans in the lead as well as having an eye on the U.S. market. Yet, for me, ‘Cat O’ Nine Tails’ feels neither American nor Italian but, oddly, German with a vibe that ‘s more Lang than, say, Bava at times. This could be down to the lineage and co-financing of the film which both stem from the German ‘krimi’ (crime) genre.

Also missing are Argento’s set-pieces. Sure, there are a couple of good deaths but that overwrought, hysterical sense of pounding phantasmagoria is absent. In their place we get to feel a director trying different things out, testing certain waters, and with mixed (but often interesting) results. This might not be one of the best Giallo ever made but if you’re curious to see a director playing with his style there’s enough here to pull you in.

What pulls you out though is everything ranging from lacklustre pacing, some dodgy contrivances and Argento’s typically appalling sense of how science works which can be described as laughable but which I suspect he thinks is highly accurate. This film also contains some hair-styles that I would say are spectacularly dated if it wasn’t for the fact I doubt if they ever existed in the first place.

‘The Cat O’ Nine Tails’ is a truly odd film, never quite falling into a particular category with complete satisfaction. Yes, it’s a Giallo but not a classic and missing many of the genre’s tropes; sure it’s an Argento film but doesn’t quite feel like one. Despite having a ridiculously impressive debut (‘The Bird With The Crystal Plumage’) this is still a director finding his style, and after two more experiments he’d be ready for his first masterpiece.

P.S. There are no cats in this giallo.