Dario Argento's second film, his follow-up to the internationally successful Bird with the Crystal Plumage, accentuates the mystery angle of the giallo rather than emphasize the violence. This might turn off fans who've come to know Argento's work from more celebrated — and sanguinary — works like Deep Red (1975), Suspiria ('77) and Tenebre ('82). To date, this is the "mildest" Argento film we've seen when it comes to blood 'n' guts. Aside from a 3-second shot of Catherine Spaak's bare breasts and a single "Oh, shit!", there's nothing in this movie that couldn't be shown uncut on network TV. The whodunit angle predominates here, buttressed by more character development than is customary for Argento flicks. The subtle dashes of humor may also seem unusual to those familiar only with the Italian director's later works.
A break-in at Rome's prestigious Terzi Institute for Genetic Research seems at first to be of little consequence. As nothing appears to have been stolen the incident is chalked up to a botched attempt at industrial espionage. But blind puzzle-maker Franco Arno (Malden), who lives just across the street from the scientific complex, is convinced otherwise. At the time of the break-in he overheard a strange conversation between two people in a car parked outside the gate — one of them mentioned blackmail. The next day a top scientist from the institute, Dr. Calabresi (Carlo Alighiero), is killed when he falls in front of a train. The police think it's an unrelated accident. Arno knows better: his 10-year old "seeing eye" niece, Lori (Cinzia De Carolis), identifies the dead man as one of those present in the parked car just before the break-in. A journalist prior to losing his sight, Arno takes his hunch to cynical but dedicated reporter Carlo Giordani (Franciscus). The newsman quickly comes around to Arno's theory of foul play when a photographer who happened to snap a picture of the train station "accident" is brutally murdered, his film stolen. A series of killings soon follows, each with ties in one way or another to the institute's personnel and/or the secretive research being done there. Dissatisfied with the progress being made by the police, Giordani and Arno team up to pursue their own investigation of the crimes. The murderer is on to them, however, and plans to eliminate these amateur sleuths before they get too close to the truth.
The Cat o' Nine Tails is a satisfying, if overly drawn out, Italian whodunit featuring perhaps the best lead performances in any Argento film. Veteran American actors Karl Malden (A Streetcar Named Desire, Patton) and James Franciscus (Beneath the Planet of The Apes) play very well off one another, with each character bringing his own special attributes to the solving of the mystery. Malden is particularly good in his role as the blind puzzle designer. While restraining himself in the presentation of violence and gore this time out (the flick is less bloody than 1969's Bird), Argento nevertheless retains a few visual tricks up his sleeve — there are some nicely-helmed stalking scenes and subjective 'killer's view' camera shots here — on the job training, it would seem, for the director's tour de force thrillers to follow. The jazz-themed, often dissonant score by Ennio Morricone also lends gravitas to the proceedings.
If you're looking for stunning, vicious murders a la Deep Red, or the wall-coating arterial spray of Tenebre, then this early Argento work will likely disappoint. If you've the patience for a stylish and sometimes leisurely-paced mystery, Cat o' Nine Tails should fill the bill admirably.
