The Cat o' Nine Tails
| The Cat o' Nine Tails | |
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Italian theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Dario Argento |
| Produced by | Salvatore Argento |
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| Music by | Ennio Morricone |
| Cinematography | Enrico Menczer |
| Edited by | Franco Fraticelli |
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| Distributed by | Constantin Film Verleih GmbH (Germany) |
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112 minutes |
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The Cat o' Nine Tails (Italian: Il gatto a nove code) is a 1971 giallo film written and directed by Dario Argento.
Although it is the middle entry in Argento's so-called "Animal Trilogy" (along with The Bird with the Crystal Plumage and Four Flies on Grey Velvet), the titular "cat o' nine tails" does not directly refer to a literal cat, nor to a literal multi-tailed whip; rather, it refers to the number of leads that the protagonists follow in the attempt to solve a murder.
Though successful in Europe, it was dismissed in the United States. Argento admitted in the book Broken Mirrors, Broken Minds: The Dark Dreams of Dario Argento that he was less than pleased with the film. In fact the director often cites it as his least favorite of his films.
Franco Arnò (Karl Malden), a middle-aged blind man, is walking down a street at night with his niece Lori (Cinzia De Carolis) when he overhears a man in a car mention blackmail. They walk back to Franco's apartment and Lori sleeps. Outside, the man in the parked car gets out and breaks into a large medical complex, the Terzi Institute.
The next day, the police and reporter Carlo Giordani (James Franciscus) investigate the break-in. Carlo introduces himself to Franco. Meanwhile, Dr. Calabresi (Carlo Alighiero) looks at his files in his office and phones someone and agrees to meet with him. Calabresi tells his fiancee Bianca Merusi (Rada Rassimov) that he knows who broke into the institute and what was taken, but does not wish to tell anyone yet, saying it could mean a "big step forward". At a train station, while a group of reporters are waiting for a celebrity to arrive by train, the man approaches Calabresi and pushes him onto the tracks.
The next day, Lori reads the newspaper for Franco about the "accidental death" of Dr. Calabresi. She describes the picture and says that Carlo Giordani wrote the article. The two of them go to see the reporter at the newspaper office and ask if the picture has been cropped. Carlo calls Righetto (Vittorio Congia), the paparazzi photographer who snapped the picture. Righetto goes back to the original and sees a moving hand-arm in the far left of the frame. As he prepares to print the photograph, he is strangled to death with a cord. The killer takes the photo and all the negatives and leaves. Carlo, Franco, and Lori arrive and find the body. Carlo calls the police. The investigating officer, Spimi (Pier Paolo Capponi), asks Carlo questions. Later, Carlo looks through a pair of binoculars at the people leaving the Terzi Institute and describes the doctors to Franco as they leave: Mombell, Esson, Casoni, and Braun, as well as Terzi and his daughter Anna (Catherine Spaak).
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