Boobirt Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Jerrie It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Allissa .Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

JohnHowardReid RELEASE DETAILS: Copyright 1971 by Seda Spettacoli/Mondial Film (Rome) and Terra Filmkunst (Munich) and Labrador Films (Paris). U.S. and U.K. release by National General Corporation (N.G.C.). New York opening at neighborhood cinemas: 26 May 1971. U.S. release: May 1971. U.K. release: July 1971. 112 minutes (U.S.); 104 minutes (U.K.). Italian release title: Il Gatto a nove code.COMMENT: This Techniscope Dario Argento film suffers from cropping on a TV screen, though it is not one of his class "A" efforts all the same, despite fluid camera-work for the subjective eye of the madman and typical thematic pre-occupations, plus some rather grisly killings. Interest in the actual identity of the murderer is rather perfunctorily worked up, and Karl Malden is almost laughably uncomfortable in the role of a blind ex-newspaperman who loves solving puzzles. James Franciscus is not much more at ease as the newspaperman, but Catherine Spaak makes an agreeable femme fatale.OTHER VIEWS: The above review was based on the cropped TV version. This movie is now available on DVD in its original 'Scope format. Needless to say, it plays far more suspense-fully and really rivets the attention. Even the actors like James Franciscus and Karl Malden come across with far more power and innate charisma.

GL84 After inadvertently discovering a clue to a local robbery, a blind crossword-puzzle organizer and a reporter team up to unravel the murderous trail leading from the crime and must stop the killer once they're both targeted in the spree.Frankly, this one was quite an enjoyable and thoroughly watchable thriller that does suffer from a few minor miscues. One of the better elements within this one is the fact that there's a rather intriguing mystery set-up in here that runs the gamut from a purely coincidental theft all the way to murder and the ensuing witnesses start to become killed off. Taken into account for the fact that the crime was witnessed by a blind man who only remembers the voices of the perpetrators is a clever twist on the usual giallo gimmick of the man not seeing it clearly enough to provide additional help to the case and must try to help solve crime after that indiscretion places him on the killers' hitlist, it gets to that point in a slightly different manner which is all part of the fun. That also comes in handy with several utterly thrilling moments that play off his blindness quite convincingly as a stalking scene in a library and a later one in his home when he knows someone is there with him when there shouldn't be is quite unnerving and the general assistance he needs to get around makes for a completely enjoyable piece to cap all this off on. Plus it's enjoyable enough on it's own with some exciting chases here that give this some rather nice action as the car chase through the city streets at top-speed is quite exciting, as well as the encounter in the museum at the end where the chase includes several intense brawls with the killer and the attempt to get the hostage back safely, and when concluded with a marvelous sequence in the crypt searching for a discarded clue that really makes this more enjoyable than it should be. That still doesn't take into account the few flaws here, the most impactful of which is the utterly lame rationale for the killer's rampage and logic behind his killing spree, done because of a genetic condition that rarely produces such results anyway and had no predisposition to do so until the discovery and the resulting murders to hide it that only further the connection to the condition. It's quite far-fetched and really doesn't do much of anything for the film, and the fact that this one does have such a lame premise behind it's killings does hurt this somewhat. Likewise, the fact that the body count is so low here that it never really has a lot of chances to wow with inventive kills or dynamic stalking scenes that are usually associated here, instead coming across far more bland and pedestrian as well as slowing the pacing down to investigations over slashing to keep this one going which overall lowers this one more than it really should.Rated Unrated/R: Violence, Language and children-in-jeopardy.

petra_ste Ranking among Argento's best movies, The Cat O'Nine Tails is a compelling giallo with solid writing and two strong leading performances.A fine James Franciscus is the conventional Argento protagonist; more interesting is the blind amateur sleuth played by a magnificent Karl Malden. A vamped-up Catherine Spaak, who was memorable as Gassman's daughter in Il Sorpasso, isn't quite as good as the femme fatale.Neither as creepy as Profondo Rosso nor as stylish as Suspiria, The Cat O'Nine Tails distinguishes itself among Argento's thrillers for its writing, with more care put into dialogues and secondary characters, and an unusually complicated plot.Argento, a huge Hitchcock fan, homages the British director with a sequence involving a poisoned glass of milk (Suspicion).7/10

Lee Eisenberg Dario Argento's second movie as director shows hints of the things that would give him a cult following. It's not really a horror movie as much as a mystery story, as the main characters try to solve a murder in a pharmaceutical research institute. James Franciscus and Karl Malden prove their versatility as the men who join up to find out what happened. The cemetery scene is the most intense in the movie. As with all these movies, it's clear that the Italian actors are dubbed, while the Americans are speaking English. While this might not have been Argento's favorite of his movies, I liked it. Whether the Renaissance-era paintings or Federico Fellini or the giallo genre, there is no denying that Italy has given us some of the greatest art. You're sure to love "Il gatto a nove code" ("The Cat o'Nine Tails" in English).PS: Dario Argento's daughter Asia played Yelena in "XXX".