Director: Dario Argento
Year: 1971
Country: Italy/France/West Germany
Alternate Titles: Il gatto a nove code
Genre: Giallo
Plot:
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 to a pharmaceutical company's new line of products and must stop the killer once they're both targeted in the spree.
Review:
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 setup 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 its 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 its 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 of coming across far blander 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.
Overview: ***.5/5
A slightly stumbling entry that doesn't match the heights of the genre at its best but is still better than the middling genre fare out there due to the positives here that still keep this up enough overall. The main ones to like this will be genre completists or fans of the creative crew, while most others should heed caution or stick to higher-regarded genre fare if looking to dive into the film.
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