The nine-tailed cat (film)

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Movie
German title The nine-tailed cat
Original title Il gatto a nove code
The nine-wolf cat Logo 001.svg
Country of production Italy , France , Federal Republic of Germany
original language Italian
Publishing year 1971
length 94 German version (115 Italian version) minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Dario Argento
script Dario Argento, Michael Haller
production Salvatore Argento , Dr. Manfred Barthel
music Ennio Morricone
camera Erico Menczer
cut Franco Fraticelli , Gertrud Petermann
occupation
chronology

←  Predecessor
The secret of the black gloves

Successor  →
Four birds on gray velvet

The nine-tailed cat (original title: Il gatto a nove code ) is a crime film belonging to the thriller from 1971, which was made in a German-Italian-French co-production. The production companies involved included the Italian “Seda Spettacoli spa”, the German Terra-Filmkunst and “Labrador Film” from France. The flick is the second full-length feature film by the director Dario Argento , who - based on a story conceived by himself, Luigi Collo and Dardano Sacchetti - wrote the script. The work is one of the first genre reproductions of a commercially successful phase of Giallos in Europe.

Argento's approximately $ 1 million budgeted film is often viewed as the second part of a loose "animal trilogy" that began in 1969 with The Secret of Black Gloves and ended in 1971 with Four Birds on Gray Velvet .

In German distribution, the film was marketed as part of the Bryan Edgar Wallace film series , as was The Secret of Black Gloves .

action

Italy, in the present. Scientists from the Roman medical-biological institute under the direction of Professor Fulvio Terzi provide sensational evidence for the existence of so-called "XYY chromosomes ", an innate predisposition to crime or abnormal aggressiveness, on behalf of the state . With a special procedure it should be possible - according to one thesis - to isolate potential murderers and to render them “harmless” before the actual crime is committed. The novel detection is secretly tested on 500  test subjects , including the entire research team. But a leading individual of the project soon realizes that he has the genetic makeup that could mean the abrupt end of his career, and therefore decides to swap his positive results for those of an unsuspecting colleague in a nightly action. Unfortunately, however, the renowned and wealthy scientist is blackmailed.

Against this background, the blind and aging ex-journalist Franco Arno, who makes his living creating crossword puzzles for a daily newspaper, hears a mysterious blackmailing conversation between two people in a parked car while one of them is walking with his young niece Lori at night demands something vehemently from the other. The place of action is that research facility, not far from Arno's apartment. The eight-year-old girl succeeds in memorizing the blackmailer's face, but unfortunately she cannot recognize the blackmailed person. That same night, a security guard in front of the scientific institute was knocked down for no apparent reason. Finally, a mysterious break-in occurs and the unknown perpetrator leaves the facility - first police investigations after - without prey. The act triggers a series of increasingly cruel murders of the scientists involved in the research project that will soon begin.

The next day, hereditary researcher Doctor Calabresi, who worked there, was murdered in an apparent accident. The curious Arno learns from the press through the eyes of his little niece of the surprising death of Calabresi, whom the girl has now identified as "her" blackmailer. The passionate Arno senses inconsistencies and therefore turns to the ambitious journalist Carlo Giordani, the author of the newspaper article, with his female relatives. Giordani supports his older colleague from now on in his research, which should bring light into the darkness.

After other people die in agony, in some cases because they can expose the madman or simply belong to the elite research team, Carlo and Franco / Lori consequently suspect the perpetrator in the vicinity of the research facility. Separately from each other, they investigate various clues and fathom nine clues that are supposed to lead to the wanted murderer like the hunt for a nine-tailed cat . In the meantime, however, the snoopers themselves are targeted by the serial killer, who initially only threatens them, but who soon tries to kill them. Unimpressed, Carlo and Franco try to reduce the number of traces in the process of elimination, whereby the blind Franco succeeds in securing important evidence when he finds a secret note on the murdered Bianca Merusi, a friend of Doctor Calabresi who was killed at the beginning of the film. The murderer succeeds in obtaining the evidence that revealed him and thus maintaining his cover, but he is injured in a scuffle by Franco.

At the end of the film, the now fourfold murderer tries to blackmail his two worst pursuers, Franco and Carlo. To do this, he takes little Lori hostage . Seeking help, the two now turn to the police, who are completely in the dark, who promise them discreet help in clearing up the case. During an unsuccessful house search in the research institute, the committed Carlo Giordani noticed the presence of the bleeding stranger who, after a short pursuit, led him to the tied Lori. The fugitive man, the internationally renowned young scientist Doctor Casoni, the organization's “child prodigy”, is found by Franco, who suddenly appears and, believing that his niece is dead, gives him a fatal blow through a meter-high skylight. In the last scene the blind man is called by his niece.

background

The nine-tailed cat is the only film by the director that was not subject to censorship worldwide , i.e. it did not have to be edited due to misconduct, custom or other prohibitions. The film therefore occupies a special position in Argento's filmography.

However, the German theatrical version and the later DVD version, for example, are missing a few scenes from the film that fell victim to an alternative producer version. Depending on the cut version, the German DVD is only 90 minutes long and thus almost 20 minutes shorter than the uncut version.

Reviews

The lexicon of the international film writes that the "crime thriller with horror elements and stupid plot" is "awkwardly staged." The lexicon of the horror film refers to the irritating title of the film, which claims to be "made after a treatment by Bryan Edgar Wallace " , which, however, was only "drowned out & made up" .

The international press was divided, for example Al Cohn from Newsday justified his opinion in a contemporary review as follows, in which he writes that the film with "meaningless close-ups, meaningless looks and freaky music " calls for "keeping awake" . He also takes the view that his “twelve-year-old nephew could write better dialogues” (based on the English language version).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The nine-tailed cat. From MoviePilot.de, accessed on January 6, 2019.
  2. ↑ Information on "The Nine-Tailed Cat": Budget $ 1,000,000 (estimated). From IMDb.com, accessed January 6, 2019.
  3. ↑ The nine-tailed cat. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  4. ↑ a b Ronald M. Hahn , Volker Jansen: Lexicon of the horror film. Bastei-Lübbe 1985, p. 327.