The Film (3.5/5)

    Cat O' Nine Tails stars Karl Malden as Franco "Cookie" Arno, a crossword puzzle maker that overhears a conversation one night while walking with his niece Lori (Cinzia De Carolis), that causes him to get involved in a conspiracy with a genetics company involving murder, blackmail, and kidnapping. Along the way he will team up with the reporter Carlo Giordani (James Franciscus) to help undertake their own amateur investigation of the crimes, which eventually puts them into the line of site of the killer itself.

    Cat O' Nine Tails is Dario Argento's 2nd film, and also the 2nd part of his "unofficial" animal trilogy. The first being his debut feature Bird with the Crystal Plumage, and the third being Four Flies on Grey Velvet.  Cat O' Nine Tails has never had as strong a reputation as many of Argento's films from his 70's period, and watching it after the strong Bird with the Crystal Plumage it is quite easy to see why. I, myself, have struggled with the film for years only completing it in a single sitting on this current viewing of the new Arrow Video Blu-ray edition.

    The film like Argento's Bird with the Crystal Plumage uses a central strong image to draw its 2 protagonist into the world of murder and deceit that they find themselves in. With Bird... it was Tony Musante trapped between 2 glass panels while a murder is conducted, while in Cat O' Nine Tails it is a photographic image of a man being killed by a train, that turns out to be cropped showing off a murder in progress.

       The film is quite a solid giallo entry from Argento featuring some interesting and innovating murder sequences, and some nice suspenseful moments. The score from Ennio Morricone is a ,melancholic affair that fits the tone of the film quite well. The cast from Malden and Franciscus down to smaller characters like Catherine Spaak as Anna Terzi are excellent and fit their respective roles quite well. Argento’s direction is quite predictably stylish, as he was developing the flair he showed off in his debut, and would further develop throughout his career, but the pacing is not quite as solid as his earlier film, and some of his later ones.

Audio/Video (4.5/5)

    Arrow Video presents Cat O' Nine Tails in a splendid 2:35:1 1080p AVC encoded transfer preserving the OAR of the film.  Detail is excellent, color reproduction is accurate, and black levels are inky and deep.

    Audio is handled by 2 LPCM mono tracks in English and Italians and sound remarkably crisp and clear.

Extras (4/5)

    We get a commentary by Alan Jones and Kim Newman, interviews with Argento, Dardano Sacchetti, production manager Angelo Iacono, actress Cinzia de Carolis, there are also trailers, a recreation of the original ending, and more.

Overall

    A fine giallo entry by director Argento. The Blu-ray from Arrow Video looks and sounds quite excellent and has a nice slate of extras HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.