The Crimes of the Black Cat (1972)

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

A Major Disappointment

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Stop me if you've heard this one before (don't really though) - a black hatted, gloved killer is working his way through the models at a fashion house. Blind composer Anthony Steffan gets caught up in all this nonsense because the first victim is his girlfriend Paola, who about ten seconds previously, dumped the poor guy by letter. That's right - a blind guy, dumped by letter. Add to that the strange conversation Anthony overhears in his local bar. Someone seems to be blackmailing someone else to do something, but then an annoying hippy throws on a 'groovy' record to 'freak out' to, and Anthony only hears about half the conversation. The waiter describes a woman in a white cape to Anthony, but the other conversationalist must have slipped out a back door, because the waiter didn't seem them. Can I add here however that the record lasts about fifty seconds. Thank God it wasn't some prog or something.The next day Paola is found dead at the fashion house. It's a kind of locked room mystery, as no one else was there, she has a slight scratch on her face, and there's a yellow shawl lying nearby. Model Margot swears there was a basket in the room too, but that's disappeared. The annoying police, plus Anthony (with sidekick butler Umberto Raho in tow) get right on the case. There's plenty of suspects too, from hunky Giacomo Rossi-Stuart, second in command at the fashion house and a fanny rat to boot, then there's his missus, the boss of the place. There's also your usual lesbians involved, some gossips, slags, blackmailers. You know the drill by now. Anthony maybe be blind, but he's no fool. He's one step in front of the police, but one step behind the killer, and what's his dead girlfriend doing in supposed blackmail pictures with Giacomo Rossi-Struart? Someone else gets the old yellow shawl/scratch killing, and Giacomo gets closer to the killer, or at least the person being forced to set up these killings - using his sense of smell!Sure it's derivative of Mario Bava's Blood and Black Lace (the fashion house) and Argento's Bird With A Crystal Plumage (with the tape recorded clue, and Umberto Raho), there's still loads to enjoy here. There's a great colour scheme (mostly yellow of course!) and Anthony's character is composing the soundtrack to a giallo! When you see footage of it, you'll notice it's Lucio Fulci's Lizard In A Woman's Skin, and as an added bonus, it's the bit that reveals the killer. Good work there.There's the scene where a character leads Anthony to an glass recycling plant (I think...in 1972?) and leaves him to injure himself amongst all the glass and sudden drops, and a razor killing in a shower that takes the gore level way beyond anything else seen prior to it in the film. The Copenhagen setting is different from the norm too.

Not very original. But intelligent. Decent story for a giallo. Good Production – Cinematography, Acting, Music, etc.One of the best parts is when the cop visits the blind piano player and says "I hope you can set a light on it" – It's dialogue like this that adds to the intelligence of the story. It furthers the film.A few questions: 1) Who were the 3 people that helped the car victim? 2) What happened to the butler toward the end of the movie? 3) Why did the blind guy follow the husband to the abandoned factory? The shower scene at the end was a shocker. The victim was very helpful to the piano player and she doesn't survive.The ending reveal was just OK. Most reviewers state that this movie copies form other movies. This is true. I don't mind that too much.Professional production. Very good local scenes from the period. Main actor was very good, and the supporting actors were all decent. Cinematography was good. I didn't like the editing for the kills.Nothing very special here. But still the rating is a C, or 5 stars.I would rather see this film than the garbage made by Argento. I hate Suspiria, the most overrated, amateur pile of garbage ever released. Incredibly poor writing, acting, dialogue, scenes, God awful cartoon lighting, cinematography, disgusting, incomprehensible plot (cult witches in a German ballet school?!). Watch the scene again when the blind guy gets torn apart by his dog. Fake Dog! Watch the scene when the professor/expert reveals the witches to the main character. Suspiria is truly garbage movie. I tried to watch again and take notes on every scene, so I can write a true tear down of this trash. I only made it about 15 minutes. I recently watched Four Flies, another amateur, trash, garbage acting, and story. Plumage – trash. I just cannot understand the people who enjoy or elevate this trash to royalty. Argento is crap. Bava – maybe a bit better, but still garbage. The only reason to watch 5 Dolls for an August Moon is to see Edwige Fenech. I saw Blood and Black Lace last year. This was an OK movie. But I didn't think it was great. Here's another pile of garbage boring nonsense movie that somehow has a cult following: What Have You Done to Solange? So, the facts are opinions are like a..h…., everybody's got one. My opinion is if you venture to produce art, I require a professional product. The Crimes of the Black Cat is not the most original movie, but it is entertaining and it is professionally done. Argento and Bava – NOT. People who love these clowns dismiss and make excuses for their incompetence. Lack of story, bottom of the barrel acting, crappy editing. They dismiss all this and say, yeah but look at the scenes and the inventive kills and scenery. So, if you bought into the Argento and Bava superiority, you know who you are, then congratulations!

A mysterious killer is murdering fashion models by using a black cat whose claws are dipped in curare. A composer, whose girlfriend was the first one to be killed, overhears a conversation by someone he believes may be the killer.But there's one complication--the composer is blind and couldn't see the suspected murderer.A rather scenic movie that has a slow exposition. That's the downfall.The murders are crazy and surreal.In the end, I cannot recommend. It's just too slow.

Fashion models are dying mysteriously by a heart attack after encountering a wicker basket containing a cat which leaps upon them. One of those victims, was the lover of a blind composer she duped for ambitions in the modeling world, yet he will seek her killer putting his own life to great risk.That blind composer, Peter Oliver(Anthony Steffen)wishes to find the murder of his ex-lover for whom he deeply cared for, despite her faults at bedding other men who could assist in her rise as a top model in the fashion world. In a restaurant bar, Peter overhears a conversation between the mysterious white-caped drug addict, Susan(Giovanna Lenzi), wearing a talisman(..with an eyeball in it's center)and another whose male voice is a whisper loudly giving instructions. This conversation, interrupted by a jukebox's rock music, is of major importance in the murders that will occur during the film's running time. Being blind, of course, has it's disadvantages(..perfect for exploiting in a giallo thriller-mystery where twists and turns pull the rug out from under the viewer who are, in a sense, blind as well)so Peter will need assistance from chauffeur/employee Burton(Umberto Raho)and his lover Paola's(Isabelle Marchall)roomie Margot(Shirley Corrigan)who works at the fashion studio. Françoise Ballais's(Sylvia Koscina) studio is preparing for an upcoming Autumn line in Hamburg, and her dashing "husband", Victor(Giacomo Rossi-Stuart), quite the ladies man bedding the models under her employ secretly, manages things during such a busy time of the year. The studio faces a crisis that throws their lives into a tailspin, Harry(Romano Malaspina)who has his own photography studio(..and was the slain Paolo's cousin)has incriminating pictures of Victor in bed with the victim. When someone stabs Harry in the throat with a knife, he becomes a leading suspect. Meanwhile other models who have incriminating evidence against Victor die in almost the same fashion as Paolo, a wicker basket yielding a cat results in their deaths by heart attack. The film follows Peter and company as they try to find the one(s)responsible for the murders as they compile.This has everything I desire in a giallo thriller. The convoluted story keeps piling on the twists. Susan, the lady with the white cape, is my favorite revealing mystery..she's given an interesting development, and is quite a tragic character, who is revealed layer by layer, for as she is given exposition we are lead closer to identifying the murderer. As I've come to expect, this giallo gives us another wild plot twist at the end after it seems like we've established who the killer is. The reveal off-sets the vicious knife slashing of a character we care for, brutally displayed showing the blade as it penetrates the flesh as she cries in agony and dispair with nowhere to escape. As usual we have our amateur sleuths, these civilian detectives who actually discover just as much, if not more, than Inspector Jansen(Renato De Carmine)and his police. While the DVD print of this film is of lesser quality(..it looks as if the film is directly lifted from the film stock without the usual "touching up" that many giallo thrillers have enjoyed in the past, getting the treatment with a lavish quality transfer, enhanced beautifully for the viewer), I think the film will be a lot of fun for giallo fans who expect certain things that "7 Shawls of Yellow Silk" will give them. There's nudity, some gratuitous camera glides down the naked backs of women taking showers, and stylish camera angles and uses of light & shadow. The expected red herring or two is here as well. Couple all this with a blind hero who must use his other senses(..including his intellect)to figure out specifics with the help of his friends, and you have quite the adventure.-Spoiler paragraph- I like the touch of how the models die. Wearing yellow shawls containing a liquid repellent that sends the wicker basket cat into a frenzy, whose claws contain poison once they scratch, is such a nifty little way of adding something new to the giallo instead of the typical knife stabbings(..although they are included as well). I am torn regarding the episode at the Glassworks where a certain individual, possibly the killer, leads our hero into a most certain doom making stupid decisions that give Peter time to remain alive as the police close in...why would this person not just kill him and get it over with? Yes, I will admit that this sequence is incredibly tense as Peter, blind as a bat, tries to thwart the other's plans of killing him, but still..