The Cat o' Nine Tails

This week I chose:

The Cat o' Nine Tails (1971)

This Giallo by genre master Dario Argento is the second in his so called animals trilogy starting with The Bird with the Crystal Plumage and ending with Four Flies on Grey Velvet. I had seen this movie before, but that was 15 years ago or thereabout. I remember that I didn't care much for it, and that was about it.

With all the Gialli I have seen in recent years however, I wanted to give this movie a second chance.

The movie opens with someone breaking into a genetic research institute. The watchman is knocked out, but nothing seems to have been stolen. Retired reporter Franco Arno (Karl Malden) lives nearby with his young niece, who helps him as he is blind. He hears something during the break in and his sharp investigative instincts are alerted. The next day he meets Carlo Giordani, a reporter who is covering the burglary. A short time later, a researcher at the institute dies and Franco convinces Carlo that it was murder. Both men love solving puzzles and team up to solve the mystery as person after person dies.

The Cat o' Nine Tails is by no means a bad movie, let's make that clear. It is wonderfully shot with some great scenes, the actors are great, the score is good but... it is almost two hours long and the story is pretty dull. Unlike Crystal Plumage and Four Flies where the stakes are high and the main character has to keep going, Franco and Carlo could have just given up without all that much happening. Sure, a murderer would probably have gotten away with it, but that happens all the time anyway. The stakes here are so low for most of the movie that it unfortunately turns into a bit of a snooze fest. That changes later on, and there are a couple of really intense scenes. The milk scene is positively Hitchcockian.

Argento has said that The Cat o' Nine Tails is his least favorite movie of all the ones he has directed, and I can see why. There is the nucleus of a great story here, but it gets painted over with scene after scene that plods along in a sedate pace.

There is a bit of romance, but since The Cat o' Nine Tails lacks a female main character, it becomes underdeveloped. The lack of a female lead is actually pretty rare for a Giallo, at least in my experience, but that in itself does not hurt the movie. It simply needed to be shorter and sharper.

So, do I recommend this movie? Again, yes and no. If you just want a fun Giallo then give this a miss, but if you are on an Argento trip then you should definitely watch this. As I said, it's not bad it just isn't as good as what Argento can do. If you set your expectations to the right level, you'll be fine.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time, and until then, have a great week!

 

Four Flies on Grey Velvet

Since giallo movies have been on my mind a lot lately, I began to question whether I had in fact seen Dario Argento's:

Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971).

Turns out that if I saw it back in the day I have completely forgotten everything about it. Minor spoilers going forward.

We are introduced to Roberto Tobias (Michael Brandon), a rock drummer who is being stalked by a man in a black suit. One evening after band practice, Roberto follows his stalker to an old theater and confronts him. The stalker pulls a knife and in the struggle, gets stabbed. A stranger in a cartoon mask takes pictures of the killing before Roberto flees home. Soon after, things get grim. The house he shares with his wife Nina (Mimsey Farmer) is burgled, he finds pictures of the killing in his home, he finds threatening notes, people are killed etc. With his friend God (Bud Spencer) he tries to figure out what is going on. Everything looks like a case of blackmail, but no one has asked for any money...

As stated above, the movie is directed by Dario Argento, and expertly directed at that. The shot composition is first class, and despite the movie not having all that many lavish locales, the movie is gorgeous. The music is by Ennio Morricone, and is pretty good. The actors are fine, in fact I have nothing to complain about from a technical standpoint.

I do have a couple of complaints about the story. Without spoiling anything, I'll just say that two of the murders are illogically set up and feels more like killings for the sake of killings even though there is are story reasons they were murdered. Now plot holes aren't the biggest deal breaker in the world, but in my personal opinion, Four Flies on Grey Velvet is boring, and that is pretty bad.

I can't even really put my finger on it. Objectively, the story from start to finish is pretty interesting and the ending was odd but alright, I even deduced the killers identity, but the movie just feels so slow and plodding. Another aspect that I wasn't a big fan of was the humorous elements. Giallo movies rarely try to be funny, and it's not like Four Flies on Grey Velvet tried to be a comedy, but there are clear comedy elements at work here, and together with the general dullness, I wasn't amused.

That is really all I can say about it. Do I recommend Four Flies on Grey Velvet? Yes and no. It's not like it's awful so if you are on a giallo or Argento binge, do give it a shot. It could just be me that don't like it, so give it a shot if you're in the mood.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great and safe week!

 

Mother of Tears

I have previously written about Dario Argento's Suspiria (1977) as well as its sequel Inferno (1980), but this time we are talking about the third movie in the trilogy:

Mother of Tears (2007).

Like the two other movies, Mother of Tears is directed by Dario Argento who also co-wrote them with his one time partner Daria Nicolodi. The movie stars Dario's and Daria's daughter Asia Argento, a whole bunch of actors I don't know and horror veteran Udo Kier. Like in Suspiria, Kier plays a small but important role, but they are not the same character in case anyone is wondering.

The core of the Mothers Trilogy is three ancient, evil and powerful witches, Mater Suspiriorum (Sighs), Mater Tenebrarum (Darkness) and Mater Lachrymarum (Tears). These three witches eventually settled down in Germany, New York and Rome. We see the story of Mater Suspiriorum in Suspiria, Mater Tenebrarum in Inferno and now Mater Lachrymarum in this movie.

Some spoilers ahead.

The movie opens with some workmen accidentally finding an old coffin with a box chained to it. A cardinal orders the coffin reburied, but keeps the box which is constantly referred to as an urn for some reason. He opens it, gets really scared and sends it to a friend who is the curator of a museum.

When the “urn” arrives, the curator is not in, so the assistant curator decides to open it and invites an American art student to join her. In order to translate some old text, the student Sara Mandy (Asia Argento) is sent to fetch a dictionary. While she is gone, three entities appear and murder the assistant curator in a seriously gory scene. Sara escapes only because a voice helps her. So far so good, but from here on the story gets a little convoluted.

The contents of the box seems to empower the Mother of Tears enormously and a make the citizens of Rome go crazy. People are murdered, they fight savagely in the streets, vandalism becomes commonplace, in short, things get pretty nuts. The other thing that happens is that witches from all over the world flock to Rome as Sara struggles to survive and find out what happens while dodging both witches and the police. She goes from person to person sometimes getting help, sometimes not. She does discover that the voice is her mother who was a powerful white witch that was murdered after fighting and grievously wounding the Mater Suspiriorum prior to the events in Suspiria. Fun fact, it is Daria Nicolodi who plays Sara's mother, in other words they are not just playing mother and daughter, they are mother and daughter.

Sara ultimately decides to confront the Mother of Tears in her lair and roll credits. There is obviously more, but as usual, you can watch the movie yourself.

Mother of Tears is a good idea executed in a sloppy manner. I like the overall feel of the movie, and the idea of a power that makes the population go nuts is cool, but even though the movie is 102 minutes long, it feels extremely rushed. Scenes begin only to quickly be shuffled along into the next one, characters are introduced and killed in the same breath and concepts are brought up only to never be explored again. It seriously grated on my nerves after a while.

The witches' arrival is also handled in a weird manner. They look like they just stepped out of an 80's pop music video. Big hair teased into huge plumes, excessive make-up, dramatic and colorful clothes etc. They also mostly just wander around in groups laughing loudly, while snarling and hissing at people. It made no sense to me. Finally I don't understand what Sara hoped to achieve in the end. Sure she knows that she has inherited a lot of her mothers powers, but she doesn't know how to use them. In Suspiria and Inferno, the endings made some kind of sense, but the ending in Mother of Tears is kind of dumb. Not quite deus-ex-machina, but not far from it.

I also feel I should talk about the gore and the nudity, because there is a ton of it. The really heavy gore scenes aren't that many but they are almost excessive. Very well executed scenes to be sure, but most of them felt like they were there just to be there. And the nudity is the same way. It's one thing for a hysterically cackling mad woman to not notice that her shirt has fallen open, but it looks like Dario took every opportunity to shoehorn in either brutal gore or nudity in most scenes, possibly both. I'm not a prude by any means, but blood and boobs for the sake of blood and boobs feels both cheap and a bit desperate, and I know Argento can do better.

There are good sides as well, from the cinematography, to the sound to the overall mood of the movie, but the shortcomings sadly overshadow the good. I could go on, but I'm worried you might think I hate the movie when I don't.

So, do I recommend this movie? Not really, but maybe? Overall I enjoyed Mother of Tears, and to be fair it's not a totally bad movie as such, it's just disappointing that it took 27 years to complete the trilogy and instead of an interesting occult mystery all we really get is a somewhat slapped together paint by the numbers horror movie, doused in gore. Horror fans might enjoy it, particularly fans if Suspiria and Inferno, but watch it with the proper expectations.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great and safe week!

 

Inferno

 

This week we are looking at yet another Argento film, but unlike the two previous ones, this one is not a Giallo, but a straight horror movie. Today we're looking at:

Inferno (1980).

It is worth noting that this is a follow up to Argento's probably most famous movie, Suspiria (1977). It's not a sequel, but a continuation of the theme of three witches called the Three Mothers. One character, Rose, discovers that she is living in the very building in New York that was built for the mother of darkness. She calls in her brother who is studying in Rome, and the rest of the film is his investigation into the matter. Insert some murders and gore, add some interesting visuals and you have Inferno.

If you haven't seen it, this movie is worth a look. In a discussion with a learned friend I mentioned that Inferno almost looks like a Roger Corman movie, which he confirmed was no accident as Argento was a huge fan and intended for Inferno to be a bit of a homage.

This really shows as the entire movie is drowning in rich dramatic color. So much in fact that it almost becomes distracting at times.

The plot is kind of all over the place. Some things are over-explained while other things are never explained at all. This creates a slight disconnect and it's easy to phase out and just take in the visuals and the atmosphere without really getting the story. Try to resist zoning out as the story is interesting though not ground breaking.

Unlike films like Deep Red and Bird with the Crystal Plumage, this is not a mystery movie, so the plot is not meant to be solvable by the audience, this means that if you want to watch it, sit back and enjoy and never mind the plot-holes. Like Suspiria, Inferno is designed to be dreamlike and akin to a fairy tale so things don't have to make perfect sense, no matter how much you want them to.

What struck me personally is that I didn't enjoy it as much as I used to back in the day. It was one of my favorite Argento movies, but these days I definitely enjoy his Giallo movies more. Then again I'm quite a but older than I was the last time I saw Inferno.

In conclusion, I would say that Inferno is almost essential viewing if you want to take in the best of Italian horror. How highly you rate it is completely up to you, but I urge you to see it if you liked Suspiria, or if you enjoy surreal horror. It's not a masterpiece as such but a solid nightmare horror movie and should be watched as such.

That's that. Join me again next time and until then have a great week! Oh, and wash your hands.