- Director
- Dario Argento
- Year
- 1971
- Country
- France, Germany, Italy
- Runtime
- 89 min
Also released as
- Il gatto a nove code
- Cat o' Nine Tails
- O Gato das Sete Vidas
- El gato de las 9 colas
- De nio heta spåren
- Cat O'Nine Tails
Filed under
The Cat o' Nine Tails
The middle of Argento's Animal Trilogy, and the one he liked least. A blind man and a reporter chase a killer.
A blind former journalist overhears a conversation that connects to a break-in at a genetics institute and a series of murders, and teams up with a reporter to solve it before the killer reaches them.
Argento made it right after The Bird with the Crystal Plumage and has said it is his least favourite of his own films, which is unfair: it has a genuine warmth in the partnership between the blind Franco and the young reporter, and Ennio Morricone's score is one of his eeriest.
The plot involves a genetic marker for criminality, an idea the film takes more seriously than it should, and the rooftop finale is a real set piece.
Karl Malden, an American star, plays the blind man, which was unusual casting for a giallo.
It is minor Argento and it is still better than most of the cycle around it.
The numbers
Nobody has rated this yet. Be the first to make a claim you will have to defend.
Your call
Trailer
The sleeves
The same film, sold as a different film in each territory. Click any of them.
Where to watch
Canada
Germany
UK
USA
Legal sources only. Availability data from JustWatch via TMDB.
Checked 10 Aug 2026
Discuss with AI
Open a chatbot with a question about this already typed out. Useful for a second opinion, a plot detail, or working out which cut you are holding.
Adjacent
Terror Eyes
A motorcycle killer in Boston with a kukri. Rachel Ward's debut and a real giallo influence.
Lisa and the Devil
Bava given complete freedom, and the film is a dream nobody can escape, including the producer.
Hatchet for the Honeymoon
Bava's first-person portrait of a killer who murders brides to recover a childhood memory. Genuinely strange.
Bloody Moon
Jess Franco doing a slasher for German money. Contains the stone-saw scene and little else.
Berberian Sound Studio
A meek British sound engineer comes apart while dubbing an Italian horror film he can hear but never see.
Sleepless
Argento's late return to the giallo, with Max von Sydow as a retired detective and a genuine nursery-rhyme killer.