THE CRIMES OF THE BLACK CAT (1972)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological*

The Italian title of this film, "Seven Shawls of Yellow Silk," emphasizes the very word that made the giallo ("yellow") film-subgenre infamous. Yet in one way the English title is more on point, for CRIMES OF THE BLACK CAT includes the name of the same animal referenced in Dario Argento's crime-thriller of the previous year, CAT O'NINE TAILS.

The main similarity between the two films is that just as a mystery killer begins his (or her) rampage, a blind amateur detective overhears a suspicious conversation and thus becomes involved in tracking down the murderer. In CRIMES the investigator is sightless composer Peter Oliver (Anthony Steffen), and the killer's first victim is a woman with whom Peter was romantically linked. The slain woman was a beautiful fashion model, and Peter begins asking questions at the salon where the victim worked. Through the protagonist and his aides (Peter's butler, the victim's female roommate) the audience becomes acquainted with other models at the salon and with the place's dysfunctional owners, Victor, who sleeps with many of the employees, and Francoise, who's obviously jealous of Victor's activities. 

Pastore does a creditable job of creating a number of weird red herrings, even though anyone who's seen BLOOD AND BLACK LACE will probably have a pretty good idea as to the killer's ID. Though CRIMES was Pastore's only giallo film, he provides a healthy quantity of weirdos and perverts as red herrings. The principal method of death-dealing makes the Hound of the Baskervilles sound mundane. The killer sends his/her targets shawls of yellow silk treated with a special chemical, and then also sends along a container with a cat in it. The cat, whose claws are coated with poison, then goes berserk upon smelling the shawl and scratches the victim with its fatal claws. But just for special occasions, the killer is also capable of dressing up in dark clothes and then offing his/her enemies with edged weapons. A particular eye-opener includes an attack of a showering woman with a razor.

Pastore did not manage to emulate any of the memorable character moments of even the so-so Argento films, so none of the characters come alive, least of all the blind man with the two first names. Additionally, for all the baroque quality of the murders, they do not really reflect the murderer's particular movie-psychosis. But, given that CAT O'NINE TAILS remained fairly mundane in its murder-methods, Pastore does at least excel the previous film in that department.