The Black Cat

This is a very-very stylish atmospheric suspense filled movie that could have used a huge injection of HORROR. As is, it's a mystery of sorts, dealing with strange deaths in a quaint English village, each one aided and abetted by an evil black cat. The story is "freely adapted" from a tale by Edgar Allan Poe. The camera is often in stalker-mode, at times sweeping along the ground at a cat's eye view. The acting is fairly decent (especially Patrick Magee as the morbid professor Robert Miles who purports to be a medium given to collecting tape recordings of the recently deceased). Once the unexplained deaths catch the attention of Scotland Yard, they send an Inspector (David Warbeck) to investigate. He turns to a photographer (Mimsy Farmer) to take the crime photos. She sees evidence that a cat was involved and since there's only one cat in the neighborhood............Most of the film involves set pieces, gruesome deaths, a suffocating sense of mystique. There are also an inordinate number of eyeball shots, close enough to see the whites of everyone's eyes. They are not used sparingly. While this might seem to indicate a certain amount of tension on everyone's part, after a while, the sheer number of close-ups proves more comical than sinister. But I did like the eyeball to eyeball shot of two people conversing through an opening in a gate. Very stylish, pity there wasn't more substance.Cool and creepy, but it should have been more intense considering the subject matter. Even so, loved it.

Warning: SPOILERS!!! Many people consider this one of director/co-screenwriter Lucio Fulci's lesser films and I wouldn't disagree with them, but lesser Fulci is still better than 90% of directors firing on all cylinders. This horror film, loosely based (very loosely) on Edgar Allan Poe's story of the same name is a fairly bloody good time, with a memorable performance by Patrick Magee (BEWARE MY BRETHREN - 1972), one of his last feature film appearances before succumbing to a heart attack at age 60 in 1982. This film also contains a top-notch cast of actors we know and love for their many roles in Italian genre cinema. That's not to say this film doesn't have its share of problems, but it is an enjoyable little time-waster; one of Fulci's least talked-about (and reviewed) films, so let's get to it.The film opens with the POV of a cat following a man and then sneaking into his car. As the man is driving, the black cat reveals itself, forcing the man to crash his car, his head going through the windshield as the car burns. The cat escapes the fiery inferno and the opening credits begin (highlighting Pino Domaggio's [DAMNED IN VENICE - 1978] evocative and effective music score [this is his only Fulci film score]), as we follow the cat back to its house, where we hear a woman scream. It's actually a tape recording being played by Professor Robert Miles (Patrick Magee; TALES FROM THE CRYPT - 1972), a psychic medium who can talk to the dead and records his sessions as proof he is not a fraud (and for other reasons, made clear as the film progresses). We can see the cat doesn't care for the Professor, as it scratches and bites his hand when he reaches to pet it (Cats are very intuitive. Take it from a cat lover!).We then see professional photographer Jill Trevers (Mimsy Farmer; FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET - 1971) in the small, unnamed English village's only cemetery, where she notices that a tomb's lid has been slid open. She climbs down the tomb with a flashlight to take a look (there are skeletons all over the place, one of them hanging by its neck on a chain). She finds a small microphone on the dirt floor and finds it strange to see something like that in a tomb, so she pockets it. She then climbs out of the tomb, only to be greeted by new friend, policeman Sgt. Wilson ("Al Cliver"; real name: Pierluigi Conti; Fulci's ZOMBIE - 1979 and THE NEW GLADIATORS - 1983, as well as many of his mid-to-late-'80s films), who tells her not to go down the tomb any more, because his grandfather told him when he was a boy. "The dead like to be left alone. They're not very hospitable." Jill says she thought policemen weren't superstitious and Sgt. Wilson replies, "Perhaps in London they aren't, but in a village like ours..." Then he rides off on his bicycle, wishing Jill a good day, not finishing his point (although Jill clearly understands him and so do we). Jill yells to Sgt. Wilson to show him the microphone she found in the tomb, but he is too far away to hear her.A young couple, Stan (actor unknown) and Maureen (Daniela Doria; Fulci's CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD - 1980), are making out on a docked speedboat when the area becomes too crowded for them, so Stan takes her to a secluded boathouse, where they can continue to get frisky. Maureen doesn't like the smell of the room and Stan tells her it's okay, it's an airtight room used for storing sails or something, what she is smelling is mildew ("Ohh, it's making me horny!", no one ever said!). Maureen wants to leave, telling Stan that the room has no windows to open, but he says not to worry, this room is air-conditioned! He then locks the door from the inside and puts the key on a table, playfully telling Maureen that she cannot escape from him now and no one will bother them. Wanna bet? Stan takes off Maureen's blouse and begins making love to her, not noticing that they are not alone, the cat is in there with them. Suddenly, the electricity goes out and they both panic when the key is no longer on the table, realizing that they will no longer be able to breath shortly in this airtight room, the air conditioner is no longer operational (I'm not sure this is how air conditioning works!).We then see Professor Miles in the cemetery, tape recorder in hand. He walks up to the gravestone of some unknown man, puts the tape recorder on the top of his tomb, complete with a microphone, the same type Jill found in the open tomb. The Professor says, "I'm trying to reach you. I'm a friend. You can trust me. Speak to me, my friend." Nothing immediately happens and when the Professor turns around, the black cat is there, hissing and growling at him. The tape recorder starts picking up voices (we can see the needle moving on the recorder), but we cannot hear what is being said, as only the Professor and the tape recorder can hear the voices of the dead. A watchman (and town drunk), Ferguson (Bruno Corazzari; Fulci's THE PSYCHIC - 1977), spies on the Professor from behind a tombstone, a terrified look on his face.Maureen's mother, Lillian Grayson (Dagmar Lassander; Fulci's HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY - 1981), has reported her daughter missing and Sgt. Wilson rings her doorbell, telling her that there is no sign of Maureen, the police have been looking for her all night and have discovered that Stan is missing, too. Lillian wonders if they have run off together and Sgt. Wilson says let's hope so. We then see a shirtless Stan and a naked Maureen foaming at the mouth, moments away from dying from a lack of oxygen. They hold each other's hand as the flame on a candle extinguishes (I guess they didn't know that they would have lived a little longer if they didn't light a candle!).A motorcycle speeds though this sleepy little village and when Sgt. Wilson stops it for exceeding the speed limit, he discovers that Scotland Yard Inspector Gorley (David Warbeck; Fulci's THE BEYOND - 1981) is the driver. He was sent to this village to investigate the disappearance of Maureen and Stan. When Inspector Gorley notices the pretty Jill getting into her car, Sgt. Wilson tells him that she's an American who has come here to take photos of the ruins (Sgt. Wilson then hands a speeding ticket to a surprised Inspector Gorley, asking him if he is going to pay it now or when he leaves town! For those of you that think there is no humor in Fulci's films, here's proof to the contrary.).Jill is in the village pub, where she hears Ferguson tell some people what he saw in the cemetery last night and Jill says she would like to meet and talk to Professor Miles. Ferguson tells her it is best if she doesn't because the Professor is "a queer one" and a bit mad. We then see Jill at the Professor's house and she hands him the microphone she found in the tomb, asking him if it is his. He doesn't deny it, but he wants to know what she wants of him. He then tells Jill about his special "gifts" and how stupid the townspeople are, their ignorance make him look like a "bloody grave robber." He tells Jill that death is not the end of everything and his special powers prove that it's "just the beginning of a new journey." He needs to talk to dead people to understand what that journey is. Jill asks him what he is going to do when he finds out and the Professor replies that he's not sure, but he knows the power of the senses; what it means to see, hear and touch, asking Jill why must his mind be limited to just that? Can it not reach out for something else? (That's a very good question; one that is not usually asked. An adult mind doesn't ask such questions, but children usually do, which is why we lose our "innocence" when we become adults.). Jill says there are limits, barriers to such knowledge (See what I mean?) and the Professor disagrees, saying, "We set up 'those' barriers in self defense." Jill tells the Professor that he frightens her and a sly smile forms on his face as he says, "Do I? Oh, I'd be very disappointed if I thought you were superstitious." Jill replies, "No, I'm just afraid you won't know when to stop." The Professor uses his powers to put Jill in a trance-like state. This may be the creepiest sequence in the film, help exponentially by Magee's expressive face and piercing eyes, as he tells Jill he could command her to do anything he wants and she will have no power to resist; she won't even remember what she did. The cat then attacks the Professor, using its claws to put deep, bloody gashes into the palms of his hands, which snaps Jill out of the trance. Jill then asks him why he keeps such a nasty cat (she has no idea she was under his "spell") and the Professor replies, "We need each other." He tells Jill not to try and understand, he and the cat are bound together by hatred and the cat wants to kill him. Will it succeed?We then see the cat kill a drunk Ferguson by chasing him into a building (the cat has the uncanny ability to be in two or more places at the same time) and knocking him off the floorboards of the attic, where he is impaled on metal rods protruding out of the cement foundation below. The Inspector asks Jill to take photos of Ferguson's crime scene (this small village doesn't have a police photographer; they never needed one before) and she notices the same cat gashes are on Ferguson's hand as those on the Professor. Lillian goes to the Professor and asks him to use his powers to locate her daughter. He asks for a personal item belonging to Maureen and he and Lillian then have a séance, where he says, "The key! You must find the key!" Lillian then knows where her daughter is and when the Inspector opens the door to the boathouse (Lillian finds the key behind the boathouse), Lillian sees Maureen's corpse being eaten by a pack of rats. The Inspector phones the Professor and asks him to come to the crime scene, where he notices the cat's paw prints leading to the air conditioner. He now knows (as does Jill) that the cat is responsible for the murders in the village, but he fails to mention that to the Inspector.The cat sets Lillian's home on fire by knock over an oil lamp next to a roaring fire in the fireplace, setting Lillian's nightgown aflame, killing her when she falls out a window to the pavement below. The Professor drugs the cat's food and watches it eat it. He hangs the cat by the neck with a makeshift noose tied to a tree branch and we watch the cat die (in silhouette, its dying shadow projected on a wall). At the same time, Jill is awoken from a sound sleep when her bed begins levitating and bouncing on the floor. The cat haunts both Jill and the Professor, as they see its silhouette projected on walls. Jill tells the Inspector that the cat is the killer ("Not cats. A cat!"), but she believes the Professor is using his powers to make the cat kill. The Inspector finds it hard to believe, but it doesn't stop him from starting a romance with Jill! Alas, that romance will be short-lived, for, as he is walking down the street late that night, the cat attacks him (once again appearing in two or more places at the same time), clawing at his face until it is a bloody mess. He goes into some type of hypnotic spell (the same way Jill did) until he is hit and seriously wounded by a passing car (We are led to believe he is dead until a short time before the film concludes).Jill's suspicions about the Professor get the better of her and she begins to follow him, which leads to an important discovery in the Professor's house, which explains why all the murders are happening. Jill holds the cat at bay with the flash on her camera, that is until the battery dies and the Professor catches her. He tells her, "Cats take orders from no one." The cat is an "instrument" of his, using it to get even with the townspeople who forced him into a life of isolation (He wouldn't have to live this way if he had just stopped visiting the cemetery at night!). Jill ends up missing and a recovering Inspector Gorley goes searching for her, ending up in the Professor's house. Just as with the ending of Poe's story, the wails of a cat leads the police to the Professor's basement, where he walled-in an unconscious Jill (and the cat) with bricks.This is not the usual Fulci gorefest, but that's not to say that there aren't some bloody deaths in this film. The flick is more interested in the Gothic supernatural angle, as the screenplay, written by Fulci and Biagio Proietti (DEATH OCCURRED LAST NIGHT - 1970; THE KILLER RESERVED NINE SEATS - 1974), plays up the powers of Professor Miles, adding a very creepy vibe to his gifts, helped by Patrick Magee's manic performance. This is one of the few times I advise you watch the English dubbed version, as the Italian version has someone else dubbing Magee's voice, which he supplies in the English dubbed version. Magee's voice (and unkempt eyebrows!) is needed to fully appreciate his performance, in which he does seem a little crazy in his ambitions, walking to tombs and talking to the dead people inside, who talk back to him. He is so disgusted with the townspeople that he takes control of the cat's mind (another one of his "gifts") to kill the people that look upon him as a grave robber, forcing him to live alone with the feline until the cat can take no more and turns against him (Hey, even cats have consciences!). The cat POV shots are very good and fluid (cinematography by Sergio Salvati; Fulci's THE FOUR OF THE APOCALYPSE - 1975, DRACULA IN THE PROVINCES - 1975 and CONTRABAND - 1980), as is Pino Donaggio's music score, one of his best. Fulci said that the only reason he directed this film was as a favor to producers Giulio Sbarigia (SALON KITTY - 1976) and an uncredited Harry Alan Towers (Fulci's WHITE FANG - 1973 and CHALLENGE TO WHITE FANG - 1974) and, while this is different Fulci fare, it's nothing to be ashamed of, either. It's a compact horror film with enough good performances to be recommended. Some of the problems I do have with this film are obvious, such as the "airtight" boathouse. I never heard of such a thing before and it is only in this film purely for the shock element. Some of the dialogue is also risible. But those are only minor quibbles. You may also notice that the scene where Jill is attacked by bats is remarkably similar to a scene in Fulci's HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY (1981), made shortly after this film. When I first saw this in a theater in 1982, I would have given you a whole different, negative opinion about the film, but you can chalk that up to a young mind expecting a gorefest and being bitterly disappointed (It was one of the only Fulci horror films to be released in the U.S. without any gore violence cuts or being released to theaters without a rating by the MPAA, as many of his early-'80s films were). Getting older has its positive moments, too, especially when it comes to watching films.Shot as GATTO NERO (a literal translation of the review title), this film obtained a U.S. theatrical release from World Northal Corp., basically uncut and Rated R. It was then released on fullscreen VHS by Media Home Entertainment and then on budget VHS by Rhino Home Video. Anchor Bay Entertainment then released an uncut widescreen print on VHS & DVD in 2001, with a DVD from Blue Underground in 2007. Arrow Video then released the film on DVD & Blu-Ray in 2016, which has it's usual wide assortment of informative extras, including an archive interview with the late David Warbeck and a new career interview with the still magnetic Dagmar Lassander. Be aware that Amazon Prime offers the film streaming, but only the Italian language version with English subtitles. The Arrow discs offer both the preferred English dub and the Italian dub, making it the choice method of watching the film. Even though the discs are listed as "Not Rated", there is no difference between it and the R-Rated versions (except for small snippets of exposition) besides the exceptional picture quality on the Arrow Video Blu-Ray. Lucio Fulci had a cameo as a doctor in this film, but his scenes were deleted from the final print (one of the few Fulci films where he doesn't "pull a Hitchcock"). Look for Geoffrey Copleston (Fulci's PERVERSION STORY - 1969; review coming soon) in an extended cameo as Scotland Yard Inspector Flynn, who was sent to the village to substitute for an ailing Inspector Gorley. Also featuring Vito Passeri (Fulci's DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING - 1972). Not Rated.

This film begins with one of the coolest tracking shots I have ever seen. Lucio fulci's take on Edgar Allen poe's short story is a great piece of gothic horror. It really feels like a hammer or amicus film and not a lucio fulci gore fest which it isn't. The film stars the great Patrick Magee from a clockwork orange and roger corman's masque of the red death (another Poe movie), his eyes frighten me. The Beyond's David Warbeck also stars. The film's score is amazing by Pino Donaggio and is up there with his scores for The howling, Carrie, dressed to kill, blowout, and Don't look now as some of the greatest scores ever. sergio salvati's camera work is beautiful and the beginning credits is a masterpiece. This film proves Fulci is a master and can make movies without tons of gore. I highly recommend this film!!!!

is in Italian, with English subtitles which must be activated manually. The Italian version delivers--still a creepy, atmospheric trip! Enjoy.