Cat O' Nine Tails (1971)

[voltron]

Argento's second movie is definately one of his weakest efforts, in my opinion (although I haven't seen any of his newer films). The film feels rough and not quite "there". The basic plot involes a blind man and a reporter getting caught up in a series of murders in a medical research lab - your standard giallo / Argento fare - but again, this one is missing something special a la his other works in the animal trilogy. I think if this was handled by a different director I just might have a different take on it, but  when compared to the high standards of his later 70s films this one kinda falls flat. Some of the cinematography is nice (when we see through the eyes of the killer) and it has an excellent score by Ennio Morricone, but sadly that's the only really positive thing I can think of. It's definately not a bad movie by any means (maybe it should be in the 'good movies' section) but as a whole it seems to be pretty uninspired and I found it to be somewhat boring. Argentophiles might eat this up, but for the rest, this, unlike his later films, is not mandatory viewing. I'd give it a 6 out of 10.

[claws]

Argentophiles liked ten of his movies less than Cat O' Nine Tails according to IMDb (6.6/10 rating, which is very good).
Never seen but it has been on my to-watch list for ages.

[zombie no.one]

Decent film not a patch on deep red though.

The only 'classic era' argento film I find to be not very good is four flies on grey velvet which felt amateurish and inappropriately comedic at times

[The Burgomaster]

I think this is "middle of the road" Argento.  Off the top of my head, I can think of the following Argento movies that are better:

* SUSPIRIA
* DEEP RED
* TENEBRAE
* THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE
* INFERNO

There are probably a couple others that I'm forgetting.

[zombie no.one]

I would agree with that list and also add Phenomena and Terror at the Opera