The Cat o' Nine Tails

A genetics institute in Rome is broken into at night and nothing is taken. The next day one of its doctors is pushed under a train. The reporter Carlo Giordani and Franco Arno, a blind former journalist, start looking into it together; Arno remembers a conversation he overheard in the street on the night of the break-in. As the killings continue, the institute's research into XYY syndrome comes out. Dario Argento directed. James Franciscus plays Carlo, Karl Malden plays Franco and Catherine Spaak plays Anna Terzi. The title refers neither to a cat nor to a whip but to the nine separate leads the characters follow in trying to solve the murder. It was shot in September and October 1970 in Berlin, Turin and Rome. It opened on 11 February 1971 and was a commercial success in Italy but not in the rest of Europe. The most interesting verdict came from the director himself: Argento calls it his least favourite of all his films. Rotten Tomatoes nonetheless sits at 81 percent, with reviews singling out the cast and Argento's visual style. Who it is for: viewers curious about giallo and Argento's early period. Who it is not for: anyone who will be troubled by the film's premise linking the XYY chromosome to criminality, an idea that was already contested in 1971.