Alicia I love this movie so much

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

ferbs54 "Seven Deaths in the Cat's Eye" (1973) is a very unusual kind of giallo film, taking place as it does not in modern times, but rather in what appears to be the early 20th century. Is it a giallo or is it a Gothic murder mystery with a high body count? I suppose the answer must be "Who cares?" when a picture is as fun as this one. The film shows us what happens when the young, pretty Corringa (Jane Birkin) returns to her aunt's ancestral Scottish castle of Dragonstone after an extended absence; namely, a series of increasingly bizarre murders amongst the oddball inmates of the house. The picture combines some slightly graphic homicides (you know how many, and which household pet witnesses them, from the film's title, right?) with vampire lore, some hinted-at lesbianism, a maddened orangutan (who looks like a "Jungle Jim" gorilla), ravenous rats, bats, secret passageways, cemetery exploits, and incest to make one wild and heady melange. The film also features stylish direction by Antonio Margheriti, as well as gorgeous set decoration (the picture is very handsomely produced) that is shown to good advantage on this stunning-looking DVD from Blue Underground (although it's a shame that no subtitles option is offered). And how nice to see Anton Diffring, whose performance in 1960's "Circus of Horrors" so impressed me, here again playing another suave slimeball! As regards the potential viewer of "Seven Deaths in the Cat's Eye" and his or her ability to guess the identity of the killer, my advice would be to not even try. Just emulate the titular tabby, sit back and enjoy the show!

oowawa Q--What is a "red herring?" A--A rotting fish dragged across a fugitive's trail in order to confuse the pursuing hounds. Figuratively, in literature and film, it is a plot device used to mislead the reader/viewer into drawing false premises as to what is really going on. How's this for a "red herring": a huge gorilla peeks out the castle window as the heroine arrives, and hairy hands are later seen committing murder. Throats are slit with a straight razor. Do we have a suspect? Or how about this: vampirism is repeatedly mentioned in hushed tones as a suspected plague in the MacGrieff family. Moreover, when a family member is buried, if a cat follows the coffin to the tomb, it is rumored that the corpse will come back as a vampire. Well, the cat follows a family member's corpse to the graveyard, and the tomb is later found to be empty. Could vampires be involved? And so it goes. The red herrings are dragged around so frequently that the whole film smells very fishy. Of course, the real killer is . . . (spoiler???) . . . the one character who smells the least fishy.Okay--so this is not a film to challenge your deductive reasoning. It is however, fun to watch. The Gothic atmospherics are plastered on with a very large spatula. The detective, as brief as his appearances are, is a real original, and could have easily become the main figure in a Poirot-Columbo style film series. There is also a bit of appealing gratuitous nudity, featuring the striking German actress Doris Kunstmann. Lurid? You bet!!!

lazarillo This a strange movie. It was directed by Anthony Margheretti who specialized in Italian Gothic horror films, but it was made at the height of "yellow (giallo) fever" in the early 1970's. As a result it is kind of a strange cross between a 60's Gothic horror movie and a 70's giallo. It is set in a 19th century Scottish castle rather than in a more modern-day Rome fashion house,for instance, but it has both a number and an animal in the title(the calling card of a giallo) and it features a series of nasty murders right from the opening credits when a man is butchered and his body fed to rats in the cellar. It also has an ape wandering around through secret passages in the castle, which doesn't fit either the giallo or the Gothic horror genre but might be some kind of homage to Edgar Allen Poe's "Murders in Rue Morgue". The story starts off when a young woman (Jane Birkin) returns home to her family's castle and is reunited with her neurotic mother, lecherous uncle, and angry young cousin (who owns the ape), and before long people start dying left and right. Oh yeah, there's also a cat wandering around who witnesses (some of) the murders, thus the title.This was OK I guess, but I had a few problems with it. First, off they pretty much wasted the ape. If you're going to have an ape in your movie (or a man in an ape suit anyway) you should do more with him. Second, this is the only movie I've ever personally seen Jane Birkin in where she does NOT take her clothes off. As this made the movie significantly more boring I had a lot of time to ponder why this was and it finally occurred to me that she might have been pregnant with her daughter, the equally sexy actress Charlotte Gainsbourg, at the time. (And speaking of Gainsbourg, Serg Gainsbourg also has a cameo in this movie as a dubbed Scottish detective).Finally, I was disappointed with the titular cat a little bit. It was kind of fluffy white cat like the one Blofeld is always stroking in James Bond movies. They should have used a more sinister black cat like the one named "Satan" that appeared in two gialli the previous year ("Gently Before She Dies" and "Crimes of the Black Cat"), but maybe he'd gone to kitty heaven or just refused to travel to Scotland (at least it wasn't a guy in a cat suit). Anyway, it seemed like they kind of forgot about the cat anyway towards the end. This was an alright movie, but it could have been better.

missmonochrome Giallo are not really known for heavy reliance on plot, but here it is in a nutshell: Lovely schoolgirl Corringa (Jane Birkin), comes home to her ancestral castle to meet with family. Before long, the eccentric collection of guests (crazy lord, hired hooker, doctor who can't keep it in his pants long enough to treat anyone, etc.) is being murdered one by one, with no witnesses except the titular cat.I'd be able to forgive a lot if the atmosphere was sufficiently creepy, but Margheriti's idea of atmosphere is poor indoor lighting, a rather cuddly looking house pet, red paint "blood", faux Argento killer's P.O.V. shots and a never fully explained attempt at making random shots a gorilla peeking through a doorway a legitimate red herring.Aside from the random primate, all of the red herrings might as well have glaring neon signs, from the terse dinner conversation about Lord Magrieff's (Hiram Keller)insanity and the resulting argument with the doctor (Anton Diffring),to Suzanne's(Doris Kunstmann) pillow talk with that same doctor, to the untterly inane vampire nonsense (White pancake and a wind machine....scary!).The acting is B movie competent. Birkin looks prettily wide eyed,Kunstmann stalks about poutily, the only horrid performer is Keller. His vacant eyed, shaggy haired pretty boy comes across as the euro precursor/inspiration of the equally empty eyed Ashton Kutcher.All in all the plot and the mood are equally forgettable (even the power of random monkeys and the final hackneyed "twist" couldn't save the film) and this movie didn't deserve the Blue Underground treatment or any more than three stars. (Awarded for Orlatani's score,the cool poster art, and the 2 sexy females).Chalk up another one in the "loss" column for one of cult film's most over rated filmmakers.