Black Cat


Synopsis: A police inspector and a photographer investigate a series of disappearances and deaths in a small English village (at least we're told it's an English village... everybody looks awfully continental, especially the police). They cross paths with an old man, supposedly a psychic, and his curious black cat. There are rumors that the old man tape-records conversations with the dead... could he be causing the strange occurances? Or is his cat the one to blame? And which of them is really the master?

...of course, playing the hero in these things is very limited anyway, you just have to stand there looking all jutty-jawed.
David Warbeck in Palmerini & Mistretta, Spaghetti Nightmares
(Key West: Fantasma Books, 1996)

Notes: This is definitely not one of Fulci's best films, despite the presence of Patrick Magee in his last role. Magee's part was apparently originally offered to Peter Cushing. Cushing made extensive notes and corrections to his copy of the script, which was auctioned off with his other papers after his death. In any case, Magee is perfectly cast as the brooding, decadent psychic, though the weak script defeats him.

Particularly unforgivable script lapses:

  • After a couple asphyxiates in an airtight room, rats gnaw on the bodies. Hmmm... What were the rats breathing? (Oh, sure, there's a throwaway explanation that they smelled the bodies and chewed their way in... I still find this difficult to take).
  • In a throwback to the worst of the old serials, a character we know has been killed by a car returns with only a broken arm.
  • The English have some kinky habits, many involving bondage rituals; but even so, what Mimsy Farmer finds in the open crypt is a little unbelievable.
  • AND -- in a device which also mars fine films such as Quella Villa Accanto al Cimitero/House by the Cemetery and Dario Argento's Suspiria -- there's another one of those needless bats-in-the-hair sequences that ought to be banned by international law...

          Another thing spoils this movie for me: cats are simply not frightening. At least not to me. I have eleven of them, all rescued shelter kitties, and I promise you that the only frightening thing about cats is what people do to them. So every time I see the Black Cat doing something paranormal and "scary", like opening a door and stalking a victim, all I can think is, "Good kitty! Clever kitty! I hope the handler gave you a nice treat after that scene was over."
          The panned-and-scanned Rhino Video release of Black Cat makes a bleak situation worse by destroying Fulci's screen composition. Instead of his Sergio-Leone-inspired closeups, we end up with shot after shot of the bridges of the actors' noses. Feh.