Sergio Pastore's giallo outing is a skillful attempt at the genre, lacking originality but making up for this in technical proficiency, a solid mix of genre ingredients, and provoking some fine performances from the Italian cast. The typically complex plot involves blackmail schemes, a circus, a pet shop owner, drugs and an offbeat motive for the crimes which all makes sense in the crazy logic that the giallo film offers. Lots of naked female performers and some brutal murders contribute to the film's exploitation level, but it really succeeds in the story and characters which are above average and make things watchable.Particularly good is Anthony Steffen (a spaghetti western regular, then moving into giallo/crime flicks) as the blind composer, Peter Oliver, who investigates the crimes, investing his character with both intelligence and charisma to boot. Although obviously moulded on Karl Malden's character in Argento's THE CAT O'NINE TAILS, Peter Oliver is a great lead and shows off his skills in the cat-and-mouse games of the double finale in which he manages to outwit not one but two would-be murders and save his skin. Speaking of the end, it's heavily indebted to 23 PACES TO BAKER STREET, but still suspenseful.The supporting cast is uniformly good, in particularly Umberto Raho shining as the comedy relief butler/chauffeur who has some fine exchanges with Steffen. Then we have regular performer Giacomo Rossi-Stuart adding another shifty suspect character to his resume and the likes of Sylva Koscina, Renato De Carmine, and Shirley Corrigan literally filling out the parts of the female characters, who are more interesting and fleshed-out than the typical victimised women appearing in gialli films.The various set-pieces are handled with skill, including a death-by-train (also from the Argento movie) and an exceptionally nasty shower murder to boot. There's even a fashion house, which appears to be closely modelled on the one in Bava's BLOOD AND BLACK LACE. Although there are a few moments of artistic excess (zooms and repeated shots in the early murders) which turn things laughable, the film mostly holds together well and is quite gripping in spots, and if not always gripping then always interesting. The black cat of the title is a mangy moggy trained to kill but is a rather underused motive; instead, jealous and twisted humans are the perpetrators of the sadistic crimes, as per usual.

"Sette scialli di seta gialla" (Crimes of the black cat) takes place in Copenhagen. The grey subdued skies of Copenhagen and the meditative soundtrack of Manuel de Sica, are a preparation for the giallo we are about to see - a blind pianist, Peter Oliver (Anthony Steffen) investigating a string of murders of fashion models. Paola Whitney (Isabelle Marchal), Peter Oliver's girlfriend, is murdered, and the police, the other models… no one knows exactly what happened and the reason why it happened. She was alone in her room in the fashion house, and then suddenly…Peter Oliver suspects that one of the reasons may be blackmail (fragments of a strange conversation overheard in a bar led him to this conclusion), but nothing really seems to explain the mystery. So Peter Oliver, with the help of his butler Burton (Umberto Raho) and beautiful Margot (Shirley Corrigan) - secretary of Françoise Ballais (Sylva Koscina), owner of the fashion house - , decides to investigate on his own the death of Paola. Other murders happen, the killer seems to anticipate each step of Peter, and there are other developments. As to the police, Inspector Jansen (Renato de Carmine) learns to respect the deductive powers of Peter. Sometimes the case seems about to be solved, but…Besides the characters already mentioned, there are, of course, many gorgeous fashion models (some about to be sacrificed), there's Victor Morgan (Giacomo Rossi-Stuart) that is, so to say, married to Françoise Ballais, and has already experienced troubled waters, and there's also a mysterious junkie woman (Giovanna Lenzi), an important piece in this chess game, and we should not forget the reviled black cat, a very important tool, always followed by a yellow shawl!.In spite of its many curves, the story is not as convoluted as it seems, and there's one scene in particular that may please gorehounds.Anthony Steffen, as the blind pianist, demonstrates again his talent and screen charisma and Giovanna Lenzi, as the junkie woman, is another highlight of the film (and the black cat too, of course!)."Crimes of the black cat" has the visual beauty and style usual in many gialli, the editing is smooth and the film is pleasant to see – feminine beauty peppered with some thrills and violence. Sergio Pastore pays homages to Bava, Argento and... (surprise!), but the film has its own world and atmosphere.

I'll go ahead and sacrifice my "helpful" score by admitting that I'm not the biggest giallo fan. For every one film classified as such that's an enjoyably stylish thriller (the best seem to come from Mario Bava, Dario Argento and Sergio Martino), there are about three that are pedestrian, lifeless, sloth-paced, visually unexciting and completely and utterly devoid of any originality. I've honestly had a difficult time trying to stay awake while watching some of these films. So, not surprisingly, I tend to disagree with others about what are actually the better films in this genre. One can gouge from the lower-than-usual score on here that this isn't one of the more popular films of its type, but I actually thought it was more entertaining than the majority of others I've seen. Why? Because it's nutty, goes OTT a few times and the killer's modus operandi is every bit as ingenious as it is ridiculous! Don't get me wrong, this is painfully derivative of many other, better films (Bava's BLOOD AND BLACK LACE and Argento's CAT O' NINE TAILS instantly come to mind), but since the exact same thing can be said for about 95 percent of the films this one shares company with, that really didn't bother me a whole lot. And silly as this was at times, it also had some legitimately great moments that deserve mention.Blind pianist Peter Oliver (Anthony Steffen) decides to play freelance Sherlock Holmes after his unfaithful model ex-girlfriend Paola Whitney (Isabelle Marchall) is killed under mysterious circumstances. A fashion house run by wealthy Françoise Ballais (Sylva Koscina) and her ex-con playboy husband Victor Morgan (Giacomo Rossi-Stuart), soon becomes the centerpiece for the obligatory string of cover-up murders to follow the first crime. Since Peter can't see, he enlists the aid of his assistant (Umberto Raho) and a fashion house employee (Shirley Corrigan) to help uncover the killer. Throw in a caped, strung-out heroin addict ("Jeannette Len"/Giovanni Lenzi), a photographer, a police inspector, a temperamental black kitty cat with toxic paws and a pair of lesbian models and your list of suspects and victims is now complete. There's the expected backstabbing, blackmail and adultery to help provide a motive, plus some nudity and gore thrown in for good measure. The cast isn't too bad (Steffen and Lenzi both do good jobs) and there are some pretty solid scenes, especially one taking place at some outdoor recycling facility (I think that's what it was) full of broken glass. Also worth mentioning is an awesomely gory shower slashing that's one of the nastiest (and best) set pieces in the entire giallo oeuvre. On the down side, the ending feels very rushed and the score isn't quite up to par, but all in all, this was a decent enough effort.

(aka: THE CRIMES OF THE BLACK CAT)Filmed in Denmark with a largely Italian cast in a setting away from the usual Italian locations for this genre. So forget that these people are Danes speaking Italian. You can't be too specific with a film like this.OK so you've seen this before and if you've seen BLOOD AND BLACK LACE, then you'll know how it turns out. Even so, this really isn't bad watching and the story is constructed well despite a couple of suspense contrivances for the audience like footsteps approaching a door, expecting the viewer to believe it's the killer when it turns out to be the hotel bellboy delivering breakfast.Blind composer Peter Oliver (spaghetti western star, Anthony Steffen) helps sleuth the murders of fashion models in swanky Copenhagen after his close friend Paola is murdered. He suspects something is wrong when he overhears a conversation about a crime in a restaurant while waiting for Paola to show up. She never does. It turns out Paola is blackmailing Victor (Giacomo Rossi-Stuart), threatening to expose some incriminating photographs to his wife (Sylvia Koscina).Of course when it comes to this genre, the murders can't always be done in a straightforward way and one particular device is using a black cat who's hands are dipped in curare, scratching the victims and causing them to have heart attacks. Strange, yes, but that's typical of the genre so one has to suspend disbelief if you want to watch films like this.I won't reveal who the name of the killer is. You'll have to see that for yourself, but I will say that it ends in one of those typical freeze-frame endings that were popular in the 1970s.The DVD by Degored is of poor quality, taken from videotape source with dropouts appearing occasionally and muffled sound, although the subtitles in English look pretty accurate.There are worse out there.5 out of 10