Seven Deaths in the Cat’s Eyes

Director: Anthony M. Dawson (aka Antonio Margheriti)
Script: Giovanni Simonelli & Antonio Margheriti
Cast: Jane Birkin, Hiram Kellar, Francoise Christophe, Venantino Venatini, Doris Kunstmann, Anton Diffring, Dana Ghia, Serge Gainsborough
Running time: 95 mins
Year: 1973
Certificate: 15

Arriving by horse and cart, Corringa MacGrieff (Jane Birkin) returns from boarding school to her family’s estate, namely Dragonston, an imposing Scottish Castle. Her arrival is watched by a large gorilla (!) looking down at the courtyard from an upstairs bedroom window. While her mother, Lady Alicia (Dana Ghia) is pleased to see her, others are less so, and her cousin, Lord James MacGrieff (Hiram Kellar) is positively hostile towards her and the other guests. After a fraught evening meal where James is pretty much rude to everyone, including his doctor, (Anton Diffring), Corringa’s mum is smothered to death in bed with a pillow.

After the funeral a number of other murders are committed on the estate, all seen by the family cat, who even got to see the first pre-credits murder (by throat slashing), resulting in a body lying unseen for a while, eaten by rats.

Despite not getting off to a good start Corringa and James become friends and then lovers, drawn together after realising that both of them are in the killer’s sights as well. Although their burgeoning relationship is not particularly believable, it’s more believable than James keeping a sometimes violent ex-circus gorilla in his bed chambers!

The film, like any decent Giallo, throws in plenty of red herrings to confuse the viewer, although it’s not that hard to determine who the real ‘nutter in the castle’ is, especially if you’re good at reading body language.

A number of characters in the film have reasons to kill each other, especially the doctor and his two love/sex interests, namely Lady Mary MacGrieff (Francoise Christophe) and French teacher, Suzanne (Doris Kunstmann). The duplicitous couples are both scheming to improve their wealth and status, regardless of who they hurt, physically or mentally. For example, Lady MacGrieff is struggling to pay the estate’s bills, but won’t sell the castle, so initially tries to persuade Lady Alicia to help her out financially, but is turned down, much to her annoyance.

Seven Deaths in the Cat’s Eyes is a nicely produced gothic giallo co-produced by France, Germany and Italy. It’s just a pity there isn’t really much new here, plot-wise, with it being very much a black comedy in the vein of The Old Dark House and the Frankie Howerd horror-comedy The House in Nightmare Park (1973). The story touches on a vampiric curse at one point, but does nothing with it, and the sarcastic Scottish police inspector, played by Gallic songster Serge Gainsborough, only really seemingly appears for added humorous moments. However, despite such short-comings the film is still worth a look, especially if one is a fan of quirky giallos.

88 Films have done a great job in bringing yet another relatively obscure film out of the mirk and it looks great in its brand new HD restoration. There are plenty of special features including:

Audio commentary by film Italian Cinema Expert Troy Howarth – Troy, who specialises in Euro cult cinema, goes into some detail on the more technical aspects of the film and berates the makers for dubbing the likes of actors Anton Diffring and Jane Birkin.

Audio Commentary with Italian Cinema Experts Nathaniel Thompson and Eugenio Ercolani – Nathaniel talks about his first exposure to the film on the Prism Video label, which was badly panned and scanned. We’re also told that, despite what the opening credits say, the film was never based on an original novel. They talk about the directors’ eclectic filmography and how he was later bullied by A-list actor Anthony Quinn whilst making Treasure Island in Space.

A Man For All Seasons – Interview with Alessandro Perrella (31.5 mins) – Perrella talks about his long career; how he started out as a studio cleaner and slowly worked his way up through the system. He even did some acting in westerns because they liked his ‘look’. He also worked in what was called ‘porn inserts’ where hard-core material was inserted into a film after the actors had gone home! It convinced him of “the immense seductive power of the camera”.

The More You Hear, The More You Love – Interview with Enrico Ortolani Sternini (26.5 mins) – We get to hear more about the great composer Riz Ortolani, from his stepson. Not only do we get to hear about the great range of his work, but also a little more about the personal life of the man. We also learn that in America his theme to Mondo Cane is often used at weddings!

Serge & Jane on the Parnassus (7.5 mins) – A tour of Rome’s second largest cemetery takes in a trio of famous resting places for the likes of Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, who dated for a while until he became an alcoholic and cheated on her!

Seven Deaths in a Son’s Eye – Interview with Edoardo Margheriti (11.5 mins) – Margheriti’s son tells some interesting anecdotes (in English), such as his dad being good friends with Mario Bava despite them essentially being rivals. He talks about his dad having great technical knowledge, including in special effects.

Mr. Margheriti Against Normality – A Visual Essay by Mike Foster (20.5 mins) – A fun featurette where Mike does a good job of analysing the director’s career and notes that he often tackled sub-genres in pairs, hence he’s do a couple of westerns, then a couple of comedies, then horrors, Mondos, peplums, and so on.

Dawson’s Eyes – A Visual Essay by Pier Maria Bocchi (11 mins) – Pier looks at the director’s body of work, noting that Antonio Margheriti came from the ‘architecture of gothic horror’, but then tried his hand at so many other genres including Police dramas and even Blaxploitation and cannibal movies.

English Trailer (3.23 mins) – An overlong trailer that seems to really like Susan Birkin’s scream!

Italian Trailer (3.28 mins) – An even longer trailer, which is essentially the same as the English one, except for having English subtitles.

Italian Opening / Closing Credits (4.15 mins) – The same as the English dubbed version except that the titles are in Italian.