When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Directed by Sergio Pastore (also director of the wonderfully named 'Chrysanthemums for a Bunch of Swine') 'The Crimes of the Black Cat' is a good giallo set in Copenhagen. A blind pianist sets out to find a murderer after he overhears a conversation in a restaurant. There are many familiar giallo elements but it puts them together in an entertaining way that holds ones' attention until the last frame. (A window frame in fact.) The explanation of the crimes at the end is too rushed but apart from that the pacing is fine. It looks good in 'Technicolour' and 'Techniscope'. Manuel De Sica provides a dramatic music score.Anthony Steffen is believable as the blind pianist and is supported well by the other members of the cast, some quite familiar from this genre. Giovanna Lenzi as the drug addled Susan Leclerc is particularly good. One feels her pain. There is a black cat of course and this one has creepy piercing eyes. After a short while I thought I'd definitely identified the killer but by the end it turned out I was wrong. But then good giallos do that.

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.

The Crimes of the Black Cat is a pretty typical Giallo, which takes influence from many of the more established genre classics. The central character is blind, which is an idea lifted from Argento's 'The Cat o'Nine Tails', and the style and plotting is clearly reminiscent of Argento's early work. The black cat is an animal often seen in horror films, and that's down to Edgar Allen Poe and his famous story about the ominous animal. The way that the cat is used in this film is good because it's instrumental to the plot (unlike other Giallo's which mention a cat in the title and barely even feature one), but it really has to be said that the modus operandi used by the murderer is completely ridiculous even for a Giallo. The plot focuses on Peter Oliver; a blind, yet rich man who finds himself at the centre of a murder investigation when his girlfriend is killed. It seems that someone has a grudge against some of the local fashion models, and all the murders have the common theme of a yellow shawl being found next to the dead victims. But how do you catch a murderer that you cannot see?Director Sergio Pastore, while taking many themes from across the Giallo genre, hasn't decided to make the film as bloody as some of its counterparts. The murder weapon doesn't allow for too much of the red stuff, but even so; it comes as a huge shock at the end when this placid film explodes with a Psycho-style shower sequence that features some of the most disgusting gore in the entire Giallo genre; and almost makes up for the lack of blood in the rest of the film. There is a lot of sleaze in the movie, however, and this is shown through ideas such as lesbianism and drug use; and that in turns blends well with the depressing urban climate in which the movie takes place. The acting is nothing special, but it's not bad in Giallo terms. Antonio De Teffè does well in the lead role and succeeds at convincing us he is actually blind. There are no real stars in the film beside him, and the lack of a heroine doesn't do the film too many favours either. Overall, this is a rather strange entry in the Giallo cycle as it has a number of good and inventive moments; but it's all encased around a lot of borrowing and tributes. Still, i wouldn't hesitate to rate this film as a success and it comes recommended to Giallo fans!

De Sica's below-average score notwithstanding (and they do count a lot in these movies, don't they?) this is a satisfying giallo with all the key elements included and none of them bungled. Granted, a lot of those key elements are ripped right from other movies, and the direct influence of Psycho, Black Belly of the Tarantula, Blood and Black Lace, Lizard in a Woman's Skin and most of all Cat O'Nine Tails doesn't win it points for creativity, but it's all handled as though it were the first film ever made so you don't really mind. The plot, with its typically and gloriously dumb motive for the killings (in this case a car crash in the past, as was the case with Seven Orchids Stained in Blood) moves along at a fair pace, and making the hero blind gives him a sympathetic attraction most giallo heroes lack. It's not as good as any of the films from which it's descended but nevertheless a solid entry in the genre.