This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

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

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Another enjoyable entry into the Italian giallo genre, although this veers more towards 'solid' than spectacular. The locations are less arresting than usual in these films, but there is a fine conveyance of squalor and run-down industrial landscapes which, when located within the rolling landscapes, provides a particularly stark backdrop to the gloomy events.I think the word 'gloomy' covers things really. There are no real standout characters; no Edwidge Fenechs of Rosalba Neris, or even a stubbornly chauvinistic male hero to hiss at. We have instead, nice Lukas, played by Corrado Pani, who attempts to investigate the dark goings on.Paola Tedesco plays Mara, a young dancer, who witnesses the murder of a local pharmacist. A string of killings then take place, all nicely staged. 'Watch me When I Kill' is a decent rather than engrossing giallo that only occasionally captures the sinister atmosphere of others of its type.

Those familiar with Antonio Bido anyway, the director of WHO SAW HER DIE? & THE BLOOD STAINED SHADOW, understand that his giallo thrillers are always leisurely paced(..to say the least)with LOTS of plot. And, there's always a sense of real sadness behind the plot, real tragedy often motivates the story with characters uncovering horrible truths. And, WATCH ME WHEN I KILL is no different, it is insanely convoluted yielding such a melancholy conclusion when our detective hero finally figures out the painful reasons behind a series of murders in(..and outside of) Rome. Three characters share a secret involving the Nazis and a family they betray and this fuels the killer who hunts each down, waiting for the right time, when they are most vulnerable, slaying them from behind. The first is a pharmacist stabbed in the back, the killer slicing his throat. The second, a female character named Esmeralda(Bianca Toccafaondi), who is friends with Giovanni Bozzi(Fernando Cerulli), a businessman with corrupt lending practices, she has a history with. Bozzi seeks aid from neighbor, Lukas(Corrado Pani) regarding disturbing phone calls featuring a collage of loud, random sounds which mean little to him, yet are enough to cause concern. Lukas is also assigned to protect his actress girlfriend, Mara(Paola Tedesco)who came across a crime in progress(..the pharmacy as the killer escaped quickly)and has been targeted for possibly seeing too much. Lukas begins his own investigation into the murders, and soon realizes that his girlfriend's pursuer and the killer behind the others are related. Soon, a judge(Giuseppe Addobbati), a wrongfully accused escaped con(Franco Citti), and a screenplay writer(Paolo Malco)all have their own part within the convoluted story.I will admit that I labored through WATCH ME WHEN I KILL, even though I respect director Bido for the ambitious story and it's chilling finale when we get all the facts after a lot exposition. I thought the score, supplied to us by Trans Europa Express was fabulous, good mixture of styles which often provide the film with a texture complimenting the shifts in tone(..while also making the long haul a little more bearable). I wasn't as critical of the acting and think the important characters were handled reasonably well. I agree with others that the dubbing and dialogue effects the impact of the film because characters are often saddled with cringe-worthy words that were perhaps more articulate in the Italian language. I for one liked Pani as the lead detective..he had the look down, and the cigar was a nice touch, and he never, to me anyway, ever committed a dopey characterization which would make him unsympathetic or unworthy of interest.The trademark giallo POV shot for the killer is often relied upon, and there's really nothing particularly stylish or fresh..that could be looked at as perhaps a positive for Bido, his conscious decision to bare more emphasis on the story, not dependent upon certain camera angles or imaginative methods at keeping our attention. The murders themselves are vicious affairs(..especially the final strangulation using a shower head's extension cord)which correspond with what their past mistake resulted in..the savagery with which the killer conducts his work(..such as the grisly sequence where Esmeralda's face is buried in a beef stew she was preparing on a skillet)correlates with how certain family members fell to the Nazis. Also important is a family photo with faces cut representing lost lives.

The Cat's Victims is reputed to have 'borrowed' all of the elements that have made other Giallos successful. Things such as black gloves, stylish murders, a pumping soundtrack and a gritty look about the film are all present, but unfortunately; so are bad dubbing, terrible acting and a very incoherent plot. Basically, The Cat's Victims is successful for the same reasons that many other Giallos down the years have been successful; but it falls down on things that it could have avoided, given that writer-director Antonio Bido has obviously seen a lot of Giallos prior to writing this one. There's two types of Giallo; namely, urban and rural; and this one belongs to the urban side of the equation. The rural often gives way to more beautiful settings, but the cityscape makes for a better set-up for a mystery. The plot here is muddled, and it follows a young woman who, after witnessing the murderer leave the scene of the crime, finds herself as his next target. Her boyfriend is taking none of this lying down, however, and makes it his business to get to the bottom of the mystery.One of the most important things about Giallo for me has to be the murder scenes. The ones featured here are very brutal and serve the film well. We get treated to scenes including someone having their face scolded on a hot oven plate, a man being strangled in the bath and a great car park scene. The death scenes are said to take influence from Argento's films, and while none of them are actually the same; the brutality is definitely there. The music for this film is a little over the top and doesn't always fit the scene, but all the same; I quite enjoyed it. It's much heavier than the usual music found in this sort of film, and it actually serves it quite well as the pumping sounds get the heart going, which is generally what you want from a thriller. As for the acting...nobody goes into a film like this expecting greatness on that front, and it's a good job because the acting here is quite rubbish. Of course, the bad dubbing doesn't help matters and it can sometimes be hard to tell which is to blame. Still, if you're a fan of Giallo; this is definitely worth seeing. I'd recommend catching the more highly rated ones first, though.

(aka: WATCH ME WHEN I KILL) Much better than Antonio Bido's other giallo, SOLAMENTE NERO (THE BLOOD STAINED SHADOW) Pharmacist in Rome is murdered. A woman who saw the killer leave is then stalked by the killer. Her boyfriend tries to find out why, and stop him. Three more murders follow. They are murdered because they are all tied to the betrayal of a Jewish family to the nazis during WWII.The killings are gruesome but not particularly bloody. In fact Bido goes out of his way to tone down the blood and not look too Argento-ish, imo. This is an excellent non-Argento giallo, one of the best of the 1970s. The plot flows pretty smoothly and it has an element of mystery and surprise at who the killer is. That's a nice touch considering that many Italian giallos reveal too many clues ahead of time, making the killer's identity a foregone conclusion. The music's ok, too. The only big negative is at the very end where the film wraps itself up way too fast, not leaving much for the viewer after the climax takes place. The VCI DVD print is kinda grainy and scratchy, not up to the usual standards Anchor Bay and Synapse have with their releases. Not many extras other than a bio of Bido along with some trailers to some other VCI DVD releases. I'll give it a 6 out of 10 for being better than a lot of the other films of the giallo genre...