THE CAT O' NINE TAILS (1971) (Arrow Video 4K UHD Review)

THE CAT O' NINE TAILS (1971)

Label: Arrow Video
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: 15 Certificate
Duration: 112 Minutes
Audio: English and Italian DTS-HD MA Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 2160p UHD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Dario Argento
Cast: James Franciscus, Karl Malden, Catherine Spaak, Pier Paolo Capponi, Horst Frank, Rada Rassimov, Cinzia De Carolis

Synopsis: When a break-in occurs at a secretive genetics institute, blind puzzle-maker Franco Arnò, who overheard an attempt to blackmail one of the institute’s scientists shortly before the robbery, teams up with intrepid reporter Carlo Giordani to crack the case. But before long the bodies begin to pile up and the two amateur sleuths find their own lives imperiled in their search for the truth. And worse still, Lori, Franco’s young niece, may also be in the killer’s sights…

Cat O' Nine Tails (1971) was Dario Argento's sophomore film following the seminal giallo entry The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970). It's the middle entry in what has become known unofficially as Argento's "Animal Trilogy", a trio of films with names of animals in the title which ended with Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971) The films share little in common aside from being stylish Italian whodunits and Argento's artful eye for the macabre, not dissimilar to John Carpenter's "Apocalypse Trilogy".

The film has quite a pedigree, starring American actor Karl Malden (How The West Was Won), featuring a cool, low-key score from Ennio Morricone (The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly) and it was co-written by Italian screenwriting legend Dardana Sacchetti (A Bay of Blood). The story revolves around a blind man named Arno (Malden) who cares for his young adopted daughter Lori (Cinzia De Carolis, Cannibal Apocalypse) and bides his time assembling the daily newspaper's crossword puzzle. One evening while walking down the street with his daughter he overhears two men discussing a blackmail plot while parked in a car outside of a genetics lab, which is conveniently located right next to Arno's apartment. Pretending to bend over and tie his shoe he asks Lori to observe the men in the car, but she's only able to describe one of the men to Arno. Later that night while working on a new puzzle Arno overhears a scuffle outside his window which turns out to be a crime in-process.

The next day Arno is out on the street when he's accidentally knocked over by a reporter named Carlo (James Franciscus, The Valley of Gwangi) near the genetics lab. Carlo stops to apologize and Arno asks him what has happened, the reporter tells him that the previous evening the night watchmen at the lab was knocked unconscious and that someone broke into the Terzi Institute, perhaps to perform some act of industrial espionage. Whatever it is Prof. Terzi (Tino Carraro, Orgasmo) doesn't seem too keen on assisting the police with their investigation. Soon after the break-in one of the lab's lead scientist Dr. Calabresi (Carl Alighiero, Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh) is thrown in front of a speeding train pulling into the station during the high profile arrival of a movie starlet, and his death is caught on camera which makes the front page news. 

The next day Arno's daughter notices the picture of the victim at the train station and recognizes him as none other than one of the men from the car outside the genetics lab the night before. The two seek out the reporter Carlo and the trio set about sleuthing the mystery in classic whodunit fashion as the killer sets out to eliminate those who may be able to finger them as the culprit. Per usual the red-herrings abound in this atmospheric, slow-burn, including the sexy, spoiled daughter of Prof. Terzi, Anna, played by the vivacious French actress/singer Catherine Spaak (Story of a Cloistered Nun). The set-up is your classic Italian whodunit but it soon becomes entangled in an improbable array of twists and turns stemming from the strangest chromosomal motivation this side of well, nearly most everything. It's very odd and not one of Argento's better twists in my opinion, it's a head-scratcher.

The cinematography from Erico Menczer lacks the stunning scope and framing of Argento collaborators Storaro (The Bird with the Crystal Plumage) or Tovoli (Tenebre), but it's an early Argento so there's some great Euro 70's style and set decoration courtesy of set designer Carlo Leva. Love those 70's fashions, the locations and décor, with ornate wall paper and a funky 70's colors. The kills are not particularly elaborate (mostly strangulation) and are lacking those great POV shots Argento went for, but we do get some trademark stairwell shots, cool eyeball close-ups and nifty murder set including a man meeting his grisly end as he goes screaming down an elevator shaft, his hands torn to pieces grasping at the steel cables.

Perhaps not on par with Argento's finest works during this golden era, but this is still a very fine giallo entry that absolutely outshines anything he's done post-Opera (1987) in my estimation. Some say this flick is too slow burning, but maybe because I grew up on a steady diet of slow-burn made-for-TV movies I rather enjoyed the pace. The murders are also not as intricate as some of Argento's more loved films, but it is still an enjoyable whodunit that's wonderfully acted, steeped in atmosphere and masterfully directed.

Highlights for me were a particularly tense scene featuring Carlo getting a close shave from a barber who takes exception to his article implicating that a barber might be murderous maniac, a white-knuckle car chase through the busy streets Italy, and the film's elevator shaft shocker finale, it's all fun stuff that's expertly directed. I am reminded in a way of Lucio Fulci, whose later gore-riddled films brought him much notoriety but it is forgotten that he once also directed suspenseful, less visceral film such as The Psychic and I think Argento's Cat O' Nine Tails is similarly lost amidst his oeuvre, and is deserving more respect for the solid thriller that it is.

Audio/Video: The Cat o' Nine Tails, which was previously issued on B Blu-ray from Arrow Video twice, now gets a UHD upgrade from Arrow with a 4K scan of the original camera negative, framed in the original 2.35:1 widescreen. The image offers a lush layer of film grain with the increased 

resolution bringing out some of the more delicate details in the 70's era clothing and fabric textures, as well as in the close-ups of facial features. The Dolby Vision HDR10 color-grading brings additional warmth to skintones and the highlights are terrific with an improved color-balance. HDR10 also brings deeper more consistent black levels which improve contrast, depth and clarity as well, this is a very pleasing upgrade. 

Sadly no Atmos upgrade but the original uncompressed mono sounds is solid, handling the high and lows with ease and without distortion on either the English or the Italian presentation. It's vintage mono so we don't get a lot of depth or bass, but the dialogue, effects and score are all well balanced and sound great, particularly the Ennio Morricone's score, highlighted by "Lullabye in Blue" which opens the film.

Onto the extras we get the same assortment of extras from the previous Blu-ray, these include the Freak-O-Rama produced interviews with co-writer/director Dario Argento, co-writer Dardano Sacchetti, production manager Angelo Iacono, and actress Cinzia De Carolis. We are also treated to a fantastic audio commentary with Argento-experts and film critics Alan Jones and Kim Newman who bang-out a finely detailed talk-along that is sure to please. The disc is buttoned up with script pages with the original ending, as well as three trailers for the film.

We were only sent a "check disc" for review without retail packaging, but retail copies edition also includes an Illustrated collectors booklet featuring an original essay on the film by Dario Argento, and writing by Barry Forshaw, Troy Howarth and Howard Hughes, a fold-out double-sided poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Obviously Creative, six double-sided, postcard-sized lobby card reproduction artcards, and a reversible sleeve of artwork featuring the original and newly commissioned artwork by Obviously Creative

Special Features:
- New 4K restoration from the original negative by Arrow Film

- 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)

- Restored original lossless mono Italian and English soundtracks

- English subtitles for the Italian soundtrack

- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack

- Audio Commentary by critics Alan Jones and Kim Newman
- Interview with co-writer/director Dario Argento (16 min) HD
- Interview with co-writer Dardano Sacchetti (35 min) HD
- Interview with actress Cinzia De Carolis (11 min) HD 
- Interview with production manager Angelo Iacono (15 min) HD 
- Script pages for the lost original ending, translated into English (3 min) HD
- Original Italian Theatrical Trailer (2 min) HD
- Original International Theatrical Trailers (2 min) HD
- US Domestic Theatrical Trailer (2 min) HD

- Image Galleries: Posters, Italian Lobby Cards, German Promotional Materials, U.S, Promotional Materials, U.S. Pressbook, Soundtracks

- Illustrated collectors booklet featuring an original essay on the film by Dario Argento, and writing by Barry Forshaw, Troy Howarth and Howard Hughes

- Fold-out double-sided poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Obviously Creative

- Six double-sided, postcard-sized lobby card reproduction artcards

- Limited edition packaging with reversible sleeve featuring originally and newly commissioned artwork by Obviously Creative

Cat O' Nine Tails (1971) might not be a giallo quite as stylish as Argento's The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970) or Tenebre (1982), both are high water marks indeed, but is still a first-rate Argento thriller from his early period. It's almost annoying that Arrow Video have once again upgraded a golden era Argento whodunit with a now even more definitive edition than the previous definitive edition, but when it looks so good I think you can easily forgive them... your wallet might not though. 

MALLRATS (1995) (Arrow Video Limited Edition Blu-ray Review)

MALLRATS (1995)

Limited Edition 2-Disc Blu-ray 

Label: Arrow Video

Region Code: A
Rating: R (Theatrical), Unrated (Extended, TV Cut)

Duration: 95 Minutes (Theatrical),122 (Extended), 85 Minutes (TV Cut) 

Audio: English PCM 2.0 and DTS-HD MA 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 

Director: Kevin Smith

Cast: Jeremy London, Jason Lee, Claire Forlani, Shannon Doherty, Ben Affleck, Michael Rooker, Stan Lee

I saw Clerks (1994) in the cinema when I was 21 years old and was an instant Kevin Smith fan for it, I loved his cynical depiction of 20-somethings slaving away for minimum wage at a convenience store with an attitude I could relate to. I was a cynical shit too and I thought customers were annoying, and I was right, especially when your that age and totally self-absorbed. When Smith's sophomore film Mallrats hits the mall movie theater a few years later I was there on day one with a big buttery tub of popcorn in hand, and I loved it, too. A romantic comedy that tells the story of another pair of do-nothings 20-somethings, this time we have Brodie (Jason Lee, TV's My Name Is Earl) and TS (Jeremy London, TV's Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew),  two guys who get dumped by their girlfriends on the same day and end up at the local mall to contemplate life and to win back their girlfriends. At the mall that they attempt to sabotage a live dating show being put on by the controlling father (a bald Michael Rooker, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer) of TS's ex-girlfriend Brandi, who is cheerfully pimping his newly single daughter on the show, with the original idea of sabotaging the show evolving into the guys hijacking it as wise-cracking participants.

Our self-obsessed protagonists are the comics nerd Brodie (Lee) and best friend TS (London), who have been not-unrightfully dumped by their girlfriends Rene (Shannon 

Doherty, Heathers) and Brandi (Claire Forlani, Mystery Men), who have had quite enough of their boyfriends shenanigans. At the mall the guys ally themselves with stoner miscreants Jay (Jason Mewes, TV's Todd and the Book of Evil) and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith, Tusk) who are only to happy to help sabotage the dating show. Along the way Brodie and TS get spiritual advice from a three-nippled fortune teller (Priscilla Barnes, The Devil's Rejects), and irritate the manager of preppie clothing shop the Fashionable Make (Ben Affleck, Chasing Amy), who hates Brodie because he has a "lack of a shopping agenda" and because he wants to screw his ex in a very uncomfortable place, by which I do not mean the back of a Volkswagen. 

Brodie ends up meeting his hero, the legendary comic book creator and pop-culture icon Stan 'The Man' Lee, who arrives at the mall for a signing at a comic shop, and we also meet a host of other strange characters, including a 15 year-old teen girl who is writing a book about the the sex-drive of statutory raping-men, the mall security scourge LeFours (Sven-Ole Thorsen, Conan The Barbarian), Brodie's sassy ex Gwen (Joey Lauren Adams, Dazed and Confused), and Smith's usual troupe of friends including Scott Moser (Clerks), Walt Flanagan (Comic Book Men), Bryan Johnson (Comic Book Men), and Brian O'Halloran (Clerks) in various smaller roles.

The standout here is Jason Lee as the comic nerd Brodie, he is charismatic, sharp-tongued and always ready with a venom-fueled quip, he was sort of my movie hero when I saw this at the cinema, which tells you exactly what a self-absorbed shit I might have been at the time. The film is full of juvenile nerd humor (it is a Kevin Smith movie after all) with extended talk about the sex-lives of superheroes (again... Kevin Smith), but at the time I saw it that's exactly what I was looking for, I too sadly was also having conversation with my friends about the logistics of Superman and Lois Lane having sex. It's was a movie about comic-book nerd culture that was a good ten years ahead of it's time, I'd read comics from a young age but it was never something that was "cool". Anytime I talked about comics outside of a very select group of like-minded friends it was a thing of ridicule, and this was the first film that sort of made comic book collecting and nerd culture cool, which I think has a lot to do with the continuing cult-status of this flick following it's dismal box office when it originally hit the cinema. These days we have Marvel and DC films that cost hundreds of millions of dollars dominating the cinema, back in the mid90's we still only had Superman (1978) and Batman (1989), and absolutely no films about a smart-mouthed comic nerds and fanboys, we only had Mallrats, and the rest of the world had yet to catch up with us, for better or worse. 

Audio/Video: Mallrats arrives on Blu-ray from Arrow Video who present both the theatrical and extended cuts in 1080p HD and framed in the original 1.85:1 widescreen, sourced from a new 4K scan of the original camera negative. The director's cut is an assembly utilizing the new 4K scan alongside inserts from an interpositive, and the TV cuts is comprised of the new 4K scan alongside some video source elements. The new restoration looks fantastic, we get a thin velvety layer of fil grain throughout, and the details are tighter and crisper than we have seen before, the texture of Brodie's brown corduroy jacket comes through like never before. Colors are well-saturated and vibrant, with the brighter colors benefitting from a nice pop, especially the pinks in the final third of it. This is an attractive 4K restoration that presents the film the best it has ever looked ever on home video. 

Audio comes by way of both English 2.0 PCM and 5.1 DTS-HD MA on the theatrical version, the extended cut gets only English DTS-HD MA 5.1 and the TV cuts gets only a English 2.0 Dolby Digital. The uncompressed 2.0 and 5.1 mixes are solid, if not overly dynamic, as with a lot of Kevin Smith flicks it is heavy on dialogue which is what you get upfront, the surround mix expands the score, effects and soundtrack selections from Weezer, Elastica among others, Girls Against Boys and others,  and we get optional English subtitles are provided. 

Spread across the pair of Blu-rays are several comic book long-boxes worth of extras, Arrow carry-over what looks to be most if not all of the extras from the past version of the film on home video, beginning with the audio commentary with director Kevin Smith, producer Scott Mosier, archivist Vincent Pereira, and actors Jason Lee, Ben Affleck, and Jason Mewes. We also get over an hour of deleted scenes and outtakes, the 22-minute 'Erection of an Epic: The making of Mallrats' featurette, the 10-minute 10th Anniversary Q&A with Kevin Smith, the 11-minute Introduction to the Extended Cut by Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier, plus the 4-minute "Build Me Up Buttercup" music video by The Goops, still and artwork galleries, and a 2-minute trailer for the film. 

That's a metric shit-ton of extras already, but Arrow do what they do and give us more of what we're looking for, beginning with a brand new introduction to the theatrical cut from Kevin Smith that runs 13-minutes, a new 30-minute interview with Smith about the making of the film, a 12-minute tribute to the late producer Jim Jacks by Smith, a 10-minute interview with Jason Mewes, a 6-minute interview with cinematographer David Kline, a new 12-minute animated making-of documentary featuring the Minnesota crew members who worked on the film, and a new 4-minute introduction to the TV cut by Smith that explains why Jason Mewes is partially, but hilariously, over-dubbed by someone else on the TV cut. Additionally we almost two hours of VHS-sourced dailies, plus a vintage soundtrack EPK, a brief cast EPK from the set of the film

The two-disc release comes housed in an oversized clear keepcase with a sleeve of reversible artwork featuring a new illustration by Robert Sammelin and the original poster artwork by the legendary Drew Struzan, with the pair of disc featuring separate excerpts of the new illustration. Inside you will find a limited edition 24-page booklet with new writing on the film from film historian Philip Kemp, plus a reversible fold-out poster featuring replica blueprints for ‘Operation Drive-by’ and ‘Operation Dark Knight’ from the film. All of this comes housed in a limited edition slipcase featuring the Robert Sammelin artwork. 

Special Features: (Disc One - Theatrical Version) 

- Brand new restoration by Arrow Films of the Theatrical cut of the film, approved by director Kevin Smith and cinematographer David Klein
- Audio commentary with director Kevin Smith, producer Scott Mosier, archivist Vincent Pereira, and actors Jason Lee, Ben Affleck, and Jason Mewes
- Brand new introduction to the film by Kevin Smith (13 min) HD
- My Mallrat Memories - and all-new interview with Kevin Smith (30 min) HD 
- Mr. Mallrats: A Tribute to Jim Jacks - A newly filmed tribute to producer Jim Jacks by Kevin Smith (12 min) HD 
- Blunt Talk - Brand new interview with actor Jason Mewes (10 min) HD 
- When We Were Punks - Brand new interview with Cinematographer David Klein (6 min) HD 
- Hollywood of the North: A newly produced animated making-of documentary featuring Minnesota crew members who worked on the film (12 min) HD 
- Deleted Scenes - Kevin Smith and Vincent Pereira discuss deleted scenes and sequences originally cut from the film (62 min) 
- Outtakes and behind-the-scenes footage (8 min) 
- Cast interviews from the original set (9 min) 
- Erection of an Epic: The making of Mallrats - archival retrospective with cat and crew looking at the making and release of the film (22 min) 
- Q&A with Kevin Smith - archival Q&A filmed for the 10th anniversary (9 min) 
- The Goops "Build Me Up Buttercup" Music Video (4 min) 
- Theatrical Trailer (2 min) HD 
Special Features: (Disc Two Extended and TV Cuts) 
- Brand new restoration by Arrow Films of the Extended cut of the film, approved by director Kevin Smith and cinematographer David Klein (121 min) 

- Newly assembled TV cut of the film featuring hilarious overdubbing to cover up profanity (89 min) 
- Original Stereo Audio (Dolby Digital) 
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Brand new introduction to the TV cut by director Kevin Smith (4 min) HD 

- Introduction to the Extended Cut by Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier (11 min) 
-Stills gallery of the comic books featured in the film’s opening sequence Scott Mosier and Kevin Smith (4 min)

- Kevin Smith on how Mallrats is an Easter movie (1 min) )

- Dailies (119 min) 

- Still Gallery: Behind the Scenes Stills (147 images)

- Still Gallery: Comics (14 images) 

- Collector’s booklet featuring new writing by Philip Kemp
- Fold out poster featuring replica blueprints for ‘Operation Drive-by’ and ‘Operation Dark Knight’

Arrow Video have done fantastic work bringing Kevin Smith's seminal nerd culture sophomore effort Mallrats (1994) to Blu-ray, we get a terrific 4K restoration, three versions of the film, hours upon hours of extras and the limited edition packaging is pure eye-candy, top-notch stuff. 

Screenshots from the Arrow Blu-ray (Theatrical Cut):

Extras: