What I Mean When I Say "GIALLO!"

For the last few days I've been avoiding watching new films, probably in a subconscious effort to sabotage this blog, which seems ludicrous and is just like me.  To circumvent my own stupidity I submit to you this film from 1973 by Italian director Antonio Margheriti (here credited as Anthony M. Dawson), the name used by Eli Roth's character in the final scenes of Inglourious Basterds.  If you know anything about this period of Italian Cinema, you know it was dominated by a genre of pulpy, murder/mystery, exploitation films called Giallo.  The name comes from the little pulp paperbacks that many of the films are based on which were printed rather cheaply with yellow covers.  Giallo is also the Italian world for Yellow, as it were, so the name just stuck.  Enough history, let's get into Six Deaths In The Cat's Eye.

The story is set in a small Scottish village and follows a series of murders taking place near a castle and the MacGrieff family who dwell in it.  According to legend (in context of the story) when a MacGrieff kills one of his kin the deceased will become a vampire.  All of the murders seem to be witnessed by the family cat which lurks around the film letting the audience question whether or not it is somewhat of an ethereal being itself.

Corringa (played by Jane Birken, mother of Charlotte Gainsbourg), the niece of Lady Mary MacGrieff, is the principal lead of the story.  She arrives at Castle Dragonston where her Aunt and Mother are arguing about the future of the castle.  A dinner scene introduces the rest of the characters, a Priest, a seductive French Teacher, a secretive Doctor, and Lord James MacGrieff (played by Hiram Keller), the supposedly 'Mad' son of Mary.  Motive is set almost immediately for murder but as is a staple of good Giallos, we are constantly made to guess until the climax of the film.  That being said, the film is in no way a typical Giallo, instead having a very Gothic horror feel to it similar to the Hammer Studios pictures of the same era.

One of the things I really like about the film is the atmosphere.  The film makes great use of shadow and motivated light sources.  One light source in particular is an oil lamp with a multicolored hood that throws out an array of red, green, yellow, and blue at a few crucially creepy moments thereby emphasizing the terror (and sometimes eroticism) portrayed by the actors.

Many Giallo's are well known for the exploitative look at sex and violence.  As the years progressed and the technology progressed many of them got gorier and some practically devolved into hardcore pornography.  That is not the case of this film.  While the blood does certainly flow, it is not without a macabre sense of taste.  The weapon of choice in the film is a straight razor to the jugular and unlike a Fulci film the emphasis is not on the tearing open of the neck, but of the blood flying from the wound.  Whether this was due to makeup or time constraints is debatable, but it was quite effective regardless.

While many Giallo's suffer from censorship and long term neglect, this film has been preserved quite well and can be found on DVD in both English and Italian languages.  The English dubbing is particularly interesting because many of the side characters, who were dubbed over, have thick Scottish accents including slang.  One such appearance is of Birken's partner, the late the Serge Gainsbourg, as a Scotland Yard inspector.