The Bloody Pit #60 - SEVEN DEATHS IN A CAT'S EYE (1973)

Just in time for the creepy season John Hudson and I dive back into the films of Antonio Margheriti for a gothic horror that deserves to be better known. Set in a huge Scottish castle in which the ancestral family is both broke and (possibly) mad you just know that all kinds of shenanigans are going to be gotten up to! Adding to the complications are a mysterious black-gloved killer, a beautiful visiting cousin that is being pushed onto a handsome family member's...... member...uuuhhh...with an eye toward an heir, a gorgeous 'French' teacher that seems to lounge around the place waiting for sex, a family doctor with an eye to claiming some of the wealth tied up in the estate and an honest-to-God killer gorilla (called an orangutan throughout the film) running around the place occasionally scaring the hell out of people. Sounds like a couple of episodes of The Monkees, don't it?

Luckily, Margheriti knows what he's doing with all these bizarre elements so the film is entertaining and not confusing. Of course, with a black gloved killer roaming around the castle SEVEN DEATHS IN A CAT'S EYE has been called a giallo and we discuss my uncomfortable view the film's place in the genre. We also talk about the variability of the 'Scottish' accents; the beautiful Jane Birkin; the castle locations; the use of the titular cat; the very odd vampire legend the film posits; the tricks of doing gothic tales in color and bloody straight razor murders. We also speculate about the contributions of legendary English language dubber Ted Rusoff beyond voicing the Priest character. Rusoff must have been important because he gets an onscreen credit at the beginning of the movie.

The show can be reached for comments or suggestions at [email protected] where we love hearing how many more ways we can insert pointless 1970's pop culture references into each episode. I'm not sure Hudson needs any help in this effort but all notes will be happily read. The Bloody Pit has a FaceBook page where interesting things occasionally get posted if you would like to join up. This episode ends with a new song from Queens of the Stone Age called 'Head Like A Haunted House' and an outtake that has us talking about The Village People. We are strange fellows!