Cauldron Films Has A New 4K Film Restoration Of Director Sergio Pastore's The Crimes Of The Black Cat Ready A Blu-ray Release On July 06

 

Cauldron Films, with sales and distribution support provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has a new 4K film restoration of director Sergio Pastore’s 1972 giallo thriller, The Crimes of the Black Cat, set for its Blu-ray debut on July 6.

Early in the Italian giallo cycle, before the influence of American slasher films of the 1970s took the pure giallo crime/murder mystery genre into darker waters and transforming the later — and should say, more “commercial” (by domestic standards) — English-dubbed theatrical arrivals as more horror than giallo, there was this 1972 pure giallo release (1974 English-dubbed for domestic consumption).   Classic giallo.

It is precisely because of the later films, most notably from Dario Argento and Mario Bava, that The Crimes of the Black Cat has been overlooked, but with the recent resurgence in interest in the giallo genre overall, Cauldron Films new Blu-ray is perhaps more-timely than ever.

The young fashion models at a trendy Copenhagen fashion house owned by Françiose Ballais (Sylvia Koscina — So Sweet, So Dead, To Kill in Silence, The Italian Connection) are being murdered one by one by one.   The police are baffled.

However, blind sound engineer Peter Oliver (Anthony Steffen — Seven Dollars to Kill, An Angel for Satan, Arizona Colt: Hired Gun, Lady Dynamite, etc.) suspects that something isn’t quite right when the first victim, Paola (Isabelle Marchall), dies of a “heart attack.”   He had just broken up with her and he wasn’t buying the cause of death.

With help of Margot (Shirley Corrigan — Around the World with Fanny Hill, The Devil’s Nightmare, Dr. Jekyll vs. The Werewolf), a friend (giallo alert), he decides to investigate Paola’s death.   In no time the bodies begin to multiply and the police zero-in on him as their prime suspect.

The method of murder here is a basket, when opened there is nothing but a yellow shawl, but when the intended victim lifts the shawl to investigate, out pops a black cat, whose claws have been dipped in curare … death from the cat’s scratches soon follows.

Who is the killer?   What is the reason?   Can Peter avoid begin tagged with the murders before he solves the mystery?   The mystery unfolds — in classic giallo style — on July 6.

Bonus features include two commentary options.   The first features Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson, while the second is from the Peter Jilmstad and Rachael Nisbet “Fragments of Fear” podcast.    There are also two featurettes — “Remembering Sergio Pastore” and “Sergio Pastore: Un Ammirevole Indipendente.”

Viewing options include English-dubbed and Italian with English subtitles.