The Cat o' Nine Tails (1971) DVD

Franco "Cookie" Arnò (Karl Malden), a middle-aged blind man, is out at night walking with his niece Lori (Cinzia De Carolis) when he overhears a man in a parked car mention blackmail. After Franco and Lori return home, the man in the car gets out and breaks into a large medical complex, the Terzi Institute. The following day, the police and reporter Carlo Giordani (James Franciscus) investigate the break-in, Carlo introducing himself to Franco during a run-in.

Meanwhile, Dr. Calabresi (Carlo Alighiero) looks at his files in his office and phones someone and agrees to meet with him. Calabresi tells his fiancee Bianca Merusi (Rada Rassimov) that he knows who broke into the institute and what was taken, but does not wish to tell anyone yet, saying it could mean a "big step forward". At a train station, while a group of reporters are waiting for a celebrity to arrive by train, the man approaches Calabresi and pushes him onto the tracks. Lori reads the newspaper for Franco about Calabresi's "accidental death," describing the picture and telling him that Giordani wrote the article. The two of them go to see the reporter at his office and ask if the picture has been cropped. Carlo calls Righetto (Vittorio Congia), the paparazzi photographer who snapped the picture. Righetto goes back to the original and sees a moving hand-arm in the far left of the frame. As he prepares to print the photograph, he is strangled to death with a cord. The killer takes the photo and all the negatives and leaves. Carlo, Franco, and Lori arrive and find the body, calling the police led by Chief Investigator Spimi (Pier Paolo Capponi).

Carlo and Franco survey the Institute from a distance, the former looking through a pair of binoculars and describing the people leaving the building to Franco: Mombelli, Esson, Casoni, and Braun, as well as Professor Fulvio Terzi (Tino Carraro) and his daughter Anna (Catherine Spaak). Carlo goes to the Terzi home and expresses his desire to talk about Calabresi's "accident". Afterwards, Carlo speaks with Anna, and he evades her questions of what he and her father spoke about. Carlo and Anna drive away together, but soon realize they are being followed by police and drive at full speed to evade them.

Meanwhile, Franco and Lori go to talk with Bianca, and she says that she could not find anything in the house relating to her fiance's death. At a local restaurant, Anna tells Carlo about the institute's research of "chromosome alteration" and "XYY", the extra Y producing a "criminal tendency" in a person. Carlo goes to see Dr. Braun (Horst Frank) at the St. Peter's Club and talks to the doctor about someone being after the institute's secret drug, news that does not seem to vex the doctor.

Bianca takes a taxi to Calabresi's parked car in a lot. Inside, she finds a tiny note with the details of his fatal appointment at the station. She tapes the note to the inside of her locket. Bianca calls Franco and says she knows who killed Calabresi, but will only tell him in person. As Bianca returns to her apartment, the killer attacks and strangles her with a cord. The killer rummages through her purse, but does not find anything. Franco shows Carlo a note he received in which the killer threatens them. Carlo tells Franco he found out that Casoni was fired from his last job, and Braun received a lot of money. Carlo goes to see Casoni and the doctor talks about the institute's "wonder drug" and the "XYY pattern". Carlo then asks Dr. Mombelli about XYY, and the doctor says that everyone in the institute was tested, but their results are confidential.

The killer approaches Carlo's front door and injects two milk cartons, dropped off by the local milkman, with a syringe. Carlo arrives home and brings the milk cartons inside. Anna arrives shortly thereafter and they talk about more about the research and of her results of the XYY test. They end up having sex. Afterwards, Carlo pours a glass of milk from one of the cartons when Franco phones saying that someone tampered with the gas line on his stove, flooding his apartment with methane gas and also may try to kill Carlo. Carlo notices the milk that had bled through the hypodermic needle holes and knocks the glass away from Anna before she can drink it.

The following day, Carlo meets with one of his old friends and informants, Gigi (Ugo Fangareggi), for help in investigating the Terzi break-in which may have been an inside job. Carlo and Gigi break into Terzi's house and discover that Anna is adopted and (via a diary) that Terzi "adored" the woman. Carlo goes to the police station and learns from Spimi that Bianca often met with Braun and that the cops cannot find the doctor. Carlo runs a story in the newspaper about Braun being a suspect in the break-in, and a former gay lover of Manuel (Werner Pochath) (Braun's new lover) approaches Carlo and tells him where Braun is hiding. Carlo goes over to the apartment where he is attacked by Manuel. Carlo wins the fight, and sees Braun lying dead on the couch.

A few days later, Franco contacts Carlo about Bianca's locket and suggests that the note that she found might still be there. Franco and Carlo head to the cemetery and open Bianca's family crypt. Carlo gets her coffin open while Franco waits by the door. Carlo finds the locket and discovers the note behind a metal plate and hands it to Franco. As Carlo closes the coffin, the killer shuts the crypt door, locking him in, and attacks Franco. The killer takes the note, but Franco stabs him with his walking cane (which has a knife hidden inside the cain). While Franco reopens the door to let Carlo out, Lori is hit on the head, by the killer, and put in the back of a car. Franco and Carlo find the taxi which the killer and Lori rode and discover blood in the back seat. The killer calls Franco and tells him to stop investigating the break in and murders or otherwise he will kill Lori.

Carlo goes to the police to report the kidnapping and they go to the Terzi house. Anna comes downstairs with a cloth wrapped around her hand. Carlo tells her he knows about her incestuous relationship with her adoptive father and expresses suspicion about the milk incident (Anna had the glass of poisoned milk for some time without drinking it). But Anna claims that she only cut her hand on a broken vase and was nowhere near the cemetery. Then Terzi arrives and confirms her story.

Carlo and the police arrive at the Terzi Institute and search the place for Lori, but they find nothing. Carlo sees blood dripping from the ceiling in one room. He climbs up to the roof and finds Casoni, who hits him in the face and kicks him to the ground. Casoni, with a stab wound to his stomach, goes to a back room where a bound and gagged Lori is and prepares to stab her. Carlo runs in and tackles Casoni, but is stabbed in the chest. The police arrive on the roof and chase Casoni. Franco stops him with his cane blade and Casoni confesses that he murdered Calabresi and the others to cover up that he tested positive for the XYY chromosome and that Calabresi was attempting to blackmail him. When Franco asks about Lori, and Casoni tells Franco that he killed her. Enraged, Franco swings his cane at Casoni, knocking him through a sky window and down an elevator shaft to his death, just as Lori calls out for Franco.

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970) DVD

Sam Dalmas (Tony Musante) is an American writer living in Rome with his model girlfriend Julia (Suzy Kendall). Suffering from writer's block, Sam is on the verge of returning to America, but witnesses the attack of a woman in an art gallery by a mysterious black-gloved assailant dressed in a raincoat.

Attempting to reach her, Sam is trapped between two mechanically-operated glass doors and can only watch as the villain makes his escape. The woman, Monica Ranieri (Eva Renzi), the wife of the gallery's owner, Alberto Ranieri (Umberto Raho), survives the attack and the local police confiscates Sam's passport to stop him from leaving the country; the assailant is believed to be a serial killer who is killing young women across the city, and Sam is an important witness.

Sam is haunted by what he saw that night, feeling sure that some vital clue is evading him, and he decides to help Inspector Morosini (Enrico Maria Salerno) in his investigation. He interviews the pimp of a murdered prostitute and visits a shop where another of the murdered women worked. There, he finds that the last thing she sold on the day she was murdered was a painting of a stark landscape featuring a man in a raincoat murdering a young woman. He visits the artist, but finds only another dead end. As he makes his way back to his apartment, Julia is attacked by the same black-gloved figure, but Sam arrives home just in time to save her and the assailant escapes.

Sam starts to receive menacing phone calls from the killer, from which the police manage to isolate an odd cricketing noise in the background, which is later revealed to be the call of a rare breed of bird from Siberia, called "The Bird with Crystal Plumage" due to the diaphanous glint of its feathers. This proves important since the only one of its kind in Rome is kept in the Italian capital's zoo, allowing Sam and the police to identify the killer's abode. There they once again find Monica Ranieri, this time struggling with her husband, Alberto, who is wielding a knife. After a short struggle, Alberto is dropped from six stories onto a concrete sidewalk below. As he dies, he confesses to the murders and tells them he loves his wife.

Finding that Julia and Monica have run off, Sam goes after them, eventually coming to a darkened building. There he finds his friend Garullo (Gildo Di Marco) murdered and Julia bound, gagged and wounded. The assailant emerges and is revealed as Monica Ranieri. Sam suddenly realises that he didn't actually miss anything during the first attack; he simply misinterpreted what he saw: the attack he witnessed in the gallery was not Monica being assaulted but rather Monica attacking her husband, who was wearing the raincoat. She flees and he pursues her to her art gallery. There, he is trapped, pinned to the floor by the release of a wall-sized sculpture of wire and metal. Unable to free himself, he becomes the prey of the person he was pursuing. This climax to the mystery, with strong sado-masochistic elements, has the knife-wielding Monica teasing Sam as she prepares to kill him. As she raises her knife, the police burst in and apprehend her, notified by Julia, who had escaped. Sam is freed and Monica is taken to a psychiatric hospital. The victim of a traumatic attack ten years before, seeing the painting of the murdered girl drove her mad, causing her to identify not with the victim but with the assailant. Alberto likewise suffered from an induced psychosis, helping her to cover up the murders and committing some himself. Sam and Julia are re-united and return to America.

Suspiria (1977)

Suzy Bannion, an American ballet student from New York City, arrives late on a stormy night at the prestigious Tanz Dance Academy in Freiburg, Germany. While trying (unsuccessfully) to get someone to answer the door to the academy, she witnesses a young student, Pat Hingle, flee from the school. Suzy makes her way to a hotel, while Pat finds refuge at a friend's apartment in town. Pat tells her friend that she has uncovered something terrible inside the Academy, then locks herself in the bathroom. A shadowy figure appears outside the bathroom window – an arm smashes through the window and grabs Pat. Hearing Pat's screams, her friend runs for help but nobody answers. The attacker stabs Pat repeatedly – even once in her heart – and then slips a noose around her neck. The figure throws Pat through a window that leads into the apartment lobby below and the rope snaps, killing her, just as the falling glass kills her fleeing friend below.

Suzy returns to the academy in the morning and is introduced to Madame Blanc, the vice-directress, and Miss Tanner, one of the instructors. She is then introduced to students Sara and Olga, the latter with whom she has previously arranged to share an off-campus apartment. After a strange encounter with the academy's custodian, Suzy faints during a lesson. She awakens that night to discover that she has been moved into an on-campus dormitory, despite her reluctance. The doctors tell her that she is to be "medicated" with a glass of wine daily, and will have to live on campus for her continued care. Suzy rooms with Sara, and the two become friends.

As the students prepare for dinner, maggots rain down from the ceiling. The students are told this was due to spoiled food being stored in the attic and are invited to sleep in the practice hall overnight while the spoiled food and maggots are disposed of. During the night, Sara identifies a distinctive whistling snore as that of the school's director, who is not due to return to the academy for several weeks.

The following day, Tanner orders the school's blind piano player, Daniel, to leave the academy after his guide dog supposedly bites the custodian's son (who is also Madame Blanc's nephew). That night, Sara hears a teacher's footsteps and counts them whilst Suzy becomes drowsy and falls asleep. Elsewhere, while crossing a plaza, Daniel's dog and Daniel himself sense a strange presence before the canine – without warning – lunges at him and tears his throat out, killing him.

Suzy recalls that Pat had mumbled "iris" and "secret" when they briefly crossed paths. Suzy and Sara go for an evening swim at the school's indoor swimming pool and Sara reveals that Pat had been saying strange things for some time. The two girls search for Pat's personal notes, but they are missing. Suzy suddenly becomes drowsy again and falls asleep before Sara flees after hearing footsteps. Sara is chased by an unseen pursuer and, thinking she will be able to escape on a window ledge, falls into a pile of razor wire. She struggles until a dark figure slits her throat.

In the morning, Blanc and Tanner inform Suzy that Sara has abruptly left the academy. Confused and suspicious, Suzy goes to meet one of Sara's acquaintances in town, the psychologist Frank Mandel. Mandel explains that the academy was founded by Helena Markos, a cruel Greek émigré who was widely believed to be a witch, while Mandel's colleague, Professor Milius, tells Suzy that a coven can not survive without their queen.

Suzy returns to the academy to find that all the other students have been sent out for the evening to see a performance by the Bolshoi. After disposing of her food and wine (which may have been drugged, thus explaining Suzy becoming drowsy), she then hears the same footsteps that Sara heard, Suzy follows the sound to Blanc's office, entering to find the walls painted with the irises Pat had mumbled about. She finds a hidden passage and enters, quietly observing Blanc, Tanner and the staff performing a ritual and plotting Suzy's death. Suzy turns to find Sara's body nailed to a coffin. She sneaks into another room, where she accidentally awakens a shadowy figure who reveals herself as Helena Markos. Helena orders Sara's corpse to rise from the dead to murder Suzy, but Suzy stabs Helena through the throat with a knife she finds, killing Helena and causing Sara's corpse to collapse. The rest of the coven start asphyxiating without their queen, and Suzy escapes just as the academy collapses in flames.