Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (1972)

Original Title: Il tuo vizio è una stanza chiusa e solo io ne ho la chiave

Directed by: Sergio Martino

This review contains a severe Kitty Carnage Warnings!

Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains spoilers for this film!

Synopsis: A loose adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s story The Black Cat. Oliviero (Luigi Pistilli) is a sadistic, unproductive writer obsessed with the memory of his deceased mother and her ornate dress.

Featured Feline: Oliviero lives in a dilapidated mansion with his wife Irina (Anita Strindberg), their maid Brenda (Angela La Vorgna) and a longhair black cat named Satan who used to belong to his mother.

Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key - extreme close up of longhair black cat Satan's golden eyes
Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key - longhair black cat Satan

A painting of Oliviero’s mother in her dress with Satan is a main feature of the home.

Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key - painting of Oliviero's mother and black cat Satan

During an orgy in which Oliviero invites a group of local hippies in for some debauchery, Satan seeks Oliviero’s lap.

Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key - longhair black cat Satan looking out from beneath tablecloth
Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key - longhair black cat Satan being petted on lap

The cat frightens Irina, who is abused and humiliated by Oliviero in front of the guests. To get back at him, Irina puts on his mother’s dress, infuriating Oliviero.

Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key - longhair black cat Satan on couch
Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key - longhair black cat Satan hissing on couch

Irina owns doves which Satan enjoys stalking. Actually the poor cat actor seems largely distressed, panting outside the coop.

Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key - longhair black cat Satan panting outside coop

Kitty Carnage Warning! And no wonder when Irina takes a broom to the poor cat, shooing him away from her precious birds. This is not done gently, either. She swears she is going to kill Satan one day.

Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key - longhair black cat Satan near broom outside coop

Authorities suspect Oliviero in the murder of his mistress. Satan is present throughout the film, watching the proceedings in the house.

Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key - longhair black cat Satan outside
Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key - longhair black cat Satan
Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key - longhair black cat Satan

Oliviero continues to obsess over the painting and even turns the hippies away.

Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key - Oliviero Luigi Pistilli petting longhair black cat Satan
Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key - longhair black cat Satan being petted

Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key - longhair black cat Satan being petted by Oliviero Luigi Pistilli animated gif

One night Brenda hears Satan meowing. She goes to investigate and finds the dress. After putting the dress on, she is murdered by an unseen assailant. Irina finds her and is shocked, especially to see Satan near a pool of blood.

Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key - longhair black cat Satan near pool of blood

Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key - Irina Anita Strindberg shocked to see longhair black cat Satan by pool of blood animated gif

Irina and Oliviero hide Brenda’s body inside the wall of the cellar as Satan watches. Oliverio tells Irina to wash the dress, as he refuses to bury it with Brenda’s body.

Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key - longhair black cat Satan on barrel

The arrival of Oliviero’s niece Floriana (Edwige Fenech) further complicates issues. She is not afraid of Satan.

Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key - Floriana Edwige Fenech on bed with longhair black cat Satan

Finding out that Irina had the dress sent out to by dry cleaned, Oliverio locks her in a closet where Satan attacks her.

Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key - longhair black cat Satan about to attack Irina

Kitty Carnage Warning! Later Irina finds out that Satan killed some of her doves. She attacks the cat and stabs him in one eye.

Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key - longhair black cat Satan on lawn with feathers

Eventually Irina kills Oliverio and hides his body in the cellar. She continues to be haunted by Satan.

Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key - longhair black cat Satan walking in dark by doorway

Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key - longhair black cat Satan by walking in dark room by door animated gif

When the police show up at the end, they hear the sound of the cat inside the cellar wall and break it open, finding the body of Oliviero alongside Satan.

Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key - longhair black cat Satan with missing eye dead in wall with Oliviero Luigi Pistilli

The overly convoluted plot adds nothing to Poe’s original story, although the scenes with the cat do follow the original narrative more closely.

Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key - extreme close up of longhair black cat Satan's golden eyes
Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key - movie poster with Satan and Floriana Edwige Fenech

Final Mewsings: If cat actors could read Poe they would never agree to play the lead in these movies.

Many thanks to Yayoi Neko and Wahrhaftig for letting us know about the cat in this film.

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