This article is missing information about the film's production, and broadcasting/home media releases.(April 2019) |
The Cat Creature | |
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Genre | Horror |
Written by | Robert Bloch (teleplay) |
Story by | Douglas S. Cramer Wilfred Lloyd Baumes Robert Bloch |
Directed by | Curtis Harrington |
Starring | Meredith Baxter David Hedison Gale Sondergaard |
Music by | Leonard Rosenman |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Producer | Douglas S. Cramer |
Production location | Los Angeles |
Cinematography | Charles Rosher |
Editor | Stan Ford |
Running time | 74 minutes |
Production companies | Douglas S. Cramer Company Screen Gems Television |
Original release | |
Network | ABC |
Release | December 11, 1973 |
The Cat Creature is a 1973 American made-for-television horror film produced by Douglas S. Cramer and directed by Curtis Harrington from a teleplay by Robert Bloch and starring Meredith Baxter, David Hedison and Gale Sondergaard. The film serves as a tribute to the low-budget Val Lewton horror films of the 1940s and also features an appearance by Kent Smith, who starred in Lewton's original classic Cat People (1942) and its sequel The Curse of the Cat People (1944). It originally premiered as the ABC Movie of the Week on December 11, 1973.
Robert Bloch tells in his autobiography how the film was originally planned as a starring vehicle for Diahann Carroll but that by the time the script was completed and approved, Miss Carroll had fulfilled her contractual obligations with the network and he had to rewrite her role. He also writes of other difficulties with the scripting. After being informed the script ran twelve minutes too long, and Bloch's laboriously editing the screenplay to make it run to time, on a viewing of the rushes it was found the film now ran twelve minutes too short. Most of the sets had already been torn down. Bloch had to work out how to put twelve minutes back into the film so it would go out over the network on the appointed date. [1]
Late one evening, Frank Lucas, a licensed appraiser, goes to the home of a deceased client to finish taking inventory of the estate, including ancient artifacts. He discovers a sarcophagus in the basement that holds a mummy wearing a solid gold amulet displaying a cat's head with emerald eyes. Once Lucas removes the amulet from the mummy's corpse, he unleashes a curse imposed thousands of years ago by a cat goddess. He is promptly attacked and clawed to death by a mysterious black feline that howls like a jackal.
Later, Joe Sung, an Oriental thief, breaks into the deceased's mansion, stealing the amulet. Later, he tries to pawn it at The Sorcerer's Shop, an establishment that specializes in occult items. But the proprietress, Hester Black, throws him out.
Meanwhile, Lt. Marco of the local police department is investigating the murder of Mr. Lucas with the expert advice of Roger Edmonds, a professor who specializes in archeology. The theft of the amulet sets off a murderous chain of events involving Black, Lt. Marco, Edmonds, Sung, a salesgirl named Rena Carter, and a homicidal black cat with glowing green eyes.
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John Stanley writes of the film: "Robert Bloch supernatural teleplay with in-jokes about movie cats, but it's pallid stuff. Gale Sondergaard, one time Spider Woman, is a cat goddess claiming victims to possess a golden amulet. Kent Smith, who starred in Lewton's original classic Cat People (1942) and its sequel The Curse of the Cat People (1944), has a cameo. Curtis Harrington needed nine lives to direct David Hedison, Stuart Whitman, Keye Luke, John Carradine; Peter Lorre, Jr. turns up in one scene with a knife in his back. Has the bite of a kitten instead of a jungle marauder." [2]
Michael Weldon calls the film "an "okay attempt to recreate a Val Lewton '40s mood. Gale Sondergaard (who had only appeared in one film since 1949 because of the Communist scare blacklist) is Hester Black, a mysterious shopkeeper. John Carradine, Keye Luke, Kent Smith ( Cat People ) and John Abbott ( The Vampire's Ghost ) are all on hand to remind you of the B-movie roots." [3]
The Face Behind the Mask is a 1941 American film noir crime film directed by Robert Florey and starring Peter Lorre, Evelyn Keyes and Don Beddoe. The screenplay was adapted by Paul Jarrico, Arthur Levinson, and Allen Vincent from the play Interim, written by Thomas Edward O'Connell (1915–1961).
Keye Luke was a Chinese-American film and television actor, technical advisor, artist, and a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild.
The Fly is a 1958 American science fiction horror film and the first installment in The Fly film series. The film was produced and directed by Kurt Neumann and stars David Hedison, Patricia Owens, Vincent Price, and Herbert Marshall. The screenplay by James Clavell is based on the 1957 short story of the same name by George Langelaan.
Gale Sondergaard was an American actress.
Cat People is a 1942 American supernatural horror film directed by Jacques Tourneur and produced for RKO by Val Lewton. The film tells the story of Irena Dubrovna, a newly married Serbian fashion illustrator obsessed with the idea that she is descended from an ancient tribe of Cat People who metamorphose into black panthers when aroused. When her husband begins to show interest in one of his coworkers, Irena begins to stalk her. The film stars Simone Simon as Irena, and features Kent Smith, Tom Conway, and Jane Randolph in supporting roles.
The Curse of the Cat People is a 1944 American psychological supernatural thriller film directed by Gunther von Fritsch and Robert Wise, produced by Val Lewton, and starring Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Jane Randolph, and Ann Carter. It tells a story about a young girl who befriends the ghost of her father's deceased first wife, a Serbian fashion designer who descended from a race of people who could transform into cats. The film, which marks Wise's first directing credit, is a sequel to Cat People (1942) and has many of the same central characters, but the plot is only tangentially related to its predecessor.
Voodoo Woman is a 1957 American horror film directed by Edward L. Cahn and starring Marla English in her final film role, Tom Conway, and Mike Connors. It was released in February 1957 by American International Pictures as a double feature with The Undead.
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The Black Cat is a 1941 American comedy horror and mystery film directed by Albert S. Rogell and starring Basil Rathbone. The film was a hybrid of style: being inspired by comedy "Old Dark House" films of the era as well as the 1843 short story "The Black Cat" by Edgar Allan Poe. It stars Basil Rathbone as Montague Hartley, the head of a greedy family who await the death of Henrietta Winslow so that they can inherit her fortune. When she is found murdered, an investigation begins into who might be the culprit. Alongside Rathbone and Loftus, the film's cast includes Hugh Herbert, Broderick Crawford, and Bela Lugosi.
The Ghost Ship is a 1943 American black-and-white psychological thriller film starring Richard Dix and directed by Mark Robson. It was produced by Val Lewton for RKO Radio Pictures as part of a series of low-budget horror films. The film can be seen as a "low-key psychological thriller", a "suspense drama", and a "waterlogged melodrama"., Russell Wade, Edith Barrett, Ben Bard and Edmund Glover in support.
Tales of Terror is a 1962 American International Pictures comedy horror film in colour and Panavision, produced by Samuel Z. Arkoff, James H. Nicholson, and Roger Corman, who also directed. The screenplay was written by Richard Matheson, and the film stars Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, and Basil Rathbone. It is the fourth in the so-called Corman-Poe cycle of eight films, largely featuring adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe stories and directed by Corman for AIP. The film was released in 1962 as a double feature with Panic in Year Zero!.
House of Frankenstein is a 1944 American horror film starring Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney Jr. and John Carradine. It was directed by Erle C. Kenton and produced by Universal Pictures. Based on Curt Siodmak's story "The Devil's Brood", the film is about Dr. Gustav Niemann, who escapes from prison and promises to create a new body for his assistant Daniel. Over the course of the film, they encounter Count Dracula, the Wolf Man and Frankenstein's monster. The film is a sequel to Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943).
Commander USA's Groovie Movies is an American movie showcase series that ran weekend afternoons on the USA Network.
Mademoiselle Fifi is a 1944 American period film directed by Robert Wise for RKO, in his solo directorial debut. It was written by Josef Mischel and Peter Ruric based on two short stories by Guy de Maupassant, "Mademoiselle Fifi" and "Boule de Suif". The film features an ensemble cast headed by Simone Simon, John Emery and Kurt Kreuger, and was produced by noted B-film producer Val Lewton. The movie is set during a time when the Prussian Army occupied part of France in 1870. Since it was produced in Hollywood during the Second World War, in the same year Paris was liberated from Nazi rule, it contains elements of wartime propaganda, evoking Jeanne D’Arc among other heroes of French history, and holding up French people in occupied territory who follow orders as objects of pity or outrage, depending on their circumstances.
The Haunted Palace is a 1963 horror film released by American International Pictures, starring Vincent Price, Lon Chaney Jr. and Debra Paget, in a story about a village held in the grip of a dead necromancer. The film was directed by Roger Corman and is one of his series of eight films largely based on the works of American author Edgar Allan Poe.
The She-Creature, or The She Creature, is a 1956 American black-and-white science fiction horror film, released by American International Pictures from a script by Lou Rusoff. It was produced by Alex Gordon, directed by Edward L. Cahn, and stars Chester Morris, Marla English and Tom Conway, and casting Frieda Inescort and El Brendel in smaller roles. The producers hired Marla English because they thought she bore a strong resemblance to Elizabeth Taylor.
The Dead Don't Die is a 1975 American made-for-television neo-noir horror thriller film set in the 1930s, directed by Curtis Harrington from a teleplay by Robert Bloch, based upon his own story of the same title that first appeared in Fantastic Adventures, July 1951. The film originally premiered on NBC on January 14, 1975. The film uses the traditional Haitian concept of zombies as resurrected slaves of the living.
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Bill Thurman was an American film and television actor. From the early 1960s until his death in 1995, he frequently appeared in B movies and independent films, often playing "redneck types" or sheriffs. He worked with low-budget-director Larry Buchanan on numerous films, for example In the Year 2889 and It's Alive!. Thurman was one of those Southern actors who specialized in "regional" pictures, films made exclusively for distribution in the Southern States.