The Cat Creature

1973
5.6| 1h12m| NA| en| More Info
Released: 11 December 1973 Released
Producted By: Douglas S. Cramer Company
Country:
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

When a rich man dies, some items from a collection of his are stolen- an ancient Egyptian gold amulet and the mummy that was wearing it. The police consult scholars from the local University to help with the investigation, which is taking a more serious turn as people connected with the case are killed by wounds that seem to be from a housecat.

Genre

Horror, TV Movie

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Director

Curtis Harrington

Production Companies

Douglas S. Cramer Company

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The Cat Creature Audience Reviews

Hottoceame The Age of Commercialism
ChicDragon It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.
Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.
Chantel Contreras It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.
trimbolicelia I love this early 70's made-for-TV horror film. Chock full of B-movie stars from the 40's in most secondary roles. A lawyer is doing inventory on a deceased millionaire's property in a closed-up mansion. If I had to do that chore I would insist that the facilities be turned on and have a couple of assistants. No way would I be alone in a dark creepy gigantic house at night. I've seen enough B-grade mystery and horror films to know that. Anyway the lawyer finds some illegally obtained Ancient Egyptian artifacts, inadvertently awakens a cursed mummy, and is promptly killed. See what I mean about being alone. Now the mummy takes on human form and is hot to retrieve an amulet stolen from the artifacts that can destroy it. At times spooky but entertaining. Little in the way of seen monsters. In fact more is implied than seen. Nice to see the great Gale Sondergaard as a proprietor of a store selling items of the occult. This film is unavailable on DVD but I was able to obtain a fair quality DVD-R. I hope this film is released re-mastered to DVD VERY SOON. A lot of these made-for-TV films were very watchable and worthwhile. Highly recommended.
MartinHafer When the film begins, Frank Lucas (Kent Smith) opens up a mummy case and finds a VERY strange mummy. Its body is human but the head looks like a cat...much like the ancient Egyptian god, Bastet. Soon, the creature comes to life and kills him! Surely this is a tad unusual!Soon a nice young woman leaves work and on her way home, sees a nice black kitty and takes it home. Little does she know but it's the cat form of that mummy from the beginning of the picture and it soon hypnotizes her and makes her off herself!! This cat is one ungrateful creature, as the woman was trying her best to be kind to the creature...BAD KITTY!!!You soon learn that the dead woman worked at an occult bookstore run by Hester Black (Gale Sondergaard)...a most unusual old lady! She has just hired a woman (Meredith Baxter with dark hair--according to IMDb, it was a wig) to replace the one who just jumped to her death. Next, the detective investigating the case (Stuart Whitman) invites an archaeologist (David Hedison) to help him with the first murder. After all, the empty mummy case was there and Lucas was killed while examining the mummy inside. But the archaeologist notices that the mummy is gone and didn't disintegrate...there was no dust nor bandages. Instead, he tells the detective a goofy story about a cat cult that existed up until the 4th century BC and how its followers had the power to turn into cats at will!!! Yeah...okay....the cat cult.The trail leads the two to Hester's weird occult shop. There they put 2 and 2 together...and realize the dead woman used to work in that shop! So what's next and how will this new shop employee figure into all this? See the film.There is a lot of dopey religious mumbo-jumbo and the plot is silly when you learn the whole story. HOWEVER, at the same time, it's also highly entertaining...in a kitschy sort of way. So although stupid, some folks enjoy a silly horror film and this one certainly IS silly! Enjoyable and outrageous! The ending had me in stitches!!!!!!! Clearly a case where it's so bad, it's good!A WORD OF NOTE: In the film is a tiny part played by Peter Lorre Jr. (the pawnbroker). It is important to point out that he is NOT related in any way to Peter Lorre and Lorre in fact sued to force him to stop using this fictitious name. I have no idea what happened to this jerk....but I am glad he apparently just disappeared from films.
Bloodwank The first made for television collaboration between Psycho scribe and all round pulp horror titan Robert Bloch with classy b-horror veteran Curtis Harrington, The Cat Creature is a charming if inconsequential affair that neither reaches the levels of its influences nor surpasses its status as a made for television production, but is still perfectly good stuff for a dull afternoon left sparing. The outlandish plot sees an antique theft from a deceased collector result in the release of a murderous acolyte of the Egyptian cat goddess Bast, and cop Lieutenant Marco teaming up with Professor Roger Edmonds to figure out what's going on. Then there's occult shop owner Hester Black and her assistant Rena Carter getting involved in things as well. The vibe hearkens back to horror and detection stories of yesteryear, particularly the 1940's and Cat People, with a measured pace and restrained action as well as certain pleasing subtleties. Director Harrington pulls off a few effectively creepy stalking sequences and deploys the titular beast in fun if slightly repetitive fashion. Fortunately the story has a few twists and turns so things never get dull, although they fail to get all that heated either. The cast is fairly well handled and thread things through nicely, Stuart Whitman is suitably gruff and no nonsense as Lt. Marco, Meredith Baxter paints Rena in sympathetic shades of confusion, fear and yearning, while David Hedison takes a while to warm up and loose his awkwardness but is still likable as Prof. Edmonds, a classic academic good guy figuring things out with open-mindedness and learning. Best though is Oscar winner Gale Sondergaard as Hester, crooked and controlling, time soured and radiating low key negativity yet at the same time open and helpful. She steals every one of her scenes and brings an unaffected old fashioned class to things that is perhaps the films greatest asset. It's just a shame that the film doesn't really have enough in the way of atmosphere or shocks (being rather tame even by made for television horror standards), so for all that it has in the way of style and vacant likability it just isn't all that compelling. Certainly watchable, but definitely a film for fans of television horror of the era rather than more casual fans, who may quite reasonably be bored and unimpressed. As a fan of such horror then I give The Cat Creature 6/10 and partially recommend it to other such fans, but it is far from essential.
patlange-4 This is a very silly story, but I loved seeing a very young Meredith Baxter along with gothic/horror film regulars of the 30s and 40s such as John Carradine, Peter Lorre and Gale Sondergaard. Oh, and Charlie Chan's Number One Son Keye Luke.