The Cat Creature – review

Director: Curtis Harrington

Release date: 1973

Contains spoilers

A made for TV film, I wish I had seen this before submitting a chapter for a forthcoming book as it would have fit right in. It isn’t a bakeneko film, in that it isn’t based on the rough story that underlines that Japanese genre, but it is certainly one for the bakeneko fan. It does suffer for being quite 70s US police procedural but it has some fab ideas – and a devilishly queer subtext even though the studio made Harrington remove the references to lesbianism.

Kent Smith as Frank Lucas

It starts with a car approaching a mansion. It is night and when the driver, Frank Lucas (Kent Smith, the Night Stalker), enters the building he discovers the electric is off. He goes to an office and starts a recording. He is an appraiser brought to the Drake estate by the attorneys and is working at night to meet their deadlines. He just has the special collection to do. He goes there and it is all Egyptian artifacts.

the amulet

He makes a beeline for a sarcophagus and pries it open. There is a mummy inside and he notes the golden amulet she wears, with the likeness of a cat and emeralds for eyes. He puts the lid back on and seems to leave. Out of the shadows comes another man, Joe Sung (Keye Luke, Gremlins 2: The New Batch), who steals the amulet and sneaks off as Lucas returns. Lucas starts to record about the newest part of the collection (the sarcophagus) describing the amulet. He then notices that the sarcophagus is empty, there is the shadow of a cat and cat noises as he screams.

Gale Sondergaard as Hestor

We see Joe in the city, and he enters an occult establishment called the Sorcerer’s Shop. The proprietor, Hester Black (Gale Sondergaard) speaks to him as he tries to sell the amulet as a family heirloom. We discover later that she was a fence and she smells trouble and refuses him – he leaves with the amulet but leaves the briefcase. Hester’s assistant, Sherry (Renne Jarrett), comes through to get paid and she gives her the briefcase. The viewer sees a cat shadow at the window, the shrewder viewer will see a lesbian subtext to the conversation on the part of Hester, who suggests a meal with her assistant. It was after watching the film that I picked up, on IMDb, that the studio had ordered the removal of lesbian aspects from the character, but they certainly are still there in the inferences in the dialogue.

cat eye mojo

Sherry refuses the meal and the offer of a lift home. As she walks down an alley there is a noise but it is a cat knocking over a trash can. Sherry speaks to the animal and then picks it up as a stray she intends to feed. She gets to her apartment and gets the cat a saucer of milk and then notices blood in its fur. The cat stares at her and starts making growling noises. The girl, blank eyed, responds with nods and then walks in a trance to her balcony and throws herself off.

Meredith Baxter as Rena

A woman, Rena (Meredith Baxter), goes to the Sorcerer’s Shop and gets offered Sherry’s job. Meanwhile the police, in the guise of Lt. Marco (Stuart Whitman, Ghost Story: Concrete Captain) has the university send someone who knows about Egyptology to the Blake Estate. That is Prof Roger Edmonds (David Hedison) and he notes that the sarcophagus was for a worshipper of Bast. Marco takes him round pawnshops, looking for the amulet, and they end up in the Sorcerer’s Shop speaking to Rena. Hester comes through and Marco knows her as a fence. When she protests that she has gone straight he responds “Straight eh? .Why you could sleep on a corkscrew.” The double meaning is strong with this one.

John Carradine as the clerk

So, the police manage to track down Joe at a flophouse (run by John Carradine) but are too late, hearing his screams and then finding him dead. So far we have a missing mummy and a cat (apparently) killing people. However, the coroner (Milton Parsons) says the bodies have been drained of blood and this leads to a determination that the worship of Bast was outlawed because the priesthood were committing blood sacrifices to gain everlasting life and could turn into cats. The police, of course, don’t believe that. As for Roger, well he’s falling for Rena (which leads to Hester being sharp with him, as she asks her new assistant out for a meal also).

Egyptian garb

I now need to totally spoil the ending as the lore round this is ahead of its time. Rena is the priestess of Bast and the amulet was to keep her trapped in the sarcophagus. Once removed she has returned to life, she is feeding on blood and trying to find the amulet so that she can’t be trapped again. She seems scarred of cats, and they get agitated when she is near. They also gather near where she is staying. When the amulet is put back on her she suddenly is wearing Egyptian garb and then turns back in to a mummy. Stumbling outside, the cats attack her and reduce her to dust. All this pre-empts the similar lore in Sleepwalkers, and though they turned into cat creatures, rather than cats, and were energy drinkers one can’t help wonder if this had an influence on that story?

cats attack the mummy

As I mentioned at the head of the review, there is something very 70s police procedural about this that does mar a really interesting film. It feels episodic almost and it’s a shame as the performances are solid enough, Carradine has a 2-minuite appearance that is a joy, and they could have got a really (American) Gothic flick out of this. But if you are a bakeneko fan (as this is at least adjacent), a cat vampirism fan or want an interesting take on the mummy genre it is worth tracking down. 5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.