Starring Michael Sarrazin, Gayle Hunnicutt, Eleanor Parker, Tim Henry, Laurence Naismith
Directed by David Lowell Rich
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)
A young woman makes a proposition to a drifter who's left his wealthy aunt's home, to return and get placed in her will so she can murder her and share in his fortune, but they don't account for his paralyzing fear of her cats.
This film has an interesting pedigree with longtime actress Parker as the suffering aunt, a script by Joseph Stefano of Psycho and The Outer Limits, and colorful photography by Russell Metty and Ellsworth Fredericks. There's also an eclectic score by Lalo Schifrin, and good performances by Sarrazin and Hunnicutt, as the fun-loving bohemian Wylie and the young woman who propositions him, a completely cutthroat female villain. I think how effective the film is at suspense and horror is largely dependent on whether you're a cat lover or the reverse. As a cat lover myself, I never really bought that the cats on screen were all that menacing, even though the filmmakers play up Wylie's fear from a childhood trauma, and jack up growling and savage screeching sound effects when the cats are fed from a giant bowl of raw meat. There is a rather shocking scene for cat lovers to endure when Wylie accidentally flings a cat into an electric contraption. On the other hand, if you're the type that's always been unnerved by cats, I can see you being much more unsettled by the film, although it's a bit tamer than later gorefests involving aggressive felines. I think it's a well put together film- it's just the kind that would be most effective on a certain type of audience.
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