mark.waltz This is all about Gale Sondergaard, the veteran Oscar winning actress, blacklist survivor and brilliant portrayer of sadistic villainy. Back on the screen after 20 years of obscurity thanks to the McCarthy era, she's continuing where she left off in "Anthony Adverse", "Maid of Salem", " The Letter", "The Blue Bird", "The Black Cat", "The Spider Woman", "Road to Rio" and the many other classics where she was the screen's perfect "dark lady". There's something delightfully nefarious about her character of Hester Black who runs a specialty store for the dark arts, hiring Meredith Baxter after her previous clerk commits suicide. With the police on her trail, she seems calmly involved in murder, putting the naive Baxter in danger. David Hedison, as a professor of the supernatural, gets involved as he makes an obsession over solving this mystery. Pretty silly and melodramatic, this is raised a notch by that sweet disposition which is obviously hiding years of secrets and agendas. Stuart Whitman is the determined police investigator who won't stop, even under the threat of tarot card death. This really keeps you glued, thanks to a sinister looking black cat who yowls like a plaster statue moving its snarling mouth open and closed. Sondergaard is basically playing an older version of the character she played in all those spooky comedy's of the 1930's and 40's. John Carradine has a rather pointless cameo. Other veteran actors (Keye Luke and John Abbott) are wasted as well. Sondergaard ends up being the entire show, looking like she's having a ball.

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.

drystyx This was a silly story to begin with, which is bad considering all the big name stars involved.It is horror for chicks, the ultimate chick flick horror film, because all the gorgeous young women are killed, and only old ladies live, and all the older guys are killed, and none of the young guys.In other words, it's the fantasy for women, and the ultimate turn off film for heterosexual guys.There really isn't any more this film is about. Hedison is a well meaning hero, who stumbles upon an evil beautiful woman.Most of the roles aside from Whitman and Hedison are little more than cameos. There isn't anything developed. It puts new meaning to the word "lame".

bernie-50 A mysterious collector has died. It is up to the appraiser to go into the old dark house with only a flashlight and a fountain pin. He finds a mysterious mummy with a unique amulet of solid gold that has the head of a cat with emerald green eyes on it.While the appraiser goes for his tape recorder a sneak thief (Keye Luke) pilfers the amulet. In the morning the mummy is gone, the amulet is gone, and the appraiser looks like he was attacked by a common house cat.The Police Lt. Marco (Stuart Whitman) recruits the assistance of Prof. Roger Edmonds (David Hedison) from the local collage to help make heads or tails of the situation.