Eye of the Cat

source: Eye of the Cat

'Eye of the Cat' is moody and twisty little thriller. Written by Joseph Stefano who also wrote the screenplay of 'Psycho' but don't expect the suspense on that level. The film is shot with style and Lalo Schifrin's eerie score enhances the creepy mood from the start, but the story starts to fall apart and meander in the halfway through the movie. Hairdresser Kassia Lancaster (Gayle Hunnicutt) looks up a young man Wylie (Michael Sarrazin), a nephew of a rich widower, with a plan to murder the woman and get his money. Unfortunately Wylie is terrified of cats, and his aunt (Eleanor Parker) has the animals freely roaming around in her house. Fear of the cats is not the only reason why Wylie is reluctant at first - it seems the murder is not very acceptable to the young man. He persuades the woman to give up the cats and moves in to live with her. Soon his aunt changes the will, so Wiley would become the sole heir of her money. Wiley's brother Luke (Tim Henry) who was taking care of their aunt until this time, seems very nonchalant about the murder plot. There are some edgy moments, some ridiculous and unbelievable thrills and overly melodramatic dialogue. Quite interesting movie if you are into this kind of thrillers.

Remarkable chemistry between leads Michael Sarrazin and Gayle Hunnicut pinctuates this cat-and-mouse thriller. And the camera work is nothing more than breathtaking, setting standards that have since become cliches.

This Hitchcockian horror tale is something of a little gem.A hugely enjoyable romp,which is extremely well made,featuring some scary and horrific moments,but also blessed with some wickedly funny black humour.The performances in the film are good.Michael Sarrazin is enjoyable as the laid back nephew with a cat phobia,and Gayle Hunnicutt is deliciously evil as his scheming girlfriend.Among the films twists and turns theres some great moments,and a nailbiting climax that has *POSSIBLE SPOILERS* Sarrazin in a cat induced catatonic state,and Hunnicutt terrorized by a pack of vicious felines.The film also has the best ever cat-fight in cinema history,between Hunnicutt and Sarrazin's ex-girlfriend.Purrfect!

Above average thriller with plenty of twists , turns and a suspenseful finale . A young man (Michael Sarrazin) and his sweetheart (Gayle Hunnicut) scheme to rob the mansion of the man's resentful but wealthy aunt (Eleanor Parker) . However , the eccentric aunt keeps dozens of cats in her home , and the youngster is deathly afraid of cats . Terror that takes you beyond any fear you've ever known!.Terror that tears the screams right out of your throat! Eye of the Cat (1969) contains twisted mysteries , emotion , thrills, suspense and being compelling and splendidly directed . This is a highly mysterious and cerebral thriller , filled with plot twists , including an unexpected denouement in its ending part . Here the screenwriter of "Psycho" now brings you a tale of terror to test your nerves and it will have you at edge of your seat , that's why it will appeal to thriller/terror genre enthusiasts . From start to finish the complicated intrigue , fast-paced , thrills , and suspense result to be continuous . Hitchcock-style psychological thriller , being surprisingly good and compellingly shot . The original as well entertaining premise is overspread across the movie adding some brief conventional pitfalls . This nice film by producer/director David Lowell Rich was well and professionally made. The main cast is frankly good , Michael Sarrazin as the egoistic young man with dark plans , his gorgeous girlfriend , the wonderful Gayle Hunnicut who plays perfectly his beautiful lover and the bittersweet , sick aunt stunningly performed by veteran Eleanor Parker . Support cast is pretty good such as the newcomer Tim Henry , Linden Chiles and Laurence Naismith . The picture is very well , though sometimes stagy and it has a lot of turns . However , being very entertaining for its successive suspense . This interesting thriller displays a colorful and luxurious cinematography by prestigious cameraman Russell Metty . Being shot on location in San Francisco, Lafayette Park, Gough and Washington Streets, San Francisco, Sausalito, California . And stirring and suspenseful score by Lalo Schifrin , usual composer in the Sixties , and Clint Eastwood's regular . This mystery murder was stunningly produced by various prestigious producers Leslie Stevens, Bernard Schwartzand Universal Pictures .The motion picture was competently directed by David Lowell Rich , habitual TV director and occasionally for cinema . This under-rated producer and filmmaker of the 1960s and 1970s movies called David Lowell Rich was a prolific television director, an expert at made-for-TV movies in the 1970's and worked briefly at Columbia during the late 50's. Rich directed a lot of TV films and movies, such as : Northeast of Seoul , Bolt , A lovely way to die, Chu Chu and the Philly Flash , School for Girls , The Sex symbol, The Chadwick Family , Runaway , Death Race , Convicted and many others . In the 1960s he directed episodes of several cult TV shows including Mission Impossible , and one episode of The Twilight Zone . In the 1970s he got caught up in the disaster movie craze by putting out atleast five disaster films, four for TV , such as : The Concorde...Airport '79 and Horror At 37,000 Feet (1973) combined a flight disaster with supernatural events and wonderful over-acting from William Shatner, most of them failed at boxoffice . However, all the above films, including The Concorde...Airport '79, are fun to watch and , unlike some other films of the disaster genre, were never tiring . Eye of the Cat (1969) rating : 7/10 . Better than average warlike film . Worthwhile watching . It's an inoffensive diversion that will appeal to psychological thriller fans .

***SPOILERS*** Terrifying film set in San Francisco literately about this cat-house that as hoards of feral cats lead by an orange tabby protecting their master the bed ridden and suffering from emphysema Aunt Danny, Eleanor Parker, from her greedy and murderous relatives that are out to do her in an gets their hands on her millions. Headed by Aunt Danny's cat hater, and he has good reasons to, nephew Wylie, Michael Sarrazin,who together with his girlfriend Kassia, Gayle Hunnicutt, plan to get Aunt Danny to leave her fortune to Wylie and write her beloved cats, that are in the hundreds, out of her will. There's also Wylie brother or is it his cousin-I'm not quit sure- Luke, Tim Henry, who also want's to get his hands on Aunt Danny's money but feels that murdering her isn't the right way to do it. He just feels that the old bag doesn't have much time to live anyway with almost 3/4 or her lungs destroyed and is more then willing to wait it out. It's Luke who somehow gets all the cats, over 100 of them, in his car and drives out into the country letting them loose. But somehow their leader known as "Top Cat" the orange tabby stayed behind to protect his master Aunt Danny from Wylie and Kassia's plans to do her in. ***SPOILERS*** It's when Wylie was struck numb by "Top Cat" popping up on him or on his bed that Kassia went out on her own to do in Aunt Danny only to be stopped by a hoard of cats, the ones that Luke seemed to have gotten rid of, led by "Top Cat" showing up to stop her. Trying to escape from the what seemed like the ferocious man eating cats Kassia ended up falling to her death after slipping off a 20 feet ladder by losing her footing on it. the shocking ending had Wylie-whom we thought was killed and eaten by the cats-show up and come clean with his so-called fear of cats in that he in fact used them to do his bidding for him. In having them get rid of both Kassia and Luke by keeping them from shearing Aunt Danny's money with him!

I loved this film! I've seen both versions and I own both versions interesting to see the differences. Just to let u know I have a DVD with theatrical cut and TV cut and theatrical trailer all one DVD great quality. It is a severely underrated film that sends chills up and down spine and Gayle Hunnycutt is awesome!!! The story line is quite simple but the acting is really where it gets you. And if you're afraid of cats STAY AWAY there are PLENTY loll especially in the theatrical version! For instance the theatrical cut has MANY cats giving Gayle her just do! In the TV cut there is one. However the TV one has alternate scenes which, If you are a fan of the fantastic film, you will be quite interested in seeing. I especially love movies like this that barely rely on any blood but the Words and the tension of the story build up the terror. I've definitely given This film a 10 and I feel it definitely deserves it !

"Eye of the Cat" is an overall silly and flawed late 60's horror flick, that's for sure, but first and foremost it's also an inventive, nicely convoluted and delightfully flamboyant late 60's horror flick! Director David Lowell Rich ("Satan School for Girls") and writer Joseph Stefano (forever famous for his "Psycho" screenplay adaptation) deliver an absurd but effectively tense thriller full of twisted characters, unexpected plot twists, morbid humor, atmospheric filming locations and subtle shock-moments! Kassia, the sly hairdresser of a wealthy and chronically ill spinster, discovers that the whimpering lady plans to leave her entire fortune to all her cats, unless her long lost and beloved nephew Wylie would return to her. Kassia promptly tracks down the nephew in question and (physically) persuades him to combine forces. As soon as the testament is updated with Wylie's name as the sole heir instead of the cats, they will murder Auntie Danny and share her fortune. One slight and unforeseen problem, however, is that Wylie suffers from ailurophobia – a terrible fear of cats – and his auntie shelters approximately three dozens of stray cats in her mansion… and these animals are not too keen on leaving! "Eye of the Cat" inconspicuously borrows ideas from other classics, most notably "The Birds" and the French "Les Diaboliques", but definitely stands on its own as a solid and refreshing entry in the thriller genre. There are several unbelievably fantastic sequences, like the opening sequences with split screens and transparent cat silhouettes, and particularly the wheelchair-down-the-hill sequence in slow-motion, which I rewound at least four times! Also typical for the period of release is the vile and unreliable nature of ALL the main characters, so we've got a script full of betrayal and double- crossing until the very last moments of the film. Last but not least "Eye of the Cat" takes place in San Francisco, flower-power capital of the world, in the year 1969. This means that, apart from beautiful sightsee material and touristy snapshots, the film is also chock-full of free-loving and eccentric characters. Protagonist Wylie, for instance, carelessly dumps his girlfriend to tag along with Kassie and later on there's a totally redundant but joyous girl-fight sequence in a sleazy hippie bar. Handsome hunk Michael Sarrazin is excellent as Wylie, and the combination with Gayle Hunnicutt results in pure chemistry. There are three indirect links between this film and the contemporary oeuvre of Alfred Hitchcock: writer Joseph Stefano, obviously, but cat trainer Ray Berwick was also the bird trainer in "The Birds" and the actor depicting Wylie's brother Luke – Tim Henry – is a genuine Norman Bates lookalike! You'll gladly forgive the occasional dull and confusing moments in "Eye of the Cat", as this is truly one of the most curious gems of the sixties.

Eye of the Cat (1969) ** (out of 4) Aunt Danny (Eleanor Parker) is close to dying and at the current time she plans on leaving her money to her cats. Hairdresser Kassia (Gayle Hunnicutt) learns of this and tracks down her nephew Wylie (Michael Sarrazin) so that they can kill her and get her money. The only problem is that Wylie is terrified of cats and the aunt has many of them. EYE OF THE CAT is a film that seems to be a favorite to many people. The film has a small cult following but I must admit that I found the entire film to be rather stupid, laughable and boring. The film clocks in at 101-minutes and that's about thirty-minutes too long because there's really not too much that happens here until the final twenty-minutes of the film. It's a shame that the film didn't turn out better as there are a few interesting ideas but the film is just poorly handles. The biggest problem with the film is the fact that director David Lowell Rich doesn't do much with what he's got. The film is really dragged out and it's rather painfully so because the first hour of the film has pretty much nothing happening. After we learn of the murder plan we get one long dialogue sequence after another and none of them are entertaining. I'd even argue that the characters themselves are all rather bland and everyone is watching to see what happens at the end. Leading up to the ending was just very slow and boring. The final twenty-minutes is when the film finally comes to life and that includes a couple very nice twists at the end. The highlight of the film is a sequence where the aunt, trapped in her wheelchair, finds herself on a hill with the threat of going backwards into the street. This scene makes the movie worth sitting through as it was quite good. The performances for the most part were good enough for this type of film but none of them are what I'd consider excellent. The film's story about Wylie's fear of cats was just a bit too silly in my book and I thought it led to some unintentional laughs. EYE OF THE CAT isn't a horrible movie but there's no question that it's way too bland to be entertaining.

Just saw a beautiful theatrical print of "Eye of the Cat" for the first time last night at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Most of the reviewers have already said what I wanted to say, but I wanted to mention my favorite part of the movie: the menacing and evil music whenever they show the main cat. The cat is just so adorable that when combined with the macabre music it just comes off as laughable. Aside from some campiness, this movie is entirely engrossing and was amazingly shot - the opening De Palma-esquire split-screens are fantastic and San Francisco has never looked so beautiful. It's a crime that this movie isn't on DVD!