The Black Cat (USA, 1966) 73 min B&W DIR-SCR: Harold Hoffman. PROD: Patrick Sims. DOP: Walter Schenk. EDITOR: Charles G. Schelling. ART DIRECTOR: Robert Dracup. CAST: Robert Frost, Robyn Baker, Sadie French, Scotty McKay, Annabelle Weenick, Bill Thurman.
Lou, a struggling writer who seems to hit the sauce more than a typewriter, gets a black cat as a present from his girlfriend Diana. Much to her consternation, he spends more time with the feline than with her. He is even oblivious to her lounging around provocatively on a beach towel. Meanwhile, Lou thinks he’s being driven insane by the cat, and kills it by gouging out its eye… only to think later that he’s being taunted by its ghost!
Of course we know early on that this guy is already off his rocker, when he departs from his romantic dinner with Diana (Robyn Baker, who reminds me a bit of Nancy Czar) to introduce his kitty to the toucans, raccoons and monkeys that he keeps in cages! (Some time later, this tosspot even hurls hot coffee on the simian.) After a drunken brawl in the local gin joint, he comes home and tries to strangle Diana. Lillian the maid warns her of his serious daddy issues (“You’re not the man your father was.” “Good!’). All of this should send anyone packing, but nope, she stands by her man, and tries to make things work.
It’s amusing that a Poe adaptation, spelled Edgar Allen Poe in the credits, has a leading man by the name of Robert Frost. In his one-and-done film role, well…. he’s a bit much. Whatever the faults of this programmer, especially its canned soundtrack and plodding second half, it otherwise has a lot of panache, where they really try to make the most of out its far-out premise, with some inventive visual ideas. The opening titles even have subliminal images of cats!
The rich black and white photography by Walter Schenk (also of Russ Meyer’s Mudhoney and Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!) really sets a mood, right from the opening scene of Lou in silhouette walking along a river bank while Poe’s verse is heard on the soundtrack. This item is also quite grisly for its time in a couple of scenes, perhaps even more effective because of its monochrome.
Rockabilly musician Scotty McKay is generously featured in two exciting scenes where his combo plays in a bar (their repetoire includes the hits “Bo Diddley” and “Brown Eyed Handsome Man”). After Lou gouges out his cat’s eye, he imagines the band appearing onstage wearing eyepatches!
Still, for those (like yours truly) who are fascinated by 60s-70s regional productions, this Texas-lensed curiosity is invaluable cinematic archaeology. Many names before and behind the camera are part of the state’s filmmaking community from this time. Director Howard Hoffman wrote Larry Buchanan’s films, Free White and 21, In The Year 2889, Under Age, and The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald (also produced the latter two). Annabelle Weenick (a regular in Buchanan’s films as well as S.F. Brownrigg’s, plus Harry Thomason’s Encounter with the Unknown) appears as a bar girl who tries to pick up Lou. Also, look fast for good old Bill Thurman, himself a veteran of Buchanan and Brownrigg productions, as a bartender.
Something Weird had released this in their Image Entertainment line of DVDs, paired with The Fat Black Pussy-Cat (which will be reviewed here on its own one of these days), with a customarily generous bag of extras, in this case all feline-related. Severin Films would later release the film as part of its Hemisphere Horrors box set (Hemisphere had distributed the movie to drive-ins back in the day). I’m glad it’s available in a high-resolution format for those who want it, but still I’m perfectly fine with the SWV DVD. The widescreen aspect ratio is preserved in a letterboxed format, and the crisp cinematography looks great!
Greg Woods
Greg Woods has been a film enthusiast since his teens, and began his writing "career" at the same time- prolific in capsule reviews of everything he had watched, first on index cards, then those hardcover dollar store black journals, then an old Mac IIsi. He founded The Eclectic Screening Room in 2001, as a portal to share his film love with the world, and find some like-minded enthusiasts along the way. In addition to having worked in the film industry for over two decades, he has been a co-programmer of films at Trash Palace, and a programmer/co-founder of the Toronto Film Noir Syndicate. He has also written for Broken Pencil, CU-Confidential, Micro-Film, and is currently working on his first novel. His secret desire is for someone to interview him for a podcast or a DVD extra.