Sunday, March 7, 2010

bell, book and candle (1958)

Pyewacket.
A beautiful witch Gillian (Kim Novak) lives in Greenwich Village with her familiar Pywacket the cat. She takes a fancy to Shep (James Stewart) and casts a spell to make him fall in love with her. Unfortunately all doesn't go to plan and Gillian has to learn some hard lessons before she can win his heart.

breakfast at tiffany's (1961)

Cat.
'Poor slob without a name', as Holly Golightly the central character says of her pet cat. In both the book and the film the cat has a central role, especially the end, when Holly throws Cat out of a taxi into the rain, in a fit of peak. Here the film differs from the book as Holly realises the error of her ways and is tearfully re-united with Cat.
The cat with real personality was Orangey, a star of numerous films including Rhubarb and Comedy of Terrors.

nude for satan (1974)

Unnamed.
Black cat that surprises a woman staying in a remote castle, in this frankly bonkers and very confusing film.

shadow of the cat (1961)

Tabitha.
Tabby sits patiently as her owner reads The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe, and then whilst a man murders the woman. You know the cat isn't going to stand idly by as its source of easy food is snuffed out, and this is so. The cat manages to exact its own revenge on the perpetrators of the deed in its own way.

cat people (1942)

Unknown
A Serbian immigrant to America believes that she will turn into a murderous cat if she gets intimate with a man. A real problem when she marries! She meets the lucky man whilst studying a black panther in New York zoo. He then buys her a kitten, but has to take it back to the pet shop when the otherwise cute cat snarls and hisses at her. Her love rival seems to get on better with cats, and we briefly glimpse her's at one point.
John Paul Jones
But whilst she fears intimacy, jealousy gets a greater hold over her, when she suspects her husband of turning to a work colleague. One that seems to like the office cat.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

the tingler (1959)

Unknown.
Cat held by Vincent Price's character, for experiments in capturing 'the tingler', a creature that lives in us all and feeds off fear.

Monday, March 1, 2010

the house of dracula (1945)

Unnamed.
Appears three times during this entertaining horror, but only to hiss at first Dracula and thereafter at his owner whenever he turns into a Mr Hyde type character.