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| Gale Sondergaard and Meredith Baxter |
Joe Sung (Keye Luke) steals a cat-medallion from a recently opened Egyptian casket, and begins a chain of deaths from a clawed creature that counts him among its victims. The trail leads to Hester Black (Gale Sondergaard), a shady lady who runs an occult shop. Lt March (Stuart Whitman of Eaten Alive), aided by egyptologist Roger Edmonds (David Hedison of The Lost World), investigates the case, which also embroils Hester's new assistant, Rena Carter (Meredith Baxter). While it's fun at first seeing such veteran actors as Kent Smith [Cat People], John Carradine, Luke, Milton Parsons (as a coroner, naturally), and especially an excellent and criminally wasted Sondergaard [The Letter], The Cat Creature is pretty bad, with one of Robert Bloch's least inspired scripts. Tabbie cats are not exactly fearsome animals, for one thing. "Peter Lorre Jr." -- actually a man named Eugene Weingand who pretended to be Lorre's son -- has a small role as a murdered pawnbroker. Baxter is given a pretty embarrassing role to play.
Verdict: Great to see Sondergaard still in top form, but the movie is terrible. *1/2.
Wow, did not know that Sondergaard worked into the 1970s! I first remember seeing Meredith Baxter in the TV show Bridget Loves Bernie opposite her then husband David Birney. Was recently on Pinterest and found a picture of a TV version of Little Women starring Meredith Baxter, Susan Dey, Eve Plumb, William Shatner and Greer Garson and Grandmother March! Will be searching YouTube for that one as well!!
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Greer Garson and William Shatner -- in the same movie! Only on television!
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