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THE CAT CREATURE (1973)
I feel like I've written this review before. Here we have yet another made-for-TV spleen-tickler, and this one involves a mummy! Unfortunately, it's a proper mummified corpse that remains in his sarcophagus. He wears a golden amulet around his neck, and that, dear reader, serves as our MacGuffin. An antique appraiser is killed while assessing its worth, but who is the killer? Could it be the all-pervasive black cat that always seems to loiter near a crime scene? Or maybe it's Hester Black, the macabre owner of an occult boutique. I have a feeling that you're not going to watch The Cat Creature, so I'll just tell you that it's neither. Would you believe that the guilty party happens to be Meredith everloving Baxter? She plays the reincarnation of Bast, an Egyptian feline goddess.
Now you're definitely going to dismiss The Cat Creature, but it's not quite as inauspicious as it sounds. From what I remember anyway. Look, it was late at night. Don't give me grief. Or guff. Can you give guff to someone? Oh, bother. My memory recall is bleary, but I know that I was on board with whatever chicanery that director Curtis Harrington delivered to my doorstep. The cast is well-equipped for the job. Gale Sondergaard turns in a standout performance as the wraithlike Black. John Carradine shows up to chat with a dwarf prostitute. Apparently, Harrington included the bantam trollop (or fun-size floozy, if you prefer) as retaliation against the network* for forcing him to excise lesbian overtones from the script. Yeah, that'll show 'em.
Overall, I feel comfortable labeling The Cat Creature as borderline forgettable. I mean, it's fine, but it's a waste of a good mummy.
*Animal Planet, I'm assuming.
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