The Cat Creature

Here's a film with excellent genre credentials -- a screenplay by Robert Bloch; direction 
by Night Tide/Queen of Blood's Curtis Harrington; a cast that includes Gale Sondergaard, John Carradine, Milton Parsons, Kent Smith, Keye Luke, John Abbott, and none other than Eugene Weingand himself. The story centers on what is apparently an Egyptian curse activated by greedy LA treasure hunters. 
This film looks really good on paper, anyway. 

In practice, it's pedestrian and predictable, certainly not one of Curtis Harrington's better efforts. I tried to pitch it at our last Monster Kid meeting and was summarily rejected by host Arch Stanton, whose memories are sharper than my own. So the wife and I sat down for a very short 72 minutes and revived our own recollections.  The print was... decent but not terrific; another DVD-R burn from a VHS direct  copy off TV. We just sort of let it slide along, and the experience wasn't unpleasant  but it wasn't much of a thrill either. 

Seeing old genre friends scattered throughout the cast was the biggest enjoyment.  For the first half hour, the film was an exercise in what "Special Guest Star" would  be killed off next (body count is pretty high, six dead in 72 minutes). John Carradine  has a couple of lines in a brief scene as a sleazy hotel deskclerk; Kent Smith has a couple of lines as an auditor of the estate that contains the cursed Egyptian; Keye  Luke, billed as "The Thief" actually has a name and a couple of lines trying to pawn  off his unknowingly cursed pendant that has a nasty Cat Creature chasing it. Milton Parsons steals the show as an  extremely weird Deputy Coroner. And Eugene Weingand is billed under his newly-acquired name, Peter Lorre, Jr., probably to  bring in more viewers who don't know the backstory. 

The main leads are Meredith Baxter, already starring in Bridget Loves Birney, and only a few months away from marrying her co-star. David Hedison is the Hero, with Stuart Whitman as his police backup. Most everyone play their roles straight, so there is no hint of sarcasm or weariness. 

It certainly isn't one of the high points in made-for-TV film history, but it isn't one of 
the ultimate dawgs, either. Curtis Harrington at this point is two years away from 
one of his better efforts, The Dead Don't Die. 

... Reed (Classic Horror Forum)