Review: Track of the Cat

Set in the mountains of North California in the late 1800s, a family of cattle farmers battle freezing, snowy weather and an almost mythological panther that is picking off the family’s cattle. The rather unpleasant and stubborn Curt (Robert Mitchum) decides it’s high time to go in search of the panther and kill it. Beulah Bondi and Philip Tonge play the miserable family elders, with Tab Hunter, William Hopper, and Teresa Wright filling out the rest of the family. Diana Lynn plays the intended love of the family’s youngest (Hunter). Carl ‘Alfalfa’ Switzer plays an old Native-American named Joe Sam.

 

Of all the films in the ‘Classic Western Collection’ DVD box set I purchased cheaply a while back (I know, no one buys DVDs anymore except me), this 1954 William A. Wellman (“The Ox-Bow Incident”, “The High and the Mighty”) film was one of the most highly touted and anticipated by me. I don’t know what everyone else was seeing here, this is shoddy, stagey, and dull. There’s a very obvious use of a set here, and with an abundance of talk it mostly comes off like a filmed play despite some outdoors scenes. The lack of an on-screen presence for the title character also gives off this impression, as does the staging of the characters in group shots throughout. I found it hard to look past, this film is inferior stuff and totally beneath its two biggest stars.

 

Also not very convincing is 26 year-old Carl ‘Alfalfa’ Switzer bizarrely cast as an elderly Native American. The makeup is awful even by 1950s standards, and Switzer ends up jarringly looking like something out of a horror film. He’s a white guy made up to look even whiter to play a Native American. Think about that. A lot of people seem to love the deliberately monochromatic ‘colour’ cinematography by William H. Clothier (“The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”, “Big Jake”). I can’t say it was of any particular interest of mine nor did I see much point to it, it’s hardly noir.

 

As for the two things that attracted me to this film, two of my all-time favourites Robert Mitchum and Teresa Wright aren’t used to their advantage here, I’m afraid. Don’t get me wrong, their performances are solid, just unmemorable. Mitchum is well-cast but spends a good chunk of the film either off-screen or talking to himself, and he could play this role in his sleep. It’s not much of a role and one feels that the film would’ve been vastly superior had it actually delivered on the promise of its title and spent the bulk of the film with Mitchum tracking the damn cat. It would’ve been nice to see the cat or at least see the damage it causes. Even for 1954 this film could’ve given us at least a little blood. It’s a bit unrealistic even for the time, and the filmmaker is seemingly more interested in Douglas Sirk-esque melodrama. At least Sirk would’ve given us some colour. As for the lovely and talented Ms. Wright, the trademark independent/stubborn streak is there, but this time she’s older and somewhat glum. Playing an ‘old maid’, the bitterness is apt and the performance is fine, it’s just not terribly compelling. Furthermore her role isn’t large enough to warrant second billing in my opinion. Her best moment is when she gives her religious mother a dressing down. It’s the kind of thing Wright specialised in when her character has had just about enough of someone and can hold her tongue no more. Otherwise she’s stuck in a one-dimensional, frumpy part. Poor Tab Hunter, not the world’s greatest actor I’ll admit, gets zero chance to make an impression here as he gets precious little of the film’s overly abundant dialogue. Worst of all is an actor named Philip Tonge as the drunken grandfather. He’s a miserable old windbag and gives an overblown performance I quickly tired of. The best performance by far comes from a pitch-perfect Beulah Bondi as the manipulative family matriarch, though for me the highpoint overall is the music score by Roy Webb (“Bedlam”, “Notorious”).

 

An also-ran picture with some big names, this is boring, talky, stage-bound stuff that never grips you. It’s a C-picture at best. And that’s a dreary, miserable C-minus at that. You know something has gone wrong when at least three of the cast members deliver solid performances and it still misfires. Based on a book by Walter van Tilburg Clark (“The Ox-Bow Incident”), the screenplay is by A. I. Bezzerides (“They Drive By Night”, “Sirocco”).

 

Rating: C-