Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

MusicChat It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

BallWubba Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

MartinHafer While you might think that "Track of the Cat" is a western (as it's listed as one on IMDb), it really isn't despite its setting and look. Instead, it's more of a soap opera--a saga about a family that is sick to the core.The film begins on a lonely ranch in the mountains--somewhere like Colorado or Wyoming about 1900. On this ranch are three brothers--Curt, Arthur and Harold (Robert Mitchum, William Hopper and Tab Hunter respectively). They live with the rest of their family--the father a spineless drunk, the mother a stern and nasty sort whose bile spreads to those around her (Beulah Bondi) and Arthur's wife (Teresa Wright). A guest (Diana Lynn) is visiting and Harold is lovestruck over her.The home is disrupted when a mountain lion shows up and kills some cattle. Curt is determined to kill the animal--mostly to feed his ego. Arthur accompanies him on this task. However, when Arthur goes from hunter to the hunted, the true dynamics and sickness of the family becomes apparent through the course of the rest of the film. This is NOT a normal or healthy family, that's for sure! And, you also realize that the film really is a family saga that is at heart a soap opera--not a western. Now this isn't a complaint--just an observation about the genre to which this film should be identified. The locale and the mountain lion are just plot devices--the story is really about greed, the disintegration of a family and the decay of the soul.The film is very strange to say the least. While Robert Mitchum is the lead, he really isn't in the film all that much and he plays a very atypical and unlikable sort. And, for the most part, the rest of them play against type as well, though Bondi did occasionally play nasty old matriarchs--and she's mighty nasty here. A particularly strange casting decision was having Carl 'Alfalfa' Switzer play Joe Sam--an ancient American Indian though he was only 26 and not even remotely Indian-like under all that makeup! Add to that the beautiful full color and location shoot, it's obviously NOT a typical film but something very unique. William Wellman did a good job with this one--and the film is quite memorable, if not always pleasant! It's also one of the more unpredictable films of the era that I've ever seen, that's for sure! It's FULL of metaphorical significance and is, like some pointed out, almost like an art film--and a lot like "A Lion in Winter"! Well worth seeing but intensely strange--and a film, believe it or not, produced by John Wayne's production company! Not for everyone, but I sure appreciated and enjoy it.

mark.waltz Almost an old dark house film set way up in Northern California, this somber drama is an analogy of good and evil, control and bitterness. The story concerns the Bridges clan, a truly unhappy family filled with resentments. Pa is a drunk; Ma is a bible thumping hypocrite. The three sons are in constant conflict, while the only daughter has become a dried up spinster. With the youngest son's fiancée visiting, resentments are at their peak. To make matters worse, an unseen wildcat has been stalking their livestock, so the two oldest sons venture out into the wilderness to kill it. This is not O'Neill, Inge or even updated Shakespeare, even if it seems like a filmed stage play. There is a bit of a "Petrified Forest" feeling to it with the cat taking on Bogart's role, metaphorically holding these people hostage. Carl Switzer is totally unrecognizable as the aged Indian handyman. The performances of the others range from weak (Tab Hunter) to melodramatic (Teresa Wright), with Beulah Bondi standing out as the mother with many layers to her character. As for Robert Mitchum, his imperious character is a fascinating look at a man consumed with controlling his siblings, and the lecherous look he gives Diana Lynn (as Hunter's fiancée) gives the impression that he intends to break one of the ten commandments.The real star of the film, however, is the beautiful Technicolor cinematography, with flashes of color appearing in the snow like a distant star in the sky. Mitchum's red coat is so blatantly blood-like it is almost a metaphor for his character. While based upon a novel, the story seems like an old melodrama from the golden age of traveling theater companies. In many ways, it reminded me of "Mourning Becomes Electra" and some recent western film noirs ("Pursued", also with Mitchum), and "The Furies" (in which Beaulah Bondi had a brief role), as well as "House of Strangers" and its 1954 remake, "Broken Lance". The mood of the film will not be for everyone, but if you follow the story closely and are not put off by its sometimes slow pacing, you may find yourself fascinated by it.

alexandre michel liberman (tmwest) It took me until yesterday to begin to like this movie. I could never before accept that a director who made "Yellow Sky", "The High and the Mighty", "Westward The Women" and "Beau Geste" would do what you can call a family drama with a lot of dialog, and present it as a western. When I got to about half the film in my VHS version I found it boring and gave up. I rented it yesterday in the DVD version and decided to give it another try. I loved the cinematography, all black and white with a few touches of color. You can call it the only black and white film made in color. The family drama of all those people dominated by the old mother and her son Robert Mitchum could be the material for a great film. The transformation of Tab Hunter from a man who feels owes the whole world to his brother into an independent man could have been far more dramatic. Still it is worth seeing.

Neil Doyle A disturbingly dysfunctional family is at the heart of TRACK OF THE CAT, which tries to impose symbolic significance on the threat of the creature that is being stalked by the two oldest brothers. But the tale, filmed in monotonous B&W style with only highlights of real color allowed, is somber, tedious and talky.The performances are standard except for Mitchum who does a believable job as the loutish oldest brother. TERESA WRIGHT, DIANA LYNN and TAB HUNTER do fairly standard work, under William A. Wellman's slow-paced direction. It's a stark and brooding story of an isolated farm family living in a remote area and haunted by the symbolic "cat" of the title. Photographed in muted WarnerColor with effective background music by Roy Webb, its somber wintry atmosphere is well captured in the opening scene but becomes tedious before the story reaches a midway point because a real connection with the troubled characters is never really made.All the cast members have done better work elsewhere. It's hard to believe how matronly and severe TERESA WRIGHT became for this role, only a few years beyond her delicate work as a leading lady in many films of the '40s. WILLIAM HOPPER is effective as Mitchum's outspoken brother.All the interiors are filmed in a style that seems more like a filmed play than a film. BEULAH BONDI as the embittered mother manages to give some gravitas to the story. ROBERT MITCHUM gives his usual sturdy and colorful performance as the oldest son hellbent on tracking a killer cat. TAB HUNTER as the weakest younger brother has less to work with.A fairly interesting, harsh, character-driven tale that should have been much more effective with better dialog and family dynamics.