The Cat Creature Pussyfoots Around Lesbianism

Where to begin with all of the metaphorical lesbian double-entendre that director Curtis Harrington cheekily supplies in The Cat Creature (1973)? And how to explain that some of it was purely unintentional, as the openly gay Harrington had no way of knowing then that Meredith Baxter was not quite the woman that networks — and viewers — imagined her to be. (And then there’s the smaller matter of her hunky love interest, David Hedison, whose lookalike daughter Alexandra became one of Hollywood’s most visible A-list lesbians in a time when there were few.)

This pulpy tale, adapted by Psycho author Robert Bloch from his own material, is thin on story and long on atmosphere. It begins with appraiser Frank Lucas (Kent Smith) recording a voice memo for the attorney that hired him to inventory a wealthy and secretive dead man’s estate. “This place gives me the shivers,” he says of the darkened mansion before descending into its cellar, which contains a priceless collection of ancient artifacts. Prying open a sarcophagus, he finds a mummy wearing a striking gold amulet with emerald eyes.

Frank is swiftly murdered by what appears to be an ordinary domestic short-haired cat, a fate privately feared by many a lesbian. Through a convoluted series of events, the amulet ends up in the hands of Joe Sung (Keye Luke), later described by Lt. Marco (Stuart Whitman) as a “part-time handyman, full-time wino.” Sung tries to sell it to Hester Black (Gale Sondergaard), the elderly proprietress of The Sorcerer’s Shop, a small magic concern with beaded curtains and a caged owl named Lucifer. “I wouldn’t touch it with a 10-foot pole!” she replies after admiring it.

Hester, who is far and away the film’s best (and best-acted) character, has better things to do than haggle with a thief — she has designs on Sherry (Renne Jarrett), a young employee about to head home for the evening. Sherry rebuffs not only Hester’s dinner invitation but also her offer of a ride, a fateful decision that ends poorly after she takes off on foot and encounters the bloodthirsty cat. Her absence leaves Hester in need of a new sales clerk, a position that attracts a suitably attractive applicant, Rena Carter (Meredith Baxter, a cipher in an unwieldy red wig).

Rena admits she’s clueless about witchcraft, black magic and Satanism, the chief interests of Hester’s clientele. “No problem, my dear,” Hester reassures her with a smile. “Once you learn the stock, it’ll be just like working in a delicatessen, without having to smell the garlic.” Hester, with her regal bearing and long, claw-like acrylic nails, doesn’t waste much time in trying to arrange after-hours plans with her newest employee. Nor does Roger Edmonds (Hedison), an archaeology professor who was the closest thing to an Egyptologist the local university could lend Lt. Marco.

Edmonds is shown the sarcophagus, which he notes bears both claw marks and a symbol of Bast, the cat goddess of Lower Egypt. (My gay aunts, one of whom is an armchair Egyptologist, had a cat named Bastet. I could easily imagine her being enthralled by The Cat Creature as a kid.) An officer hands Lt. Marco, rumpled and orally fixated in the manner of Columbo, a note, grimly read as the score swells just before a commercial break: “They finished the preliminary examination of the corpse. The wounds on the throat were made by teeth and claws. There were cat hairs on the body.”

The death toll mounts as the action scatters in all directions. Marco and Edmonds chase the deepening mystery of the cat, the amulet and its meaning; Edmonds chases Rena, even once it’s apparent she lacks anything resembling a personality (Baxter is no Simone Simon, but few actors are); and Hester keeps one step ahead of the investigation thanks partly to her tarot deck. Her powers of perception are keener than those of Edmonds, who fails to detect her resignation when she learns of his date with Rena. Instead, they go back and forth about tarot and she gives her rival a reading (like Miss Cleo, another lesbian) that predicts his death.

In her scenes with the handsome professor, it’s hard to separate Hester’s personal jealousy from her professional duties. Sondergaard has mischievous fun with her flinty role. I particularly admired her performance because she played two parts: the Hester a more mainstream audience interprets in much the same way as Edmonds, and the version truer in spirit to Harrington’s more subversive read on her character. The network ordered her de-gaying, as Harrington documented in his autobiography (more on that below), but even before reading that chapter of his book I felt her inclinations were clear.

There’s more to The Cat Creature’s gayness than Hester’s character and the cat symbolism. It’s inherent in Harrington’s sensibility. Whether it’s a butch Sorcerer’s Shop patron (she says nothing with her mouth but plenty with her posture and cigarette), or a brief but enjoyable appearance by gay-from-outer-space actor John Abbott as one of Edmonds’ colleagues, you recognize Creature as a film that recognizes you. One of Hester’s exchanges with Lt. Marco sums it up, perhaps unwittingly, in reference to her criminal past.

Marco: One of the sharpest fences in the business.

Hester: Oh, now really, Marco. You know that’s all over and done with. I’m straight.

Marco: Straight, huh? You could sleep on a corkscrew.

the cat creature (1973)

A cult figure best known for his films with Shelley Winters, Harrington also brought spryness — and slyness — to Killer Bees, the classic 1974 telefilm starring Gloria Swanson and Kate Jackson. Bees is, in some ways, of a piece with Creature: Jackson, like Baxter, is mostly tasked with playing it straight, but each is allowed a moment of morbid comic release in her final scene. Of minor interest, Harrington’s forays into homicidal insects and domesticated animals didn’t end there, with Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell still to come in ’78. Sadly, and to my eternal regret, he was never commissioned to make a horror movie about a parakeet. I bet he could’ve made that work.

Additional screen caps available on Instagram.

Streaming and DVD availability

The Cat Creature hasn’t been released on DVD and isn’t currently on subscription streaming services. Last year I found a grainy YouTube upload; now there’s a superior presentation courtesy of Creature Features.

… But wait, there’s more!

Last week I received a terrific note from a reader who sought assistance in identifying a TV movie from their childhood. In my response I neglected to ask for permission to reproduce their story here, so I hope he or she appears in the comments to reminisce — I think you’d all get a kick out of what they had to say. In any event, the plot instantly sounded familiar. It wasn’t a movie I’d seen yet, but it had been on my watchlist since last Halloween: The Cat Creature. Thank you to that reader for putting this back on my radar, and give your spam filter a look if you didn’t receive my reply.

Finally, as mentioned earlier, Harrington covers the making of this film in his memoir Nice Guys Don’t Work in Hollywood, a great read for anyone interested in his career. I won’t spoil all the fun by including the part where he despairs of the network wanting to cast Patty Duke as Rena, but here’s the lesbian-centric passage and some astute political commentary.