Cat in the Cage (1978)

Director:

Tony Zarindast

Writers:

Richard Vasquez (writer)
Tony Zarindast (screenplay)

Genre:

Thriller

Tagline:

A torrid tale of passion and murder.

Plot:

A young man returns to his rich family's estate after a stay in a mental hospital. He finds that his father has married his deceased wife's nurse...

Plot Keywords:

Animal In Title | Beautiful Woman | Female Nudity | Independent Film

Cast

Behrouz Vossoughi	...	Bruce Khan (as Bruce Vaughn)
Colleen Camp	...	Gilda Riener
Sybil Danning	...	Susan Khan (as Cybil Danning)
Mel Novak	...	Ralph Desmond
Frank DeKova	...	Rachid Khan
Ursaline Bryant	...	Ezil
Tony Bova	...	Ali Khan
Paul Harper	...	Detective Hoffman
Aram Katcher	...	Detective Pino
Nathan Roth	...	Doctor Parrish
Paul Durazzo	...	Herman the Foreman
Patrick M. Wright	...	Policeman at Cabin (as Patrick Wright)
Frederick Franklain	...	Milkman
James Bacon	...	Police Captain
Tony Cesere

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:16 | UK:18 | Australia:R

Definitely one of kind (but I'm not sure WHAT kind)

A young man gets out of a mental institution and returns home to his wealthy father, his beloved cat "Sampson", and his sexy but wicked stepmother (Sybil Danning), the latter of whom may have murdered his mother and is scheming with the shady chauffeur (Mel Novak) to do the same to his father.

God knows this is not a good movie. Nor does it even fall into that almost mythical category of "so bad, it's good", but I found it entertaining because it is so randomly plotted and jaw-droppingly incompetent that it seems to violate the very laws of cinematic narrative structure (and perhaps even Cartesian logic). I think the cat "Sampson" is supposed to be a metaphor because he completely disappears about halfway through the movie. Or maybe the cat is a metaphysical incarnation of the protagonist's equally disturbed brother who shows up out of nowhere halfway through the film (just in time for an overlong 70's style car chase). Or maybe the feline actor just walked off the set prompting a quick re-write--it's kind of hard to say.

Mel Novak is pretty good actually, and Sybil Danning...well, she takes her clothes off a lot. Both of them exit prematurely, however, and the film is left in the hands of uncharismatic male lead and Colleen Camp, who is normally a talented actress but plays a completely superfluous character here (although she DOES get to belt out the risible theme song). This is definitely a one-of-a-kind movie; maybe not the good kind, but. ..