Page 48 - Sports Energy News, Cornwall, Issue No 129

48 Issue #129 October 2023
In Reel Time
Catnip
By Nikolai Adams
earing the end of the Golden
NYears of Universal horror,
The Cat Creeps (1946), directed
by genre specialist Erle C. Kenton
(Island of Lost Souls, The Ghost of
Frankenstein, Who Done It?), is the
dying whisper of the old haunted
house murder mystery film (at least
until Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!
brought back the excitement for kids
in the late 1960s). In fact, this would
be the last horror movie produced by
Universal until 1951’s The Strange
Door – excluding Abbott and
Costello meet Frankenstein, which
is more of a spoof of horror movies. efforts, but because of its minute
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What started with horror films
(followed closely by comedy
spoofs) like The Cat and the Canary
(1927 and 1939), The Old Dark
House (1932), The Black Cat (1934
and 1941), The Ghost Breakers
(1940), Hold That Ghost (1941),
was then met with a supernatural
element found in Cat People (1942),
The Curse of the Cat People (1944),
and She-Wolf of London (1946),
to name but a few, The Cat Creeps
pulling from all of these sources to
make a, dare I say it, ‘copy- cat’ of
the previous filmography.
At a brief fifty-eight minutes,
this is definitely one of the weaker
runtime, it is a brisk and moderately as well as his personal secretary,
entertaining adventure. Filled with Connie Palmer (Rose Hobart), and
ominous shadow and light, the private detective Ken Grady (Paul
short-of-narrative story follows Kelly) to help fix the situation.
disgruntled but ambitious newspaper Onto them, the pesky newspaper
journalist Terry Nichols (Frederick man, along with trusty sidekick
Brady) as he is strong-armed into
‘Flash’ Laurie (Noah Beery Jr.),
investigating his girlfriend’s father, forcibly join them for the boat ride
Walter Elliot (Jonathan Hale) –
out. . . only to learn soon after their
who is in a senatorial race, after his arrival that their ride has been set
newspaper has received a letter from on fire, and the key witness has
one Cora Williams (Vera Lewis),
been murdered by one of their
claiming that she has found two very own. The sole other person on
hundred grand and that this might
the isle is the cryptic Kyra Goran
finally be the proof needed to finger (Iris Lancaster), the supposed
Elliot for a fifteen year old posited daughter of the murder victim who
murder – that was ruled suicide due
continuously claims that the soul of
to lack of evidence. Adding to the the recently deceased Cora Williams
thrills, the location is a secluded
now inhabits the black cat. . . who
home on a very private island.
will eventually lead us to the guilty
Looking overly guilty almost party.
immediately, after Nichols questions Though the movie never truly
his possible future father-in-law, ratchets up the horror, and the
the man rounds up his daughter
narrative feels rather rushed and
Gay (Lois Collier), lawyer Tom poorly explained, the stylized
McGalvery (Douglass Dumbrille)
Continued on page 54