[.ca] The Track of the Cat

From Amazon.com:
You never see the title character in William Wellman's Track of the Cat--a black panther terrorizing the land and herd of a frontier family--which is just one of the many bold strokes of this ambitious movie. The intruder claims not merely cattle but also one family member, so middle son (and unquestioned alpha male) Robert Mitchum goes out in the dead of winter to bag the cat. Meanwhile, the tensions inside the ranch house are distilled from Greek tragedy with a large dollop of Freud: harridan mother Beulah Bondi (good performance) wants her sons to remain unmarried, despite the fact that youngest boy Tab Hunter has fallen for a forward lass played by Diana Lynn. Teresa Wright--almost unrecognizable as the spinster sister--speaks for sanity and modern thinking. Track is the second film Wellman made from a novel by Walter Van Tilburg Clark; the first was The Ox-Bow Incident, that equally serious and offbeat Western about lynch violence. For this one, Wellman admitted that one of his motivations was a long-held desire to make a color film that was essentially black-and-white; the snowy backdrops of the exteriors (shot spectacularly around Washington State's Mount Rainier) offered that chance. It's a very exactingly directed movie, both indoors and out, and qualifies as an experiment in mise-en-scene; but experiments in mise-en-scene have rarely translated into box-office success, and Track of the Cat was no exception. One problem: despite Mitchum's robust presence, his solitary journey (which could be covered in interior monologue in a novel) is rather inscrutable. The spiky script is by A.I. Bezzerides, who would do Kiss Me, Deadly a year later. By the way, Wellman later regretted not showing the cat--but he was right the first time. It's an eerie touch in a movie that gets under your skin. --Robert Horton

Haunting Nightmare:
TRACK OF THE CAT is an obscure yet brilliant allegorical tale of a snowbound family whose distorted views on patrimony and perceived lascivious behavior, all shaped by the conniving matriarchal Beulah Bondi, come to a resounding climax after being set into motion by the perceived appearance of a mountain lion. Directed by William "Wild Bill" Wellman the word "perceived" literally describes the haunting images and ambiguous and double-edged dialogue that unfolds. Brothers Robert Mitchum and William Hopper pursue the unseen cat across treacherous snow covered mountainous terrain. Wellman filmed these scenes on location on Mount Rainier. Waiting in the cabin for their return are Tab Hunter (their younger brother), Teresa Wright (their sister), Diana Lynn (in pursuit of Hunter's love) and their parents (Philip Tonge and Bondi). Filmed in WarnerColor director Wellman had cinematographer William H. Clothier essentially film the images in a bleached out and colorless "black & white" effect where everything is shot against a white background. The exteriors of blinding white snow are counterbalanced by the interiors of the cabin whose walls and ceiling are painted bleach white. In contrast, the trees, horses, furniture and actors (all dressed in dark and/or white attire) all appear black against Clothier's white cinematic canvas. The effect is unsettling, unnerving and unforgettable if you have ever seen this film. The result is that of a nightmarish and haunting tale that eludes the viewer's sense of morality in a superficial and dreamlike world of black and white where black and white are constantly being juxtaposed redefining what is apparent just for the moment. The VHS copy is in Dolby Surround stereo.