THAT DARN CAT! (1965)

Not to be confused with That Darn Human Centipede!, THAT DARN CAT! is the occasionally funny and surprisingly dark story of an indoor-outdoor cat who accidentally crosses path with a kidnap victim who is about to be murdered!  During their brief moments together, the poor woman scratches the letters HEL on the back of her watch and slips it on the cat’s neck.  The cat’s owner (Hayley Mills) notices the message and then before you can say “Tomb Mold should release a funk album called “Give Me Sum of Dat Old Tomb Funk’.”, there’s a pack of FBI agents following that darn motherfucking cat all over town.

THAT DARN CAT! is a fun film.  I got a few laughs out of it and was especially blown away by the impressive supporting cast.  You’ve got everybody from the Bride of Frankenstein (Elsa Lanchester) and vampire hunter Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall) to the Riddler (Frank Gorshin) and Trudy Kockenlocker’s dad (William Demarest) up n dis bish!  As far as the leads go, I always enjoy seeing Hayley Mills and Dean Jones during their Disney years and they are both great here, as usual.

Medium pace, great vintage fashions (especially on Hayley), solid acting by a fantastic cast, okay story that should have been sillier and not as dark, vintage cars, zero nudity, zero gore, a few genuine smiles, not enough cat action, zero cheerleaders, not enough wide shots of the Disney backlot, a bus from “Stupidsville”, a bizarre drive-in movie theater that is showing footage of people surfing with no apparent story.

For what it is, THAT DARN CAT! is totally worth watching for anybody interested in such things.  I'd be down to watch it again.  Fun fact: according to Wikipedia, THAT DARN CAT! was the 5th highest-grossing film for the year.

Remake - That Darn Cat (1997)

THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975)

"The darkness must go down the river of night's dreaming."

Late one evening, during a thunderstorm, a young couple have a puncture on a secluded road. They walk to a nearby castle to look for a phone. Once inside, they discover that the occupants are quite unusual.

If I could only watch one movie for the rest of my life, it would be THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW. It’s always been there for me and in times of bottomless sorrow (like now, for example, locked in a nightmare beyond human endurance) it brings me a small form of joy.

I’m sure that if I wasn’t extremely depressed I could write many, many pretty words about Rocky Horror, but I cannot right now. Maybe one day. As for now I just wanted to make a simple post about my favorite movie of all time.

I’m sure that tonight I will fall asleep once again in a heartbroken state protected by its soft glow. The music at low volume singing a little. I haven’t quite let it die and we sleep together like that with our secret pact and it's nice enough to make a man weep, but I don't weep, do you?

Some posts I made about Rocky Horror on my other blog.