I love hearing true stories in which cat adopts a person, essentially walking up to them, or even going directly into a house, and going, “You there, human. You are going to take me in and submit to my every whim.” We lost our beloved male cat, Sebastian, this year and we had found him as a kitten walking in the middle of a road one day. I may be naive, but my senses have been cranked to eleven as of late, hoping another cat may enter our lives in a similar manner. I worry that, if I’m not fully alert, I may miss such an opportunity if one ever comes about again.
In 1985’s Cat’s Eye, a cat makes an arduous journey starting in an undisclosed rural location, to New York City, then Atlantic City and, finally, Wilmington, North Carolina. All this is to answer a distress call sent to him psychically from Drew Barrymore. Once he arrives at her house in Wilmington, he just runs right in through the open front door.
A different story takes place in each of those identified locales, making this an anthology film akin to Twilight Zone: The Movie or the ones cranked out by Amicus Productions in 70’s. Then there was Creepshow, which had two stories written by Stephen King. All three of the stories in Cat’s Eye are by King. Two of these are adaptations of short stories which had appeared in collection Night Shift, while the third is original to this film.
The picture secures its identification with the author early on, as the cat which is the star awakens to be pursued by a rabid St. Bernard which is obviously Cujo. I guess director Lewis Teague earned the right to do this, as he directed that picture. In the pursuit, the feline is nearly hit by a car with a bumper sticker identifying it as Christine, as if we didn’t grasp this easter egg just from the vintage make and model. Later, James Woods will watch some of David Cronenberg’s The Dead Zone on TV while desperately craving a cigarette.
This is the first story, the one set in NYC, which is where the cat finds itself after having escaped in a shipping truck. Alas, it is almost immediately caged by Tony Manufo’s thug who is employed by Quitters, Inc., where Alan King employs extreme measures in a smoking cessation program. This agency gives new significance to the idea of somebody determined to stop smoking even if it kills them, given this is actually a Mafia operation.
Woods is their latest client, and his orientation includes a demonstration of what awaits if he doesn’t quit tobacco. In King’s office, a curtain parts to reveal a room like something out of the Saw pictures, on where the cat jumps each time it touches an electrified floor. If Woods is caught smoking even once, his wife will go into the box. A second offense will find his daughter in it. A third will result in his wife being raped. We don’t know which offense was incurred by the shaking man Woods sat next to in the lobby prior to this orientation, but that man’s wife is furious and disheveled when she leaves.
All of that seems excessively cruel, an odd spin on the idea that you only hurt the ones you love. In my opinion, it would have been more effective for Woods to be put in the box but, alas, it is Mary D’Arcy whom we will see receiving the treatment. Something I find more disturbing than the actual scene is how, when I saw this on the big screen in its original run, there were guys in the audience laughing and cheering during this.
I definitely didn’t see any humor in that moment then or now, though there is one scene which balances horror with intentional humor. This is when Woods goes to a party where everybody seems to be smoking, including the small children who are ashing into the punchbowl. A couple of women become dancing cigarette packs. A boor played by James Rebhorn has a great number of cigarettes going at once and is blowing the smoke out his ears.
What really sells this first story of the trilogy is Woods’s performance. Similar to Nicholas Cage, he was such a good actor in his early years that it makes his apathetic role choices in later years that much sadder in comparison. Alas, unlike Cage, I don’t foresee a late career return to form. That is a shame, as the best performances of both actors balance a nervy intensity with a certain self-deprecating charm.
But the real star here is the cat, which will escape the offices of Quitters, Inc. and make its way to Atlantic City. This next story will suffer somewhat because it feels similar to the one preceding it, and I suspect that is largely because both feature Mafia figures who use their power to devise cruel punishments for others.
In this case, we have Kenneth McMillan, who will force former tennis pro Robert Hays to walk around the outside ledge circumnavigating his penthouse apartment. This is because Hays had tried to run off with the man’s wife. If Hays’ doesn’t do this, he will be arrested on drug charges for the large bag of cocaine McMillan’s minions (McMinions?) planted in Hays’s car. If Hays can walk that ledge all the way around the building and back to the patio, McMillan will surrender to the man his wife and a large sum of money.
Before setting a foot onto the ledge, Hays asks McMillan if he has ever welched on a bet, something which makes henchman Mike Starr suppress a spit-take from the other side of a window. Given Hays doesn’t hear this, I wondered how Starr heard this conversation. Given a gun is brought out to encourage Hays to undertake the challenge, I wonder why the drug frame-up was even necessary. Also, it is will come as no surprise McMillan, indeed, will welch on a bet.
There is only so much one can do with such a story, though there are some inventive touches. Some of the more interesting obstacles include a pigeon with an odd taste for human blood, and a giant, illuminated logo, the letters of which will make traversing one part of the ledge especially treacherous. Curiously, the whole setup reminded me of the cover of the 10cc album Ten Out of 10, which has a bizarre visual which never fails to make my skin crawl.
The cat will next flee to Wilmington for the final story, one that feels like it should be the centerpiece, yet it always falls short of the mark in my esteem. There is a troll which is stealing Barrymore’s breath each night and she is at risk of suffocating if the cat cannot save her from this monster. Given the old myth about cats stealing baby’s breath, this feels like an especially odd setup.
The main obstacle is Candy Clark, as Barrymore’s mother. She is dead set against having the cat around, ostensibly because it poses a risk to her daughter’s pet parakeet. Frankly, I think she just hates felines, as she seems too enthusiastic when trapping it in a box and taking it to the city animal shelter. There is a camera tilt upwards when she is taking that box into the facility, and the resulting shot of grey smoke pouring out of the chimney chilled my bones.
Fortunately, that is not the fate which awaits our four-legged hero, who will do battle with a four-inch-high troll. This monster has a wavy dagger and a hat like a jester’s, which distracted me from the movie, as I spent too much time wondering if this thing was hundreds of years old and from Europe. If so, how did it get here? And why does it steal children’s breath anyway? It will eat the parakeet, so it doesn’t need breath for sustenance.
The pursuit of the parakeet will be long and loud, and that this doesn’t awaken the girl is one of many moments which were so unbelievable as to temporarily distance myself from the movie. A final battle through which she is alert will have the troll spinning on record player, the result of which has it learning a harsh lesson about centrifugal force. The result is a bit gory but, like a couple of other brief moments earlier in the runtime, it is fitting for its PG-13 rating.
The music on the record playing is a cover of The Police’s “Every Breath You Take”, a clever choice even if the cover is readily discernable from the original. The same track was used earlier in that party scene, as King lip syncs the lines about how he’ll always be watching. I’m not sure which is scarier, the metallic silver jumpsuit he’s wearing or the impossibly long plume of smoke he blows into Woods’s face.
Another cover used is “96 Tears”, and I developed a fascination with this song at a young age from its appearance here. Alas, this is another functional, but sub-par, version. I suspect the original could not be used primarily because of legal battles over the catalog of ? & The Mysterians which weren’t resolved until the end of the century.
A final song in the picture is a horrible title tune over the end credits as sung by Ray Stephens. This is not the novelty tunesmith who had a 70’s hit with “The Streak”, as that guy was Ray Stevens. Stephens was, at this time, the lead singer of The Village People. Make of that what you will. All I can say is it is no surprise the title song for this movie wasn’t a hit single.
Another very 80’s element of the production is the visual effects, but they stand up to a fair amount of scrutiny today. The troll has a face which was accomplished through the mechanical work of Carlos Rombaldi, who had done the same for E.T. The body is an actor in a four-foot-tall suit, which is then incorporated into real environments via a combination of blue-screen and oversized versions of mundane objects which I tend to label as “maximatures”. For the middle story, areas around the ledge were achieved using what are called hanging miniatures and, in the rare moment they are not completely seamless, they are rather charming. That the ledge itself was built roughly twelve feet off the ground really sells the effect.
As with any film of this type, Cat’s Eye draws the most scrutiny for how its feline star was treated. Through commentary on the blu-ray, I learned the electrified room scene was accomplished by puffs of air from the underside of the grate, startling the cat. I’m glad it was that, and not electrical shocks, yet I’m still not thrilled something was startled to get a reaction, as the cat can’t possibly know what this being used for. Apparently, it was easy, and far less intrusive, to get it to climb up a tree to Barrymore’s window, as the only incentive necessary was food. I’m not sure how to lure a new resident to our home, though there is a vacancy. I won’t confess who has been leaving bits of cat food on the sidewalk and steps leading up to our front door, but I wouldn’t mind if somebody took that as incentive to make themselves at home.
Dir: Lewis Teague
Starring Drew Barrymore, James Woods, Alan King, Kenneth McMillan
Watched on Warner Bros. blu-ray