Doug McClure stars as Dan Hollis, who returns to his rodeo-riding life with his new wife Mariah in tow. This alarms both his ex-flame(played by the radiant Mariette Hartley) and good friend "Dumpy Doyle", the rodeo clown(played by Jackie Coooper). It turns out that Doyle was once involved with Mariah's mother, and in fact had to kill her because she was a shape-shifter, being able to turn into a big cat, and when recent killings of animals seems to be the result of a big cat, becomes convinced that Mariah is just like her late mother... Predictable episode owes quite a bit to the earlier film "Cat People"(1942), though is nowhere near as stylish or interesting. Not bad really, but inconsequential.
6 Reviews
Cowboy Cat People
BandSAboutMovies4 March 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Danny (Doug McClure, The Land That Time Forgot) is a rodeo star that falls for a young woman who pretty much casts a spell over him. But as time goes on, he starts to wonder if she's a cougar that's attacking the crew. Yes, Ghost Story/Circle of Fear goes for it sometimes and this would be one of those times.
Mariah (Lauri Peters) may be something other than human, a fact that only rodeo clown Dumpy (Jackie Cooper) knows to be true, as he once knew her mother. But no matter how much Danny loves her, she's doomed, an animal trapped in the world of humans.
Mariette Hartley also appears as a past lover of our hero that helps him when things go too far, plus former Red Ryder Don Barry and Richard Benedict show up.
Director Arnold Laven also made two of the Planet of the Apes foreign release movies, taken from the TV series, Back to the Planet of the Apes and Life, Liberty and Pursuit on the Planet of the Apes, as well as multiple episodes of The Rifleman, Mannix, The A-Team and The Greatest American Hero. The script was written by Richard Matheson and William Bast, who wrote The Valley of Gwangi and one of the best TV movies ever, The Legend of Lizzie Borden.
This episode is a silly cowboy version of Cat People, but you know, I'm here for it.
Mariah (Lauri Peters) may be something other than human, a fact that only rodeo clown Dumpy (Jackie Cooper) knows to be true, as he once knew her mother. But no matter how much Danny loves her, she's doomed, an animal trapped in the world of humans.
Mariette Hartley also appears as a past lover of our hero that helps him when things go too far, plus former Red Ryder Don Barry and Richard Benedict show up.
Director Arnold Laven also made two of the Planet of the Apes foreign release movies, taken from the TV series, Back to the Planet of the Apes and Life, Liberty and Pursuit on the Planet of the Apes, as well as multiple episodes of The Rifleman, Mannix, The A-Team and The Greatest American Hero. The script was written by Richard Matheson and William Bast, who wrote The Valley of Gwangi and one of the best TV movies ever, The Legend of Lizzie Borden.
This episode is a silly cowboy version of Cat People, but you know, I'm here for it.
GHOST STORY: CRY OF THE CAT {TV} (Arnold Laven, 1972) **1/2
Bunuel19761 May 2014
This is the second entry I watched from the titular fantasy series – actually following the third in the original scheduling chronology, which I acquired after I had already checked this one out! – produced by affable showman film-maker William Castle; as with the two remaining episodes, I only came across this via a segmented copy on "You Tube"...unlike the series pilot, which was a 'full video'! Although director Laven had infrequently tackled the genre before (notably helming THE MONSTER THAT CHALLENGED THE WORLD and producing THE VAMPIRE within the same year, 1957, both with effective results), I suspect he was chosen for this one on the strength of his expertise in the Western field.
Indeed, here we have a star rodeo rider (Doug McClure) returning with a mysterious bride (Lauri Peters) and, for whose blind devotion, he ends up alienating his former flame (Mariette Hartley) and mentor, now reduced to dressing up as a clown to amuse the crowds (Jackie Cooper). The thing is that the new lady is the daughter of Cooper's own ex-lover whom he had been forced to kill after she metamorphosed into a cougar and attacked him; he fears Peters will take after her, which McClure obviously dismisses. However, whenever the hero is thrown by the animals he mounts (be it an ox or his horse – instinctively mistrusting Peters' feline nature), these are subsequently found with their throats slashed! A male cougar known to be in the vicinity is targeted for the deeds, but it is actually following Peters around, the latter being its female counterpart!
Anyway, after Hartley is herself assaulted and McClure fails to take a pot-shot at the she-cat (for fear it may really be his wife), he decides to heed her advice and leave for his ranch – where she asks him to chain her in the barn for the night (a' la Lawrence Talbot in the Universal "Wolf Man" franchise!), while he has to force himself from listening first to her pleas and, then, her animal growls. Just when he decides to go after the male, which might help Peters from 'turning', Hartley and Cooper pay the couple a visit – the latter lays traps for the ultimate kill, but the former is duped into believing that McClure himself has grown unreasonable when she sees the shackled Peters and frees the woman thus unwittingly also sending her romantic rival to meet with an inevitable destiny.
As can be seen, this is essentially CAT PEOPLE (1942) all over again, without the psychology or the noir stylistics that producer Val Lewton and director Jacques Tourneur had instilled into their similarly modest but infinitely superior effort! Perhaps the worst that can be attributed to this one is that Peters is not only, to my mind, less attractive than Hartley (which begs the question of what did McClure see in her in the first place) but she is intermittently made to display an inhuman tick which is positively ludicrous! Otherwise, as before, the episode is certainly harmless and not unentertaining for what it sets out to be.
Indeed, here we have a star rodeo rider (Doug McClure) returning with a mysterious bride (Lauri Peters) and, for whose blind devotion, he ends up alienating his former flame (Mariette Hartley) and mentor, now reduced to dressing up as a clown to amuse the crowds (Jackie Cooper). The thing is that the new lady is the daughter of Cooper's own ex-lover whom he had been forced to kill after she metamorphosed into a cougar and attacked him; he fears Peters will take after her, which McClure obviously dismisses. However, whenever the hero is thrown by the animals he mounts (be it an ox or his horse – instinctively mistrusting Peters' feline nature), these are subsequently found with their throats slashed! A male cougar known to be in the vicinity is targeted for the deeds, but it is actually following Peters around, the latter being its female counterpart!
Anyway, after Hartley is herself assaulted and McClure fails to take a pot-shot at the she-cat (for fear it may really be his wife), he decides to heed her advice and leave for his ranch – where she asks him to chain her in the barn for the night (a' la Lawrence Talbot in the Universal "Wolf Man" franchise!), while he has to force himself from listening first to her pleas and, then, her animal growls. Just when he decides to go after the male, which might help Peters from 'turning', Hartley and Cooper pay the couple a visit – the latter lays traps for the ultimate kill, but the former is duped into believing that McClure himself has grown unreasonable when she sees the shackled Peters and frees the woman thus unwittingly also sending her romantic rival to meet with an inevitable destiny.
As can be seen, this is essentially CAT PEOPLE (1942) all over again, without the psychology or the noir stylistics that producer Val Lewton and director Jacques Tourneur had instilled into their similarly modest but infinitely superior effort! Perhaps the worst that can be attributed to this one is that Peters is not only, to my mind, less attractive than Hartley (which begs the question of what did McClure see in her in the first place) but she is intermittently made to display an inhuman tick which is positively ludicrous! Otherwise, as before, the episode is certainly harmless and not unentertaining for what it sets out to be.
As TV drama goes, it's awful but as nostalgia, it's a gem!
dusitmark8 July 2018
Doug McClure (my favorite character from 'The Virginian' and the fellow mercilessly parodied as 'Troy McClure' in 'The Simpsons') is a rodeo star with a new bride, Lauri Peters. She's got a feline history and hubby has a feline that all ain't as it should be!
Add Jackie Cooper (the awesome newspaper editor in 'Superman') as the rodeo clown and perennial TV actress Mariette Hartley, and you've got a cast... which in this series is all you need!
This entry in the anthology series is the best of 70's budget television. The 'day is night is suddenly day again' editing trick, the ability to rake in huge stars of the day and an affable ability to take itself too seriously, thereby rendering itself incapable of being taken seriously at all!
Despite the terrible flaws (it was probably only ever meant to be seen once!) the series does draw you in, but that's almost entirely down to the firepower of the cast.
Silly nonsense for anyone under 50... enjoyable nostalgic throwback for the rest of us.
Add Jackie Cooper (the awesome newspaper editor in 'Superman') as the rodeo clown and perennial TV actress Mariette Hartley, and you've got a cast... which in this series is all you need!
This entry in the anthology series is the best of 70's budget television. The 'day is night is suddenly day again' editing trick, the ability to rake in huge stars of the day and an affable ability to take itself too seriously, thereby rendering itself incapable of being taken seriously at all!
Despite the terrible flaws (it was probably only ever meant to be seen once!) the series does draw you in, but that's almost entirely down to the firepower of the cast.
Silly nonsense for anyone under 50... enjoyable nostalgic throwback for the rest of us.
Curse of the cougar people.
mark.waltz26 February 2021
Warning: Spoilers
This episode surrounding a rodeo makes me say "bull!" to the obvious plot line of a killer cat breaking in and attacking the cattle. It's obvious from the get-go what's going on when rodeo star Doug McClure returns to town with a new bride, played by Laurie Peters. She's not really very charismatic, and somewhat jealous of McClure's old girlfriend, Mariette Hartley.
Clown Jackie Cooper isn't crying out "Champ! Champ!" in this, but he looks dreadfully embarrassed, providing some background but not much else. This wastes Hartley completely, so it's obvious as to why she'd go onto polaroid commercials rather than being stuck in episodic wastes like this. There's no real suspense or anything ghostly, and that ends up being simply ghastly.
Clown Jackie Cooper isn't crying out "Champ! Champ!" in this, but he looks dreadfully embarrassed, providing some background but not much else. This wastes Hartley completely, so it's obvious as to why she'd go onto polaroid commercials rather than being stuck in episodic wastes like this. There's no real suspense or anything ghostly, and that ends up being simply ghastly.
Below average
ebeckstr-126 November 2021
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