Search - The Black Cat / The Fat Black Pussycat on DVD

Beat This

R. Epstein | USA | 01/01/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"THE FAT BLACK PUSSYCAT - Ed Wood production values and nonsensical screenplay make this film ripe for the trash heap but the overall experience does have some merit. The camp value of Greenwich Village bohemia makes this quite watchable if you like watching that scene (I do). In between the stereotypes there are one or two genuine moments of Village life and uh, village people (no pun intended, the film is gratuitously homophobic). The agenda is obviously anti-beatnik, but like many of the anti-Hippie films that will soon follow, the 'normal' protagonist doesn't mind dipping his own 'big toe' in their lifestyle, so to speak! And most of the cops in this film make Jack Webb seem like Marlon Brando. There's some humor that works, like a middle-aged cop reciting beat poetry by reading his police handbook with the word "man" at the end of each sentence. Also, the sex and violence in this film was pretty cool and pretty racy for its day (check out the deleted scenes for even more 'shocking' footage). One gets the feeling that somewhere beneath the idiotic plot and annoying cat there might have been a good movie here, but one would have to dig pretty deep. Okay, very deep. It's essentially a crappy movie but there is some reward in sitting through this. Look closely and you'll find a few famous faces when they were still unknowns, like Hugh Romney (soon to become 'Wavy Gravy' of Woodstock fame), Leonard Frey (Boys in the Band and Fiddler on the Roof), and in the deleted scenes, Hector Elizando (billed as Hector Elizanda). Perhaps I'm being too kind to this flick, but the other flick on the DVD [THE BLACK CAT] was such a dreadful bore (basically a 10-minute Twilight Zone with 60 minutes of B movie padding); that TFBP seemed brilliant in comparison. The extras on the DVD are sparse in quantity but make up for it in quality: the trailers are worth searching out, and beefy stripper Margie La Mont has stolen my heart - or my stomach anyway. BLEH!!!"

Cool Pads

Jonathan Schaper | London, Ontario Canada | 11/13/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I give "The Black Cat" 3 stars and "Fat Black Pussycat" 4 stars. The "Black Cat" is another run of the mill Poe adaptation set in more modern times. The only really interesting thing in this barely adequate time-waster is the jazzy lounge club where the lead male hangs out. Groovey."The Fat Black Pussycat" is the name of another interesting (and real) club, which is the real subject of the second feature. Originally, FBP was a lightly comic murder yarn which, taking place mostly at a beat club, was largely an excuse to poke fun at the beats and didn't involve any real cats or much of a mystery story. If you watch the deleted scenes while watching the full movie, you get a good idea of what the original film was like (nice light fun). If made in England, it would have easily fit into the "Carry On" series. However, due to the apparent lack of commerciality of the film (I guess people expecting to see a mystery would be disappointed that the killer revealed at the end is someone not seen previously in the film) it was greatly altered with the addition of new scenes. Now, there is a cat with a psychic connection to the killer, a copycat killer, and new beats who are given bigger roles. The new scenes don't even try to match the scenery of the original film. There is one scene of a police commissioner hanging out with two women which didn't make any sense to me until I realized he was supposed to be at the same club at the same time as the detectives. Also, the shocking surprise ending doesn't make any sense until you realize that two of the people in it are supposed to be the main stars seen throughout the movie, only they're played by two people who look nothing like the original stars! The female actually looks far more like one of the murder victims, who, like the female in this last scene, was also doing sociological research on beatniks, which made it especially confusing to me at first. And the TV reporter in the new scenes keeps getting everyone's names wrong.The alterations almost reach Ed Wood level in their ineptitude, and the new storyline makes absolutely no sense! For example, how does the forensic psychologist know that the killer is either gay or lesbian, BUT only when committing murders, AND has a psychic connection to a cat, all just from looking at a female murder victim with missing shoes!?!? Fun, fascinating stuff.Beyond the deleted scenes, this one is short on extras, but the trailers are great."

Meow!

Greg Goodsell | Bakersfield, CA United States | 11/15/2002

(3 out of 5 stars)

"THE BLACK CAT is a fine piece of regional, shot-in-Texas schlock a la S.F. Brownrigg and Larry Buchanan. Terribly acted, it still has the lonely, off-kilter atmosphere that only a lack of budget and talent can provide. I took points off for FAT, BLACK PUSSYCAT, a wretched murder mystery that distributors liberally re-edited in order to get playdates. A bomb in every department."

His Wife Would Drive Anyone To Kill

Jonathan Schaper | 06/14/2002

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Gads, talk about bimbos. The wife of the killer in THE BLACK CAT is as dull as they come and about as bright as a bucket of hair. An atrocious actress to boot, I'm amazed he didn't kill her in the first ten minutes. Unfortunately the viewer has to wait almost an hour before he finally has the good sense to take an axe to her. He's no great actor either, but he is more convincing than his tedious wife. This film definately features a cast from hell.
FAT BLACK PUSSYCAT however is as fun a B movie as your likely to find. Quite watchable and silly and just chock full of them beatnicks."