bombersflyup
Track of the Cat was an engaging family drama, set in the snowy mountains.I'm not much for westerns, but ones with a psychological aspect to them I can dig. Each character was interesting for different reasons, Teresa Wright's character Grace was the only one I liked though. Mitchum's character Curt was simply an a-hole, but he did have personality which our main character Harold did not. Pa Bridges added a little comedy to the mix. The tension built up all film about Harold having to stand up to Curt isn't really dealt with in the end. Mitchum seems to get a lot of credit in regards to his performance here, but I found the film to be significantly better when he wasn't around. I quite liked Track of the Cat despite quite a few flaws, it's really a one of a kind film that keeps you glued to the screen.
alexandre michel liberman (tmwest)
It took me until yesterday to begin to like this movie. I could never before accept that a director who made "Yellow Sky", "The High and the Mighty", "Westward The Women" and "Beau Geste" would do what you can call a family drama with a lot of dialog, and present it as a western. When I got to about half the film in my VHS version I found it boring and gave up. I rented it yesterday in the DVD version and decided to give it another try. I loved the cinematography, all black and white with a few touches of color. You can call it the only black and white film made in color. The family drama of all those people dominated by the old mother and her son Robert Mitchum could be the material for a great film. The transformation of Tab Hunter from a man who feels owes the whole world to his brother into an independent man could have been far more dramatic. Still it is worth seeing.
Michael_Elliott
Track of the Cat (1954) ** (out of 4) Strange but ultimately disappointing family drama hiding behind the Western/Adventure genres. The film tells the story of a dysfunctional family stranded on a ranch during the 1880s. The family is bullied around by the middle son (Robert Mitchum) and his mother (Beulah Bondi) but the others begin to rise up as Mitchum is out tracking a deadly mountain lion. Okay, this is a film I had been wanting to watch for many years but within twenty-minutes I knew I was in trouble and the film never picked up. I was really shocked at how boring this film was considering Wellman was directing it and apparently this was a pet project of his. I'm not sure where to start but I guess we can mention all the family drama stuff, which naturally gets blamed on a bully and a religious freak. All of the drama here lacks any real drama and in fact all the characters just come off so obnoxious that I didn't care what happened to them. Another problem is the entire "track of the cat" with Mitchum wondering around without much to do. It seems Wellman never tries to build any tension in these scenes and one has to wonder why it was even in the story. I'm going to guess the cat was used to throw out that "good vs. evil" theme but it never works. I was also pretty disappointed in Mitchum's performance, which was dry and rather dull but then again I didn't care for any of the other performances either. It was strange seeing Carl 'Alfalfa' Switzer in the role of the elderly Indian and he certainly comes off the best. What does keep the film going is its beautiful cinematography captured in all its 2.55:1 glory. The scenery is another reason to watch the film with the snow covered mountains really coming off quite beautiful.
size100
I found this movie very dreary, distracting, and slow going. Don't know if this was the intent of the production team, but if it was they succeeded admirably. Basically all it was to me was the very depressing story of an annoyingly dysfunctional family with seemingly very little else to offer the world --- not the kind of neighbors I would like near my ranch. Production-wise I did like Robert Mitchum's red coat and the movie did bring out the ultimate dreariness of wide open snow country. Some people like this sort of slow going, dysfunctional-family in the movies stuff. I generally don't, especially when the movie drags on as this movie does. Never thought I would place any Robert Mitchum or Teresa Wright (despite her relatively minor role) movie on my not-to-watch-again list of older movies, but that's where this film goes. One viewing is barely tolerable, any more would be just too taxing. I guess I'm not "sophisticated" enough. It's not why I watch movies. Blah!
AD
