Review of Track of the Cat (1954) by Private U — 15 Mar 2008

For a movie titled "Track of the Cat", there are surprisingly few scenes of anyone actually tracking the cougar in question. Most of the time we're treated to the cast (minus Mitchum, who's actually tracking the cat) overacting (the major offender being Philip Tonge as the drunken father), their characters bickering over things that are never really explained at length (oh, and you also have Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer as a 100-year-old Indian.

Yeah, that's right. Alfalfa from the Little Rascals). It's like Wellman (William Wellman? Really?) didn't have confidence in the scenes where Mitchum is alone, simultaneously looking for the cat who killed his brother and trying not to freeze to death in a vast expanse of forest and snow.

Which is unfortunate, because that probably would have been a much more interesting film. As it is, you never really learn about the inner workings of any of the characters, and a certain character's fate is so absurdly brusque that you spend the rest of the movie wondering what the hell was up with it.

I wouldn't be surprised if the movie's sole reason in being was simply to tout Cinemascope, and the location shots are admittedly impressive. But all in all, it's a waste of Robert Mitchum.

And that's just criminal.