Lou (Robert Frost) is a spoiled rich kid whose parents have recently died. Lou and his wife, Diana (Robyn Baker) are celebrating their first anniversary. As an anniversary present Diana gives him a black cat. Lou adores the cat and names it Pluto after the god of the underworld. Lou has other animals in cages, a monkey, a raccoon and a toucan. Lou, having drunk more than his fair share of champagne, takes the cat into his menagerie room and introduces it to the other animals. Diana is left sitting alone at the dining room table.
It doesn’t take long before Lou becomes obsessed with Pluto. Diana notices Lou’s obsession as well as his growing alcoholism, both of which have affected their relationship. The alcoholism is also turning Lou even meaner than he was sober.
Returning home drunk from a night at the club, Lou is violent with Diana. The housekeeper, Lillian (Sadie French) takes Diana and leaves the house. Lou tries to gain solace from Pluto. When the cat avoids him, Lou becomes enraged and cuts out one of the cat’s eyes. Lou becomes obsessed with the cat but now it is a different type of obsession. Lou hangs and then electrocutes the cat. The event sets the house on fire. When Lou finds out that his father never had insurance on the house, he goes off the rails, attacks the estate’s lawyer (George Edgley) and ends up committed to an asylum.
Eventually Lou is deemed cured and is released from the asylum. Naturally, he quickly returns to his per-hospitalization insanity. After leaving a bar one night he finds a black cat and brings it home. Diana notices that there is something wrong with the cat’s right eye. Lou didn’t notice the anomaly before. Now he begins to think that the cat is out to get him.
“The Black Cat” AKA “Edgar Allan Poe’s The Black Cat” was released in 1966 and was directed by Harold Hoffman. It is a low budget American horror movie. The film is based on the Edgar Allan Poe story “The Black Cat”. The movie does a good job following Poe’s story except that it is updated to taking place in the sixties and a rock band is featured. It’s sort of the beatnik version of Poe. Otherwise, the adaptation is pretty close.
Robert Frost’s acting skills as Lou the psychopath are questionable, however, he does manage to look like a jerk, whether it is from the alcoholism or his daddy issues, or perhaps both, he does come off as an entitled ass. The movie is slow at times and at others just horrifying. Everyone agrees that the best star of the film is the cat, Pluto. Even the stuffed one.
Texas Rockabilly singer Scotty McKay, AKA Max K. Libscomb, performs three songs in the film. They are: “Bo Diddley”, written by Bo Diddley, “Sinner Man”, written by Scotty McKay and “Brown Eyed Handsome Man”, written by Chuck Berry.
There are a few issues with the filmstock but it’s mostly there. If I find something better, I’ll upload it but for now this is what’s available.