Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Lachlan Coulson This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

MartinHafer While you might think that "Track of the Cat" is a western (as it's listed as one on IMDb), it really isn't despite its setting and look. Instead, it's more of a soap opera--a saga about a family that is sick to the core.The film begins on a lonely ranch in the mountains--somewhere like Colorado or Wyoming about 1900. On this ranch are three brothers--Curt, Arthur and Harold (Robert Mitchum, William Hopper and Tab Hunter respectively). They live with the rest of their family--the father a spineless drunk, the mother a stern and nasty sort whose bile spreads to those around her (Beulah Bondi) and Arthur's wife (Teresa Wright). A guest (Diana Lynn) is visiting and Harold is lovestruck over her.The home is disrupted when a mountain lion shows up and kills some cattle. Curt is determined to kill the animal--mostly to feed his ego. Arthur accompanies him on this task. However, when Arthur goes from hunter to the hunted, the true dynamics and sickness of the family becomes apparent through the course of the rest of the film. This is NOT a normal or healthy family, that's for sure! And, you also realize that the film really is a family saga that is at heart a soap opera--not a western. Now this isn't a complaint--just an observation about the genre to which this film should be identified. The locale and the mountain lion are just plot devices--the story is really about greed, the disintegration of a family and the decay of the soul.The film is very strange to say the least. While Robert Mitchum is the lead, he really isn't in the film all that much and he plays a very atypical and unlikable sort. And, for the most part, the rest of them play against type as well, though Bondi did occasionally play nasty old matriarchs--and she's mighty nasty here. A particularly strange casting decision was having Carl 'Alfalfa' Switzer play Joe Sam--an ancient American Indian though he was only 26 and not even remotely Indian-like under all that makeup! Add to that the beautiful full color and location shoot, it's obviously NOT a typical film but something very unique. William Wellman did a good job with this one--and the film is quite memorable, if not always pleasant! It's also one of the more unpredictable films of the era that I've ever seen, that's for sure! It's FULL of metaphorical significance and is, like some pointed out, almost like an art film--and a lot like "A Lion in Winter"! Well worth seeing but intensely strange--and a film, believe it or not, produced by John Wayne's production company! Not for everyone, but I sure appreciated and enjoy it.

FightingWesterner Domineering middle child Robert Mitchum and his mother holds the rest of the family under their thumb, especially youngest child Tab Hunter, whom Mitchum takes particular delight in brow-beating. Tensions boil over on a snowy Winter, when a dangerous mountain lion descends on the valley and begins to kill livestock.Not an outdoor adventure, this is instead a depressing, talky frontier drama full of irritating, unsympathetic characters. There's some good performances, especially by the female cast members, though little else to offer the average film-goer looking for escapist entertainment.Similarly themed and much more exciting, was the low-budget 1949 film The Big Cat, directed by Phil Karlson and starring Preston Foster and Forrest Tucker. In that one you at least get to see the cat!

Spikeopath We are up in the snowy mountains near Aspen, we are in the company of the brooding and feuding Bridges family. Their inner fighting is not the only thing blighting their lives, a panther is on the loose and as it kills all in its way, it becomes evident that it's also symbolising something deep and foreboding.Track Of The Cat is directed by the highly accomplished William A Wellman and adapted by A.I. Bezzerides from the novel written by Walter Van Tilburg Clark. Hauntingly eerie and dripping with a sense of unease, it's however more triumphant as a technical piece than it is a story driven one. Wellman had long wanted to make a colour film while only working from a black and white palette, he does it here and in my humble opinion the result is gorgeous. With William H. Clothier's CinemaScope cinematography brilliantly bringing the Mount Rainier location to life {the only way to watch this is in widescreen}. All they needed was snowy weather, and they got it, and then some! With an interesting point of reference to the weather being that lead man Robert Mitchum {Curt Bridges} stated it was the hardest shoot he ever worked on. Some scenes are truly magnificent, atmosphere drips across the sparse snowy ground, with dark trees seemingly waiting to attack the small framed actors, a burial sequence viewed from the POV of the dead is sumptuous, in short the picture looks gorgeous, but what of its core story and acting heart?Frankly the story is guilty of being over talky, whilst we marvel at the surrounds and buy into the sense of dread that hovers throughout, we are subjected to what can only be described as over written waffle. I actually wish I had read the novel prior to viewing it now. The extension of talk would have been easily forgivable if the pay off via the panther itself was impacting, but sadly we are robbed of a crescendo ending, something Wellman would later say was an error of judgement {he is rumoured to have disowned the film at one point}. Of the cast, Mitchum is good, moody and bully like, watch as he baits Diana Lynn {poor} as Gwen Williams, while William Hopper puts in a fine turn as Arthur Bridges. Of the rest, well they are solid enough, tho Carl 'Alfalfa' Switzer as a very aged portentous Indian raises an unintentional laugh. After plodding around like a decrepit old crippled specimen throughout the picture, he suddenly turns into an Olympic 100 meters champion at the film's finale! Yes it's safe to say that Track Of The Cat is a very odd picture indeed. 6/10

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.