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The Big Cat

"THRILL TO WILD MOUNTAIN ADVENTURE...OUTDOOR MAGNIFICENCE...YOUNG LOVE!"

A city boy arrives in his late mother's birthplace to discover the locals have been pestered by a cougar.

Top Cast

  • Lon McCallister

    Lon McCallister

    Danny Turner

  • Peggy Ann Garner

    Peggy Ann Garner

    Doris Cooper

  • Preston Foster

    Preston Foster

    Tom Eggers

  • Forrest Tucker

    Forrest Tucker

    Gil Hawks

  • Skip Homeier

    Skip Homeier

    Jim Hawks, Gil' Son

  • Sara Haden

    Sara Haden

    Mrs. Mary Cooper

  • Irving Bacon

    Irving Bacon

    Matt Cooper the Mailman

  • Gene Reynolds

    Gene Reynolds

    Wid Hawks, Gil' Son

Overview

A city boy arrives in his late mother's birthplace to discover the locals have been pestered by a cougar.

Rating

4.0 / 10
7 Reviews
0 Popular

1 Reviews

  • CinemaSerf
    CinemaSerf
    5 Jul 9, 2022

    Were it not for a rather cheesy romance between the hapless, suit and tie wearing "Danny" (Lon McCallister) and the terribly chintzy "Doris" (Peggy Ann Garner), this might have made for quite an exciting mountain adventure. The former arrives from the city to the area where his late mother grew up. The area is suffering not just from the depression, but from a drought and his welcome is not as warm as he might like. He takes up with "Eggers" (Preston Foster) who is set on hunting down a local cougar that is wreaking havoc on the local farming community, but he is soon embroiled in some local shenanigans with the "Hawks" family - "Gil" (Forrest Tucker) and his two yokel sons. Some of the hunt scenes are quite good fun, though the cougar seemed a little unenthusiastic to me; and there is quite a fun waterside brawl. Sadly, though, there is just way too much sentimental guff (usually with a gently accompanying string score) to sustain the theme for me. There's a bit of a twist at the (really quite implausible) end, but despite some fairly decent, active, photography, I felt it ran just a bit low on gas.

Recommendations

Call of the Wild

Jack Thornton has trouble winning enough at cards for the stake he needs to get to the Alaska gold fields. His luck changes when he pays $250 for Buck, a sled dog that is part wolf to keep him from being shot by an arrogant Englishman also headed for the Yukon. En route to the Yukon with Shorty Houlihan -- who spent time in jail for opening someone else's letter with a map of where gold is to be found -- Jack rescues a woman whose husband was the addressee of that letter. Buck helps Jack win a $1,000 bet to get the supplies he needs. And when Jack and Claire Blake pet Buck one night, fingers touch.

Call of the Wild

6.2 1935