Cats

Night of a 1000 Cats was not the masterpiece of Mexican exploitation I expected it to be, but is still a solid little gem of low budget filmmaking. Hey, René Cardona Jr. is directing it, and Hugo Stiglitz plays the lead, and thats all I needed anyway. As usual Hunky Hugo plays a rich playboy womanizer, but in this film he is a little more psycho than usual. He lures women to his old gothic mansion, makes sweet love and kills them. He feeds his hungry cats with their bodies, but preserves their heads and adds them to his "collection". No reason is given for Hugo's deviant behavior and his "minimal face expression" approach to acting certanly isn't helping us understand the character. We do get ordinary "I want you to stay with me forever. FOREVER" -clichés thrown in our faces, but they don't make much sense since Hugo seems to be a well-adjusted fellow with no social problems. The other problem I had with "1000 Cats" is the same one that another commentator pointed out: it's very hard to separate Hugo's women, since they all look pretty much alike and all share the same (minimal) personality. The film's constantly moves in and out of flashback, which only adds to the confusion. So, here we have an underwritten, underplayed (but hunky!) character killing what seems like the same woman over and over again. The characters in the film just doesn't work, (except for Hugo's mute butler Dorgo, the mad monk. Right on!). The film could have been slightly faster paced too.

So, what DOES work?

First of all, this is a René Cardona Jr.-flick and it is my firm belief that everyone of his films are worth watching, at least once. His films always have a certain "feel" to them, that I can't explain but enjoy very much. They all have that little extra something that seperates them from similiar (some say identical, but what do they know?) films. Although low budget productions, he always manages to squeeze the best out of his pesetas and present a good looking, well edited and charmy product that delivers the goods, whatever they might be. "1000 Cats" is no exception. In many aspects, it's not what it shows, but what it doesn't show that makes it work. Sure the characters are flat, and the story doesn't make sense, but at least it's everybody and everything is nice to look at, fairly fast paced, well crafted and directed. Just imagine how awful it COULD have been if none of those components would have been there.

Maybe I'm in a forgiving mode, but:

6/10

This movie was recommended to me by an ardent lover of the sick and twisted. I thought that the worst was given away too early, and the film does get caught up in the tedious and seemingly unlikely hunt for new victims. Yet, the film is brief, and does offer enough consistency in characters to allow the genre fan to dispense with realistic expectations. It's not a bad psycho-killer flick - it's horrificly bad.

This movie should be called Night of 1000 Hours of Helicopter Scenes. If you want to see some sick guy spend twenty minutes flying a helicopter, then somehow seducing a woman by buzzing around her house and stalking her, then maybe you would like this walking disease. Also, instead of 1000 cats, more like 70, and during the climatic end scenes, only 10 cats, with the same scene shown over again until you want to puke. Only good for making fun of. The one redeeming thing about this film was the video I saw it on was made out of yellow plastic, I had never seen that before. In conclusion, I would rather have toxoplasmosa than see this again. Thank you.

Sophisticated, international playboy, Hugo (Hugo Stiglitz) loves women. He flies around in his helicopter, wearing enormous sunglasses, while various females smile like they've got coat hangers stuck in their mouths.

Hugo hovers. He zooms.

He takes women back to his fortress-like bachelor villa / monastery, where his faithful servant, Dorgo (Gerardo Zepeda) awaits, looking as though he spends his days inhaling oven cleaner.

Inside, Hugo shows off by tossing cats like beanbags, into their enclosure. Soon, it's time for Hugo to unveil his collection of severed heads. He's a man of many talents. Murdering his girlfriends for their noggins is one of them. This allows him to feed their bodies to his cat swarm. Hugo doesn't believe in being wasteful.

It's not long before he's airborne again, hovering over women and their swimming pools. They can't ignore his subtlety, since he floats three feet above them!

They want to go with him. They must go with him!

Yes, he rides a motorcycle too. It allows him to hover closer. Hugo is persistent, and always gets his female lover / head donation / cat food. Hugo is a haunted man. He only loved one woman. Her head is his favorite. All of his "girlfriends" have one thing in common: Their heads are more productive in their plastic boxes than they were on their shoulders!

THE NIGHT OF A THOUSAND CATS must be witnessed by every living being!

Hugo waxes philosophical! He plays chess while smoking his pipe! He hovers over more swimming pools than an Olympic diver! He is irresistible to women! The pointlessness of this movie is beyond measure. Is it a metaphor for life itself? Only Hugo knows for sure.

P.S.- I want a villa / monastery! I want a Dorgo! I want a thousand cats! Where's my helicopter? Let's fly!...

The Night of a Thousand Cats (1972)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Hugo (Hugo Stiglitz) is a millionaire playboy who flies around in his own helicopter looking for beautiful women. He puts the women into the helicopter with him and takes them to his house, which is also the home to hundreds (not thousands) of cats. He then brutally murders the women, puts their heads in his collection room and feeds the rest of them to his cats.

René Cardona Jr. is best remembered for some rather strange and crazy films but THE NIGHT OF A THOUSAND CATS has to be one of the weirdest. In fact, this movie is just so strange and bizarre that I'm somewhat shocked that it isn't better known by cult fans. I'm not sure if there's an alternate, longer version out there but the one making the rounds on various sites clocks in at just 62-minutes.

There's very little plot going on in this film and in fact there's very little that actually happens. Throughout the short running time we see Hugo flying around, spotting the beautiful woman, picking her up, showing her his home and then we see them killed and fed to the cats. None of the murders are overly graphic but the director loves showing the chopped up bodies that are being fed to the cats.

That there is pretty much the only thing that happens in the film. Over and over the exact same thing happens and while the film is somewhat poorly made it's just so crazy that you can't help but enjoy what's going on. I certainly haven't seen a movie like this before. On one hand you can bash that plot-less film but then again you have to respect a sleaze movie like this that just gives the viewer the same thing since the director obviously believes that's what they want.

THE NIGHT OF A THOUSAND CATS has a few scenes towards the cats that will offend those who love the animals so those people should be cautioned. With that said, the film is certainly a unique one and fans of cult films should enjoy it.