"Crazy Cats!" at Oddball Films October 1, 2010

Event: “Crazy Cats!”.  Curator Pete Gowdy and Oddball Films present the rarely seen 1969 feature film “Eye of the Cat” and several short cat films and clips. Shot on location in San Francisco, “Eye of the Cat” is a creepy, campy mod masterpiece. With the wonderful early 1960s short “The Incredible Cat Tale”, Oddball favorite “The Cat Who Drank and Used Too Much” and more kitty clips and feline flicks!
Date: Friday, October 1, 2010 at 8:30PM
Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco
Admission: $10.00 RSVP Only to: 415-558-8117 or [email protected]
Web: http://www.oddballfilm.com/oddballftp/Crazy_Cats_3_PR.pdf

"Crazy Cats!”
Feline Thrillers, Thwarters, Stalkers and Charmers Screen at Oddball Films

Felines: Friends, Familiars… or Foes? There is a familiar “myth” that cats sometimes steal people’s breath while they sleep- many parents still keep cats out of a newborn’s room. "Cats may still presage evil, particularly if they are black; they may still, as has been widely held throughout the world, cause the death of a child by creeping upon it and sucking its breath. Furthermore, Lilith, the dark goddess of Hebrew mythology, changed herself into a vampire cat, El-Broosha, and in that form sucked the blood of her favorite prey, the newborn infant."

On Friday, October 1, Guest Curator Pete Gowdy and Oddball Films present an evening of “crazy cat” films showcased by the 1969 rarity “Eye of the Cat”, a kitschy psychological thriller involving an army of cats guarding an old lady and her fortune from her scheming nephews and her personal cosmetologist. Cat-centric short films of the sweeter, more playful variety will warm up for the feature, whose lead character has Ailurophobia, the deathly fear of cats (stemming from his memory as a baby- in one of the film’s many great campy scenes, he recalls in vivid detail a cat creeping in to his crib to steal his breath). Showtime is 8:30PM and admission is $10.00. Seating is limited so RSVP is preferred to: [email protected] or 415-558-8117.

Highlights Include:

Eye of the Cat (B+W, 1969) dir. David Lowell Rich, screenplay by Joseph Steffano. Starring Michael Sarrazin, Gayle Hunnicutt, Eleanor Parker, Tim Henry.

Set in San Francisco with some great location shots, the highly entertaining “Eye of the Cat” is an offbeat thriller written by Psycho writer Joseph Steffano about an eccentric old lady who plans to bequeath her fortune to her colony of cats. Her nephew gets wind of this and plies to re-instate himself as the sole heir, despite his severe ailurophobia (fear of cats) and his conspiring brother and auntie’s cosmetologist.

Crazy cats, catfights, mod costuming by the ubiquitous Edith Head and an eerie score by Lalo Schiffrin (Bullit, Cool Hand Luke, et al.), along with some over the top dialogue and a strange mix of psychological horror and melodrama elevate this shindig to camp classic. Still unavailable on DVD…

Interesting trivia: Gayle Hunnicutt, who plays Auntie’s cosmetologist is in real life married to David Hemmings, star of Blow Up (perhaps the most mod movie in history). Michael Sarrazin, who plays Auntie’s nephew Wylie also starred in the 1969 classic “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” opposite Jane Fonda, and the cult film “The Reincarnation of Peter Proud”. And keep an eye out for Mark Herron, one of Judy Garland’s husbands, as the hairdresser Belmondo! Fantastic location shooting around San Francisco, including the house and wheelchair run/hill at Octavia and Washington, Golden Gate Bridge, Lafayette Park and Sausalito.
*Please note- this is an excellent B&W print (original release was Technicolor).

The Cat Who Drank and Used Too Much (Color, 1987)
Pat the Cat hits the skids before finally reaching out for help- an Oddball favorite! Narrated by Julie Harris.

The Incredible Cat Tale (Color, c.1960)
This beautiful and heartwarming film from Hungary is the story of one incredible cat that will stop at nothing to be reunited with her kittens. A young boy and girl set off in their horse drawn cart unwittingly carrying her newborn kittens. It’s momma cat to the rescue! Rivers, cat-trapper/fur skinners, merry-go-rounds, vicious dogs and long distances are no match for this cat. I had no idea you could train a cat to do anything, let alone the amazing feats you will witness here.

Plus! A few more furry feline flicks and kitty clips for all you ailurophiliacs!

Curator Biography
Pete Gowdy (aka DJ Chas Gaudi) is host of San Francisco’s Shellac Shack, a weekly 78 rpm listening party and a DJ specializing in vintage sounds: soul, jazz, country, punk and new wave. A graduate of the Vassar College Film Program, he is an associate producer of Marc Huestis Presents, the long-running movie legend tributes at the Castro Theatre.

About Oddball Films
Oddball films is the film component of Oddball Film+Video, a stock footage company providing offbeat and unusual film footage for feature films like Milk, documentaries like The Summer of Love, television programs like Mythbusters, clips for Boing Boing and web projects around the world.  
Our films are almost exclusively drawn from our collection of over 50,000 16mm prints of animation, commercials, educationals, feature films, movie trailers, medical, industrial military, news out-takes and every genre in between. We’re actively working to present rarely screened genres of cinema as well as avant-garde and ethno-cultural documentaries, which expand the boundaries of cinema. Oddball Films is the largest film archive in Northern California and one of the most unusual private collections in the US. We invite you to join us in our weekly offerings of offbeat cinema.

Official Website: http://mim.io/7efd5