Original Air Date: September 28, 1995
Starring: Christopher Lee, Susan George, Michael McGovern
Directed by: Rod Stewart
Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains spoilers for this episode!
Synopsis: Another telling of the classic Poe tale in which a man is driven by alcohol and his strong dislike for a black cat to a heinous act which he then tries to hide.
Featured Feline: This unusual anthology series is based solely on the works of Edgar Allan Poe and as such had to include an adaptation of The Black Cat.
Sadly in this version the cat is not featured as much as he should be, but his few scenes are notable mostly for the cat’s striking green eyes.
The telling of the story is a bit awkward, with the story jumping back and forth in time, and the beginning is quite slow. But all in all it follows the story fairly closely.
The payoff at the end isn’t filmed in as satisfactory a manner as one would like, but at least we have host Christopher Lee interacting with the cat at the beginning and end of the piece.
Kitty Carnage Warning! The woman finds the cat hanged by her husband, which is shown clearly. There is a large disclaimer at the end of the episode stating that no animals were hurt during the making of the program.
Final Mewsings: The Black Cat story never gets old but sadly some adaptations just don’t do it justice.
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