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The Big Cat (1949)

3.5 | Apr 01, 1949 (ES) | Adventure, Romance, Drama, Western | 01:18

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.

Featured Crew

Director
Original Music Composer
Assistant Director
Screenplay
Screenplay, Story
Producer
Director of Photography
Assistant Director
Art Direction
Editor

Cast

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Lon McCallister
Danny Turner
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Peggy Ann Garner
Doris Cooper
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Preston Foster
Tom Eggers
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Forrest Tucker
Gil Hawks
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Skip Homeier
Jim Hawks, Gil' Son
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Sara Haden
Mrs. Mary Cooper
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Irving Bacon
Matt Cooper the Mailman
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Gene Reynolds
Wid Hawks, Gil' Son

Reviews

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CinemaSerf
5 | Jul 09, 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.