Cat Chaser (1989): C

Abel Ferrara’s original three-hour cut of Cat Chaser apparently featured a naked Kelly McGillis having a gun stuck between her spread-eagled legs, merely one of many borderline-pornographic touches that caused the film’s producers to take the film away from Ferrara and cut it down to its current 90-minute DVD form. The result of such post-production interference is a butchered mess of a movie that only superficially resembles the Elmore Leonard novel on which it’s based (the author’s assistance on the script was largely ignored by Ferrara) and exhibits few of the skuzzy filmmaker’s signature touches. That said, it’s nonetheless hard to imagine Ferrara making this sunshiny noir work even if he’d been granted final cut, since the director seems totally out of his element in his story’s Miami setting and completely uninterested in any plot element that doesn’t involve full frontal male or female nudity. As former military man and current motel owner George Moran, Peter Weller brings some devil-may-care charm to the muddled goings-on, and even with her clothes on, McGillis (who still flashes her assets during a shadow-drenched spousal abuse scene) acquits herself nicely as the unhappily kept woman of a vicious Dominican Republic general. But more often than not, Cat Chaser – from its thinly sketched characters and general sluggishness to the tacked-on literary narration that attempts to tie together its disjointed narrative – simply comes off like a misbegotten attempt at intricate noir that’s been neutered by its hacking-and-slashing financiers.

Comments

[Adam Lemke]

If you want to see the uncut version, featuring the infamous gun in between the legs, check out the unrated VHS cut that runs 2+ hrs. Cheap copies are all over Amazon marketplace.

Best,
Adam

[Nick]

Thanks for the heads up, Adam. Will have to check it out one of these days.

And nice site, btw.