For Black Cat Appreciation Day: On Black Cats in the Movies

We’re getting very niche these days! One would think that there was celebration enough of black cats on Halloween, or on National Cat Day (October 29) or International Cat Day (August 8). To quote Wanda Gag, there seem to be “…cats here, cats there, Cats and kittens everywhere. Hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, Millions and billions and trillions of cats!” And why today? I dunno, but I’m happy to partake in the celebration. I am pro-black cat, and if my wife didn’t have a cat allergy we’d surely have one, for this is a witch appreciating household. Of course, quasi-holidays like this one are meant to dispel superstition, I suppose, and there are good ones as well as bad ones (superstitions) about black cats. Some people regard them as good luck, others as an ill omen. As for me, I have always been super-fond of that lyric of Howlin’ Wolf’s: “I ain’t superstitious, but a black cat crossed my trail…”, which sums up my attitude toward superstition and religion entirely. I am not a credulous or gullible person, but I also prefer to remain open-minded (or, let us say, “imaginative”) and I pride myself in remaining culturally connected to the old folkways.

The dominant legend around black cats is that they are witch’s familiars, though all familiars are not cats, and all cat familiars are not black (think of the one in Bell, Book and Candle, which is Siamese). Images of black cats run rampant in the storefronts and signage of Salem, Massachusetts, it’s essentially the town’s mascot. In 1843, Edgar Allan Poe wrote his short story “The Black Cat”, the inspiration for many of the movies we mention below. That Poe loving town Paris had Le Chat Noir, the original Bohemian cabaret, which embraced the association (later parodied by W.C. Fields in The Bank Dick as “The Black Pussy”).

Now, to our larger purpose. Here are nine films (one for each of a cat’s lives) which star black cats. Mind, we are only treating of black ones today. Cat themed horror films outside that category, such as Eye of the Cat (1969) and Cat’s Eye (1985) will have to wait their turn.

The Black Cat (1934)

An amazing Edgar Ulmer movie—gorgeous. Bela Lugosi meets up with a pair of newlyweds (David Manners and Jacqueline Wells) on their way to honeymoon in the Carpathians! (hahahahahaa) Well, the groom is a mystery writer, so I guess it does make a little sense. Their bus crashes. Lugosi brings them to his destination, the home of his former enemy in war, Boris Karloff , who was the commandant of the prison camp where Lugosi was interred. You know you’re in a bad way when your only protection from Boris Karloff is…Bela Lugosi! And Lugosi, though creepy in the film, is actually the good guy…although he is consumed with revenge against Karloff for his experience in the camp and for either killing his wife and daughter or stealing them—he isn’t sure which. Meanwhile Karloff’s house is a masterpiece of modern art deco design, as are his clothes and even his haircut. He is said to be a brilliant architect.  It turns out he has Lugosi’s wife in suspended animation, and has married his daughter, who looks just like the wife.

Meanwhile, as if that weren’t enough, he plans to use the newlywed bride as a human sacrifice in a Satanist ceremony. For fun, he plays Bach’sToccatto and Fugue on the pipe organ.  Lugosi, meanwhile, a famous psychiatrist, is afraid of black cats (ah, there they are). Black cats must play some vague part in Karloff’s Satanic connections. In the end the couple escapes as Lugosi and Karloff do battle. The house explodes behind them. In a jokey button, the groom reads a review of his novel which was based on their real experience: it gets panned for being too unrealistic!

Maniac (1934)

Way ahead of its time in being extremely low budget and technically incompetent. Originally called Sex Maniac it is a purportedly “educational” exploitational film by Dwain Esper the same guy who did Marijuana (1936) and who exhibited the corpse of Elmer McCurdy in the 1930s. Maniac was written by Esper’s wife Hildagarde Stadie and based on several Poe stories (including “The Black Cat”), yet is somehow also supposed to teach us about several psychological abnormalities. The plot nevertheless has possibilities, despite the amateurishness of the realization. A mad scientist needs a heart for his experiments. He dispatches his assistant, a former vaudeville impressionist, to the morgue, disguised as the coroner. Later the heart is destroyed before the operation can commence. The scientist hands his assistant a gun so that he will shoot himself and be reborn in the experiment. Instead, he shoots the doctor. And then he goes insane and becomes a mad scientist himself! He bricks the corpse up in a wall, eats an eye ball, makes another guy go insane with an adrenalin injection, among several other foul undertakings. Finally the police come in and catch him, because, ya know, the Production Code.

The Black Cat (1941)

Quite different from the 1934 film of the same name (above), this one mixes Poe’s story with the Old Dark House mystery comedy formula, with an ensemble that includes Bela Lugosi, Cecilia Loftus, Basil Rathbone, Hugh Herbert, Broderick Crawford and Gale Sondergaard.

Tales of Terror (1962)

Roger Corman directed this trilogy of Poe stories for AIP. The segment called “The Black Cat” mixes that story with “The Cask of the Amontillado”. It stars Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Joyce Jameson, and, yes, Lennie Weinrib.

The Black Cat (1981)

A Lucio Fulci giallo picture shot in England with Patrick Magee in the lead (Peter Cushing turned it down). Magee plays a professor with mediumistic powers who kills his enemies by using mind control on his…gatto nero.

The Witches (1990)

I only discovered this AMAZING movie last Halloween; going forward I will regard it as a seasonal classic. Based on the Roald Dahl book and directed by Nicolas Roeg, it was the last project Jim Henson participated in prior to his death. An orphaned little boy (Jasen Fisher) is staying at a seaside hotel resort with his grandmother, surrounded, it turns out by a disguised convention of evil witches led by Anjelica Huston, at the very summit of her powers. The witch’s lieutenant (Jane Horrocks of Absolutely Fabulous) has a black cat named Liebschen who becomes particularly terrifying after the little boy has been transformed into a mouse.

Two Evil Eyes (1990)

George Romero and Dario Argento collaborated on this bifurcated film adaptation of two Poe stories, one half of which is “The Black Cat”, directed by Argento. The incredible cast includes Harvey Kietel, Madeline Potter, John Amos, Sally Kirkland, Kim Hunter, Martin Balsam, Jonathan Adams (from The Rocky Horror Picture Show), Julie Benz (from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dexter), and Tom Savini.

Hocus Pocus (1993)

This beloved Disney film features Bette Midler,Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy from The Kathy and Mo Show as a trio of very old Salem witches who have enchanted a boy named Thackery Binx into a black cat. Great supporting cast includes Charles Rocket, Kathleen Freeman, Garry Marshall, Penny Marshall, and Doug Jones, that guy who specializes in playing monsters and creatures.

Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996-2003)

This long-lived tv adaptation of the comic book starred Melissa Joan Hart as the title character, with the black cat Salem as her sarcastic sidekick. Salem was voiced by Nick Bakay. There was a reboot of the show (2018-2020) starring Mad Men‘s Kiernan Shipka, with the role of Salem much marginalized.