Joseph Stefano concocted this rather haphazard suspense yarn about a mercenary young woman in San Francisco who reunites a wealthy, dying woman with her beloved ne'er-do-well nephew in order to get her hands on the inheritance money. The plan gets off to a shaky start after the nephew, who harbors a paralyzing fear of cats, discovers hundreds of the meowing creatures in his aunt's manor. The felines are well-trained, and the film has an OK production and cast, but the story fails to add up. Stefano wants surprises and plot twists, but the scheming people we meet aren't really very exciting or interesting. A couple of shock scenes (particularly a well-staged one involving Eleanor Parker trying to make her way up a steep incline in her electric wheelchair) give the picture some much-needed flair, however the resolution is cloudy and the whole tale ultimately pointless. ** from ****

Above average thriller with plenty of twists , turns and a suspenseful finale . A young man (Michael Sarrazin) and his sweetheart (Gayle Hunnicut) scheme to rob the mansion of the man's resentful but wealthy aunt (Eleanor Parker) . However , the eccentric aunt keeps dozens of cats in her home , and the youngster is deathly afraid of cats . Terror that takes you beyond any fear you've ever known!.Terror that tears the screams right out of your throat!

Eye of the Cat (1969) contains twisted mysteries , emotion , thrills, suspense and being compelling and splendidly directed . This is a highly mysterious and cerebral thriller , filled with plot twists , including an unexpected denouement in its ending part . Here the screenwriter of "Psycho" now brings you a tale of terror to test your nerves and it will have you at edge of your seat , that's why it will appeal to thriller/terror genre enthusiasts . From start to finish the complicated intrigue , fast-paced , thrills , and suspense result to be continuous . Hitchcock-style psychological thriller , being surprisingly good and compellingly shot . The original as well entertaining premise is overspread across the movie adding some brief conventional pitfalls . This nice film by producer/director David Lowell Rich was well and professionally made. The main cast is frankly good , Michael Sarrazin as the egoistic young man with dark plans , his gorgeous girlfriend , the wonderful Gayle Hunnicut who plays perfectly his beautiful lover and the bittersweet , sick aunt stunningly performed by veteran Eleanor Parker . Support cast is pretty good such as the newcomer Tim Henry , Linden Chiles and Laurence Naismith . The picture is very well , though sometimes stagy and it has a lot of turns . However , being very entertaining for its successive suspense .

This interesting thriller displays a colorful and luxurious cinematography by prestigious cameraman Russell Metty . Being shot on location in San Francisco, Lafayette Park, Gough and Washington Streets, San Francisco, Sausalito, California . And stirring and suspenseful score by Lalo Schifrin , usual composer in the Sixties , and Clint Eastwood's regular . This mystery murder was stunningly produced by various prestigious producers Leslie Stevens, Bernard Schwartzand Universal Pictures .The motion picture was competently directed by David Lowell Rich , habitual TV director and occasionally for cinema . This under-rated producer and filmmaker of the 1960s and 1970s movies called David Lowell Rich was a prolific television director, an expert at made-for-TV movies in the 1970's and worked briefly at Columbia during the late 50's. Rich directed a lot of TV films and movies, such as : Northeast of Seoul , Bolt , A lovely way to die, Chu Chu and the Philly Flash , School for Girls , The Sex symbol, The Chadwick Family , Runaway , Death Race , Convicted and many others . In the 1960s he directed episodes of several cult TV shows including Mission Impossible , and one episode of The Twilight Zone . In the 1970s he got caught up in the disaster movie craze by putting out atleast five disaster films, four for TV , such as : The Concorde...Airport '79 and Horror At 37,000 Feet (1973) combined a flight disaster with supernatural events and wonderful over-acting from William Shatner, most of them failed at boxoffice . However, all the above films, including The Concorde...Airport '79, are fun to watch and , unlike some other films of the disaster genre, were never tiring . Eye of the Cat (1969) rating : 7/10 . Better than average warlike film . Worthwhile watching . It's an inoffensive diversion that will appeal to psychological thriller fans .

"Eye of the Cat" is an overall silly and flawed late 60's horror flick, that's for sure, but first and foremost it's also an inventive, nicely convoluted and delightfully flamboyant late 60's horror flick! Director David Lowell Rich ("Satan School for Girls") and writer Joseph Stefano (forever famous for his "Psycho" screenplay adaptation) deliver an absurd but effectively tense thriller full of twisted characters, unexpected plot twists, morbid humor, atmospheric filming locations and subtle shock-moments! Kassia, the sly hairdresser of a wealthy and chronically ill spinster, discovers that the whimpering lady plans to leave her entire fortune to all her cats, unless her long lost and beloved nephew Wylie would return to her. Kassia promptly tracks down the nephew in question and (physically) persuades him to combine forces. As soon as the testament is updated with Wylie's name as the sole heir instead of the cats, they will murder Auntie Danny and share her fortune. One slight and unforeseen problem, however, is that Wylie suffers from ailurophobia – a terrible fear of cats – and his auntie shelters approximately three dozens of stray cats in her mansion… and these animals are not too keen on leaving! "Eye of the Cat" inconspicuously borrows ideas from other classics, most notably "The Birds" and the French "Les Diaboliques", but definitely stands on its own as a solid and refreshing entry in the thriller genre. There are several unbelievably fantastic sequences, like the opening sequences with split screens and transparent cat silhouettes, and particularly the wheelchair-down-the-hill sequence in slow-motion, which I rewound at least four times! Also typical for the period of release is the vile and unreliable nature of ALL the main characters, so we've got a script full of betrayal and double- crossing until the very last moments of the film. Last but not least "Eye of the Cat" takes place in San Francisco, flower-power capital of the world, in the year 1969. This means that, apart from beautiful sightsee material and touristy snapshots, the film is also chock-full of free-loving and eccentric characters. Protagonist Wylie, for instance, carelessly dumps his girlfriend to tag along with Kassie and later on there's a totally redundant but joyous girl-fight sequence in a sleazy hippie bar. Handsome hunk Michael Sarrazin is excellent as Wylie, and the combination with Gayle Hunnicutt results in pure chemistry. There are three indirect links between this film and the contemporary oeuvre of Alfred Hitchcock: writer Joseph Stefano, obviously, but cat trainer Ray Berwick was also the bird trainer in "The Birds" and the actor depicting Wylie's brother Luke – Tim Henry – is a genuine Norman Bates lookalike! You'll gladly forgive the occasional dull and confusing moments in "Eye of the Cat", as this is truly one of the most curious gems of the sixties.