Cat Chaser is a 1989 film directed by Abel Ferrara and starring Peter Weller and Kelly McGillis, based on the 1982 novel of the same name by Elmore Leonard. It was adapted from the novel by Leonard and James Borelli. A three-hour raw cut of "Cat Chaser" was screened at Anthology Film Archives in New York Cityin the summer of 2014. Ferrara, Weller and others involved are very unhappy with the released version, particularly with the added omniscient narration.
Plot
George Moran is a former American paratrooper and veteran of the Dominican Republic intervention who now runs a small beachfront motel in Miami. While searching for a Dominican woman named Luci Palma who saved his life in 1965, he begins a relationship with Mary DeBoya, the wealthy, unhappy wife of a sadistic former Dominican general. Moran gets involved in a plot by fellow military veteran Nolen Tyner and a former New York policeman, Jiggs Scully, to rip off the general. Moran must elude a number of double-crosses as he and Mary attempt to gain her freedom plus $2 million of the general's money.
The film was shot in Old San Juan, Miami and Coral Gables, Florida as the crew decided shooting on location in Santo Domingo would be too dangerous and costly after scouting there. Filming was not a happy experience for McGillis, who didn't make another major film afterwards for almost a decade. She said in 2001: "It was the most hateful experience of my life, and I said, if this is what acting is going to be, I will not do it. On the last day of shooting, I said to Abel 'Are you done with me?' He sai, 'Yeah.' I walked in my trailer and shaved my head. I said 'Screw you, I never want to act again.'" In a 2015 oral history of the making of Cat Chaser, written by Sam Weisberg of Hidden Films, Peter Weller and various crew members acknowledged that Weller and McGillis openly clashed during filming; Weller maintained that he never found out the reason for it. Several crew members confirmed that McGillis stormed off the set after shooting a love scene with Weller, but they differed on the exact cause of her outburst.
Critical evaluation
The film received mixed reviews. It currently has a 40% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 5 reviews, with a weighted average]of 4.85/10. Variety wrote: "Despite a fine cast and atmospheric direction by Abel Ferrara, the pic doesn't quite make the grade, though it certainly is worth a look." Entertainment Weekly called the film "baroquely sleazy" and wrote that it failed to make sense. The Roanoke Times described the film: "Despite some serious flaws, Cat Chaser is one of the better screen adaptations of an Elmore Leonard novel". Weller was criticized for his "stiff performance" by Mick Martin and Marsha Porter in The Video Movie Guide 1995.
The film was released on VHS tape in the United States in 1991 by Vestron Video and the UK in 1994 by 4 Front and for the first time on DVD in 2003 by Lion's Gate/Artisan, and issued in the UK in 2004 by Arrow Films. The Lion's Gate DVD featured Weller and McGillis on the cover with the text "Passion. Greed. Murder. Tonight They Pay," with the story marketed as an erotic thriller.
