User reviews

Delinquent sexpot Ann-Margret (as Jody Dvorak) knifes her matron and sets fire to her juvenile hall. Then, she heads for the bed of senatorial hopeful John Forsythe (as David Stratton), to cool her heels and take a cat nap. Learning Mr. Forsythe's wife is out of town, Ann-Margret uses blackmail to get herself some new clothes. Forsythe wants the over-developed seventeen-year-old to leave his San Diego home without publicity, but she wants to party. Soon, charismatic college friend Peter Brown (as Ron) arrives with muscle-man James Ward (as Buck Vogel) and gullible girlfriend Diane Sayer (as Midge). The four thrill-seeking youngsters proceed to drink Forsythe's liquor, and make his life miserable…

The title "Kitten with a Whip" is misleading. Ann-Margret's "whip" is only figurative. She is a very attractive woman, but doesn't look as provocative as the merchandising implies. She relies on sexiness to overplay the film's lurid titular character. Performing his part a bit better, Forsythe's laid-back style helps balance Ann-Margret's excess. This was already a fun film, but it gets even better when Mr. Brown and his delinquent friends arrive on the screen. Spouting "Everything is Love" and philosophizing about life, Brown plays a pseudo-cult leader who serves as a mid-1960s signpost for either Charles Manson or the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi...

If you punch him, will he feel pain?

If you cut him, will he bleed?

****** Kitten with a Whip (11/4/64) Douglas Heyes ~ John Forsythe, Ann-Margret, Peter Brown, Skip Ward

This film was rather funny...to watch a politician help a person then proceed to pay for it through the whole movie really makes one wonder what message this film was trying to send? Is it trying to say, one should never show kindness, because in return you will end up a hostage in your own home to political science majors and their friends with cars and anger management issues. Still, the film had some moments, mainly the unintentionally funny moments and you get to see a very attractive young Ann Margaret.

The film is about a bland politician who ends up finding a very attractive girl in his daughter's bed. His wife and child are away at the time. The girl begs the man for help and he listens to her story and proceeds to buy the young lady and outfit, takes her to the bus stop and gives her some money to help her out. He later finds out that she has escaped from a juvenile facility and even stabbed one of the employees there. Well he returns home to find out that she has returned and he also finds out that she is kind of insane! She ends up making his life miserable, she invites friends that are a bit psycho themselves and he continually believes what she says and defends her at every turn.

The film was featured on MST3K and it made for a very funny episode. It helps that this film was not all that bad, as it contained plenty of fodder for Mike and the bots. It was also kind of good in a way, which always makes for the more entertaining episodes. Listening to their riffs as the politician keeps getting deeper and deeper into trouble was funny, but at the same time you kept wondering how it was going to end as well. Could he possibly get out of this situation unscathed? So while it was not an award winning movie by an means, it was entertaining in its own way. And Ann Margaret was hot, hot, HOT...back then.

Having just seen this film for the second time in some years I felt I needed to come to its defense in view of the poor ratings it has received on IMDb. Moreover I can't help but compare it to "Rebel Without a Cause" which I also recently saw again. Released nine years apart they both deal with the same subject, disaffected youth. They also both reflect their times. Whereas "Rebel" dances around young angst, "Kitten" is more honest about it, although nowhere near as raw as it would have been done today. In "Rebel" the kids are troubled but still seek comfort from their parents, in "Kitten" they're nihilistic, rebellious, disdainful of their parents' values. "Kitten" is edgy, mean, gritty. Its poverty-row production probably helped in that respect. The limited sets added to the sense of claustrophobia, the fear of exposing a dangerous secret in the open. And the references to the finality of the atom bomb add to the general sense of despair.

I found the acting competent if not outstanding. All protagonists had their highs and lows and overall they acquitted themselves rather well, even John Forsythe who does tend to be one-dimensional. I even think that may have worked in his favor playing a conflicted middle-aged man whose estranged wife is away, suddenly being confronted with a sexually charged dynamo. It seems such a man would be on the introverted side. And his suspicious attitude hinted at something sinister. After all, if he had nothing to hide, wouldn't he have reached out for help? He had plenty of opportunities but wasted them all, to the very end, when Ann-Margret walks back to the car and takes away his car keys.

One final note: Audrey Dalton had the most thankless part. She had not even one single line, no screen time at all. We only get to see her in a photo soon to be vandalized. And when Forsythe goes to buy size seven clothes for Ann-Margret we are told that Dalton's character would never fit in them. That's rather unkind because I think she's actually smaller than Ann-Margret. So to top it all off she has to suffer the indignity of being called fat, or at least big, and she doesn't get the chance to show us otherwise. Then again maybe that's just it, she doesn't have any screen time because the whole clothes scene wouldn't fit in.

I can't fully explain it, but this movie really works for me on several levels. I recorded it off of late night American Movie Classics about a week ago, and after viewing it once, I absolutely could not resist the urge to watch it again, and have kept the tape for future viewing.

There's just something about this movie. It has a surreal story premise that borders on the realm of ludicraciousness (that's not a real word, I just made it up. And I'm not really a film critic; I just play one on the Internet.) Anyway, where was I...

Oh yes, the basic plot: it's about a quad of juvenile delinquents, the foremost of whom is Jody Dvorak (Ann-Margaret), who hold oh-so-square aspiring San Diego politician David Stratton (John Forsythe) hostage in his own house. His wife and daughter are conveniently out of town for a few days, allowing for the implausible story to take place primarily in the politician's own house. The JD's act with varying degrees of incomprehensibly strange behavior: they are edgy, neurotic, violent, confused, and... poetic. Poetic? Yes, really! They glibly drop lines of dialogue that could easily have been written by Beat poets of the late 50's/early 60's.

The movie is filmed in glorious black and white, and should instantly appeal to all who are fans of the black and white medium. Plus, the very stylish B&W cinematography, with its vaguely gothic light and shadow effects, more than compensates for an otherwise cheapie studio set. Even if you are not a fan of black and white, or are at least "neutral" on the subject, I urge you to check out this film just to catch a glimpse of filming the way it used to be.

The movie buzzes along at a fairly fast clip, and eventually they all end up in Tijuana, Mexico, further adding to the surreal quality of the story. It helps to listen attentively to the dialogue – much of it serves to tie together the scatter-shot plot elements. But it also has a surreal feel to it. Nobody talks or says things the way they do in this movie any more (or did they ever??). Yes, the dialogue and the B&W cinematography are two compelling reasons to watch the film. But perhaps the main reason to see it is: yeah, you guessed it...

Ann-Margaret. I've never really followed A-M, only being aware of her from a few of her films such as Carnal Knowledge and 52 Pick-up. Well, she is utterly dazzling in this film (funny, but there are a few spots in the film where I saw an uncanny resemblance to a younger Christina Applegate (Kelly Bundy, from "Married, with Children") – of course I guess if you think about it, Kelly Bundy always was one step away from joining the ranks of JD's). If for nothing else, watch this movie to see some nice work done by A-M early in her career.

Anyway, I heartily recommend this movie to all die-hard classic film buffs, to those who want to see something in film bearing the mark of an earlier time - before movies got some damnably slick and high-tech. You, as I, may smile (or groan) a few times during this movie, but it will be a forgiving smile, a warm smile born of nostalgia for a simpler time.

Bad to the bone but it was supposed to be, "Kitten with a Whip" probably offered a decent diversion until the kids at the drive-in were ready to start making out. Ann-Margret has to mouth some horrible dialogue but she makes an impression entrance - running through the streets in a nightgown to the strains of an overly dramatic score. Unfortunately it all goes downhill from there. None of the actors other than the two leads ever amounted to much and that's understandable.

This movie would be fun to watch with a lot of people, at a party maybe. For the moviegoer in a bad mood, it might give you a laugh or two but the most ideal watcher is an Ann-Margret fan who has to see all her movies...even this one.

The opening theme is snazzy and jazzy, and is a great riff with saxes, brass, piano, and electric guitar. Unfortunately, the film starts shortly thereafter.

So guys, here is the dilemma. You come home from a night on the town with your friends, your wife and daughter are away, and you find Ann-Margret sleeping in your kid's bed. What do you do?

If you are politician John Forsythe, you do everything wrong. He falls for her story that she is running away from an abusive relationship. So he buys her some clothes, hands her some dough, and lets her off at a bus stop so she can start over. Since there is still over an hour left in the movie, you know this is gonna go bad. He meets his pal (Richard Anderson) for a drink, and sees Ann's picture plastered all over the television. Seems she just escaped from a juvenile detention joint and stabbed a matron. By the time he gets home, she is there, watching cartoons (Sylvester the cat, if you are interested). She blackmails him into letting her stay, claiming she will scream rape if he calls the cops. She also scratches his chest for effect. There is a hilarious scene where Forsythe is on the phone with his wife, while Ann is pulling his cord. Then she plays hide and seek when Anderson and his nosy wife (Patricia Barry) stop over. Forsythe has his hands full with this nubile nymph, but just when you think it can't get any worse for him, Ann's friends show up (Peter Brown, Skip Ward, and Diane Sayer) and make themselves at home. Sayer plays an airhead, Ward plays a guy ready to explode, and Brown plays a philosopher named Ron who tries to keep a lid on everyone by spouting pearls of wisdom.

The arrival of this trio marks where the film turns into higher quality trash. One has to admire Brown (or feel sorry for him) for mouthing gems like "oh, we all need words to live by - Give us this day our daily dread." Later, when Ward slugs Forsythe, Brown chastises him with "Man, you can't stop hatred with violence, only with non-hatred. Now cool it, you creep, and co-exist!" Brown later gets his arm accidentally sliced by Ward (so much for co-existing), and this gives everyone an excuse to drive to Tijuana. After Forsythe drives through a barbed-wire fence, Ward gets out to clear the debris, but Ann hits the gas pedal. Then they dump Brown at a doctor's joint, and head off to a hotel. This is where Ann and Forsythe are set to part, except that Ann takes his car keys and locks herself in the hotel room. At this point, I think Forsythe could have gotten away with justifiable homicide.

Let's just fast-forward here because it's get too crazy even for me. Eventually Brown and Ward show up at the hotel, Ward sporting contusions and Brown sporting a sombrero. Ward gets conked with a bottle, there is a car chase, and most of the cast is offed. The ending is a copout. And I'm still waiting for the whip.

Forsythe is convincing as a poor sap who just wants to help someone out and gets sucked into a nightmare. Ann prances around a lot, but never really comes off as a sexpot. However, she does make a good psycho-beyotch. Brown has the distinction of probably being the only actor ever to wear a derby and a sombrero in the same film. The background music features one of Henry Mancini's themes from "Touch Of Evil."

The film could use some subtitles for the philosophically-impaired. For instance, Forsythe asks "You mean there's a pattern to that gibberish?" Brown replies "Gibberish? Oh, no ... those are the meanings of the meaningless, the exactitudes of the inexact ... man, don't you dig the desire not to communicate?" Yes. In fact, I would prefer you don't communicate any more.

Ward chimes in with "Listen to him man, Ron is a very high priest." Yes, he's very high. Give me some of that stuff.

After stabbing the matron, the seventeen year-old delinquent Jody Dvorak (Ann-Margret) escapes from a juvenile detention facility. She breaks in an empty house and sleeps in a bed. Late night, the prominent politician and future senator David Stratton (John Forsythe) comes home after a business meeting with his friend Grant (Richard Anderson) and wife. In the morning, he sees Jody and she tells a dramatic story of her life to him. David decides to help the young woman and goes to the town to buy clothes for her. Then he drives her to the bus station and gives some money to her. He meets Grant in a restaurant and when David is going to tell what happened to him, he sees Jody in the television and gives up. When David returns home, he finds Jody there. He picks up the phone to call the police and Jody threatens to accuse him of rape. Then three delinquents – the smart Ron (Peter Brown); the violent Buck (Skip Ward); and Midge (Diane Sayer) - come to David's house and afraid of a scandal, he becomes hostage of the situation. When Buck and Ron have an argument, Buck accidentally hurts Ron with a razor blade and Midge flees in their car. Now the delinquents want David to drive them to Tijuana to escape from the police. What will David do?

"Kitten with a Whip" is an anguishing film about a good and honest man that gets involved in a difficult situation that might destroy his career and personal life. Ann-Margret is a bipolar woman that controls the situation threatening the man with lies. The film is tense but David is too naive and has many chances to resolve the problem calling the police, especially after the arrival of Jody's friends. "Knock Knock" (2015) uses a similar storyline with a family man also "behind the eight ball". My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): Not Available on Blu-Ray or DVD.

This is definitely a guilty pleasure! Ann-Margret plays an amazingly over-the-top role here as a sexy bad-girl gone wild. She has escaped from reform school and has managed to hide out in the home of a real dumb guy--a guy too dumb to bother calling the police even when reports of her escape are plastered on TV! Then, as a result, she gets cocky and invites some low-lifes to party with her at his place.

The problem is that she is so ridiculously bad and her friends (particularly the guru-like leader) are even worse so that you might well find yourself laughing as NO ONE acts that way--not back in 1964--not ever! Talk about silly dialog!! And, to make it worse, the character played by John Forsythe is absolutely the dumbest and most ineffectual in screen history. As a result, while the production values are decent and the film looks nice, it's just very glossy trash--and very poorly written trash to boot! The bottom line is that this film is great for a laugh but little else.

The title says it all! A whip is not always a lash... the whip in the title of this cult movie favorite refers to the many ways and means sociopathic sex kitten Jody (Ann-Margaret) dominates and lashes out at everyone in her path. At one point she yanks and tugs the phone cord while the candidate for Senator (John Forsythe) is on the horn to his wife trying to act like nothing's the matter! Cmon, that length of wire is definitely a whip -in Jody's hands! Then later Jody flings a cocktail into the scratchmarks she's inflicted on Forsythe. She's whipping him back and forth, he just wants her to leave without any guilt or scandal- and she uses this over him at any given moment, not sparing herself, as her own guilt and confusion whips her from self-loathing to frenzied party animal in stacatto snaps - I find this movie full of innuendo, black humor, Hitchcockian situations, it's a guilty pleasure! The music is often reminiscent of Pete Rugolo's THRILLER TV soundtrack, and indeed, the director Douglas Heyes directed many of THRILLER's best episodes, including "The Cheaters" I give this two twisted thumbs up. Don't miss it!

Ann-Margret gets her first dramatic role, that of a delinquent sociopath named Jody who's all out for KICKS! The part stuck her with a 'bad girl' rep for a number of years, but the good news is A-M seems to relish this change of pace and gives an exceptionally strong performance. Unfortunately, the general handling of "Kitten With a Whip" is far too broad and quasi-colorful, and the film fails as a message picture, though its stale J-D clichés and overwrought dialogue ("You're so nothing painted blue!", "Where the hell is T-town?!") turns it into a dizzying dark comedy. John Forsythe plays a weakling politician who gets mixed up with the girl and her creepy post-teenage buddies, and the plot-developments become increasingly far-fetched. Still, the black-and-white cinematography is excellent, Ann-Margret is electric, and the pacing seldom flags. *** from ****

I wouldn't call "Kitten with a Whip" as bad as some of the movies that "Mystery Science Theater 3000" has riffed, but it's still basically a turkey. This story of a juvenile delinquent hiding in a senator's house comes as across as an excuse to show off Ann-Margret's body. The movie DOES have that going for it, but the rest of the cast doesn't have much to do.

To poke fun at the movie, Mike and the 'bots imply that a doll-filled room is Michael Jackson's room and say that an elderly man is Laurence Olivier. At one point they even meet an actual whip-bearing kitten (played by MST3K cast member Kevin Murphy).

Basically, it's the sort of movie that they probably had fun making. It was likely a surprise to everyone when Ann-Margret starred in "Carnal Knowledge", "Tommy" and "Magic". More recently she appeared in "Any Given Sunday" and the suspense thriller "Memory".

Seriously, Dr. Forrester. What's the big idea of using TV's Frank as a piñata?

Director Douglas Heyes oversaw 9 of the better Twilight Zone episodes, including the classic Eye of the Beholder, and one of the 2 or 3 best Boris Karloff Presents Thriller episodes (The Purple Room). Bringing this context to Kitten With A Whip, you realize you are in the hands of a master storyteller, and also, exactly what you are in for: a not-quite-fantasy but nonetheless feverishly nightmarish Twilight Zone episode.

As with the best TZ episodes, you are asked what you would do if something on the scale between patently impossible to utterly insane happened to you. The setup is simple. A mentally unbalanced teenager sneaks into your house while you are away, threatens you with accusations of rape and the destruction of your political ambition (which appear about to reach fruition) to gain control once you return home, and effectively takes over your life. It is like a typical TZ scenario, a Twilight Zone-style turning a character's 'normal' life on its head, and letting the angst and desperate quest for an out flow from there.

I see no big theme here, other than the noir theme of crazy fate putting its finger on you. That seems to be the entire point here. Separated from Serling's big theme plots that showed man against himself in the form of prejudice and fear, Heyes may seem a bit lost. But his directorial hand is sure as ever, and the story is as engrossingly told as that of any TZ episode. I suspect Heyes enjoyed taking TV's Bachelor Father and subverting the precepts of his bourgeois existence in the rudest, most thoroughly shaming way possible. Maybe, after all is said and done, it is through subversion that Heyes gets his chance to challenge the bourgeois status quo, as he did routinely while working with Serling. For many- and yes, possibly even the director- Kitten works as a jet black comedy.

This film doesn't have a great reputation, though among its undeniable assets it boasts a fine performance from a man often unfairly given the Bob Cummings light comic actor brush-off by Hollywood. John Forsythe would appear In Cold Blood a couple of years later, another film light years away from the scrubbed sitcom milieu.

8 stars. Give it a spin.

Ann-Margret in movie with oddly kinky title that has nothing to do with the story or plot of the film.

Ann-Margret plays juvenile delinquent escapee of reform school for girls (sound familiar?) and ends up in senator-to-be John Forsythe's house and all hell breaks loose.

Ann-Margret (as girl named Jody) utters such classic lines as "That's the Jody doll, you wind her up and she still turns up lousy!"

Trash camp fun!

Most juvenile delinquency films of the 1950s and early 60s were about the damage kids could inflict on themselves or their classmates. By 1964 America was perhaps subconsciously anticipating the fallout from being involved in Vietnam, and started to exhibit concern about youth's impact on the older generation. Kitten With A Whip may or not not have been Universal's answer to Paramount's Lady In A Cage, but both films convey the same message: the inmates are capable of taking over the asylum. By the end of the decade films like Wild In the Streets and Gas-s-s-s-s-s were taking this theme to its logical extreme.

Kitten With A Whip takes us on a surprisingly seedy tour of the youth underworld, and even though it's another conservative morality play with a happy ending, it serves as a valuable reminder of the social changes underway in the mid 60s. It's also incredibly entertaining.

I really can't understand the low rating here for a movie I enjoyed thoroughly from end to end. The two leads work well together with John Forsythe, more familiar from soap work on TV in later years, reminding me at times of a cut-rate Henry Fonda. Sure, Ann-Margaret tears the scenery up some, but let's not forget her character is supposed to be emotionally unbalanced, and that she's a woman frequently playing for sympathy, then threat, often within a few moments of each other. I found it more of a misjudgment that, as David, Forsythe never really acted a man coming unstuck as events crowded in on him.

No one I think has mentioned the music for this movie which is generally excellent, and which lifts, slightly rearranged, a couple of Mancini cues from Touch of Evil! They fit in quite effectively. Director Heyes, who largely worked within television does an excellent job with some interesting set ups (including the notable motel fight) while the cinematography, full of light and shade composition by the experienced Joseph Biroc, would have graced an A-production.

Ultimately this is an excellent exploitation movie with no slack scenes and a compelling narrative, albeit with some dated 'hip' dialogue, principally from the later, intruding, trio. I'd recommend it to anyone who is looking for the real thing. My DVD file is excellent, crisp and clear.

KWAW may be stuck in the ill-paced cage of a '60s TV melodrama, but the source material from pulp author Wade Miller is downright Diana Russell, Ellen Bass, Laura Davis, Andrew Vachss and Judith Lewis Herman in 1985. Which is to say, sexually abused hottie teener goes manipulative, man-hating borderline barracuda.

"Borderline" is the operative word here, yet it was almost unknown back in '64. And it wasn't until the dawn of the feminist movement in psychotherapy in the late '70s or so that =anybody= much connected the sort of character Ann's playing here to serial incest and/or molestation.

At the time, in fact, most of the so-called "authorities" on juvenile delinquency thought runaway girls were just "evil." That most of them =were= what Jody claims to be was rarely given much credence in the '60s. And it was well into the '80s before most psychotherapists understood that "borderline personality disorder" was the expectable result.

Miller has it down. Borderlines =are= little girls in adult bodies who fear... and rage... and need... and hate... and seduce... and abuse. And flip back and forth just as quickly as their emotional state of the moment demands. "Jody" may seem to be a little "cardboard" in her duplicity here, but hysteric borderlines often are. (Miller's "Jody" seems to be built on the most significant traits of the borderline personality described in the first Diagnostic and Statistical Manual back in 1952.)

Too bad the film wasn't directed by Stanley Kubrick who did a better job with a better book about the same topic two years earlier. That one was called "Lolita."

This movie actually does have some pretty interesting moments as it features a woman who hides in a guy's house where the guy finds out she's a criminal. The strongest parts of this film are easily in the first third. Ann-Margaret actually does a pretty good job in the leading role and she does know how to create some good moments of tension. It's a shame that after awhile the film really does fall apart. We get all of these other characters who get involved in the story and they take the limelight away from her.

It was getting hard to follow. Well, I never thought it was that great to begin with, but it definitely had better parts earlier on. I did like the re-emergence of Ann-Margaret more towards the end and it actually is creative at times. The title doesn't really mean anything and is just a metaphor. I do think it might have worked as just a short film around a half hour long. There's a lot of better stuff out there and a lot of worse stuff, so I guess it's just in the middle. **