Kitten with a Whip

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.

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 ****

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.

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.

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.