MovieChat Forums > Eye of the Cat (1969) Discussion > How did they get the cats to do that?

How did they get the cats to do that?


Just watched this again, going through old videotapes.

And I'm boggled at what they got those cats to do. There's a good reason why impossible tasks are sometimes equated to herding cats: mogs aren't much interested in training. I've seen some extraordinary performances in a Russian Cat Circus, but they were athletic tasks, that the cats were taught to perform by rote over long periods, with encouragement and reward.

The mogs in this film did things like swarming after someone carrying a bowl of (alleged) bloody meat. They climbed over the actors and each other to get at it. I just don't see how you get a crowd of cats to do that, even if they're desperate. And if they are desperate, I wouldn't want to put an expensive principle actor in the middle of it! I once, with two other burly guys, attempted to put an unwilling cat into a box to take it to a vet to have an abscess treated. It beat all three of us to bloody pulp. Those little guys are strong. And they're armed.

I'm mystified about how they did it. And I'm unable to understand how they could have done it without being pretty nasty to the cats.

Anybody know?

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i wish I had a copy of this film, you are very lucky!
When I mention it, no one knows what I'm talking about.

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I don't know for sure, but since a lot of the time it seemed like the cats and the terror weren't really connected, like they just irritated the cats individually and filmed their reactions, or dragged a fake mouse around and 30 cats went running after it, and then they intercut those scenes with the terror and made it seem connected and added the cat sounds. I especially think this since in many of the scenes where you see the cats and the people the cats are after in the same shot, the cats seem pretty docile and just kind of there. Editing does wonders...

I'm curious about what they put in the meat to make the cats attack it like that. Either they starved them, or that was some really delicious mouse meat/kibble




"The success of the horror genre has led to its downfall."
-Dario Argento

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Judging from the way the cats went after the meat I would say that they were deliberately starved.

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