Lon McCallister plays Danny Turner, who returns to his late mother’s home from the city during the depression of the 1930s, hoping to find work with Tom Eggers, a man she once wanted to marry.
He unwittingly steps into an old feud between Tom (Preston Foster) and Gil Hawks (Forrest Tucker), an uncle who wouldn’t let that marriage happen.
He also discovers Tom’s business — the one he hoped to work for — has gone under, and the area is suffering from a drought.
If that’s not enough, the drought has forced a cougar out of the hills in search of water and food.
And that means the animal is killing stock on the nearby ranches.
With a $150 bounty on the cougar’s head, everyone hopes to cash in.
That’s especially true of Tom, who sees the bounty and Danny’s arrival as a chance to revive his tanning business.
Lon McCallister as Danny Turner, the young man who travels west to live with the man his mom once wanted to marry in The Big Cat (1949)
Preston Foster as Tom Eggers meeting Danny Turner, his formr fiance’s son in The Big Cat (1949)
Review:
Pretty-well done family film. While Foster and Tucker provide the sparks, Irving Bacon also turns in a solid performance as the down-on-his luck farmer who does the preaching on Sundays and tries to keep his neighbors from each other’s throat.
His teenage daughter Doris wants to do some sparking of her own. Peggy Ann Garner plays the young girl smitten with Danny — after all, there aren’t many opportunities to meet new boys in the wilds of Wyoming — and is frustrated because his attention usually seems to be elsewhere.
Garner was 17 when this film was made and four years removed from winning a special Academy Award for her role in “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” (1945). She’d appear in just three more films, doing most of her subsequent work in theater and on TV.
This also features an early role by Skip Homeier, then 18, as one of Gil Hawks’ sons. He’d get the attention of Western fans a year later as the hotshot young gunman who wants to challenge Gregory Peck in “The Gunfighter.”
In contrast, Lon McCallister was an old-timer at age 26, though he looked much younger. He made just five films after this one, including “Montana Territory” in 1952.
Forrest Tucker as Gil Hawks, the man feuding with Tom Eggers in The Big Cat (1949)
Peggy Ann Garner as Doris Cooper, the young girl infatuated with newcomer Danny Turner in The Big Cat (1949)
Directed by:
Phil Karlson
Cast:
Lon McCallister … Danny Turner
Peggy Ann Garner … Doris Cooper
Preston Foster … Tom Eggers
Forrest Tucker … Gil Hawks
Skip Homeier … Jim Hawks
Sara Haden … Mrs. Cooper
Irving Bacon … Matt Cooper
Gene Reynolds … Wid Hawks
Runtime: 75 min.
Irving Bacon as Matt Cooper, the man who tries to keep the peace in The Big Cat (1949)
Sara Haden as Mrs. Cooper, Doris’s mom in The Big Cat (1949)
Memorable lines:
Danny Turner: “First, I get blamed for being jumped by a lion. Then I get pushed out of a wagon. Now I get thrown out of here. If this is your Western hospitality, you can have it. I’ll be lucky if I’m not shot before I get to Tom Eggers’ place.”
Doris Cooper, as the family eats dinner: “I think it’s wonderful that you’re going to stay here, Danny. I have a lot of things we can do. In the fall, we can go berry picking and duck shooting. In the winter, we can always go skiing and skating on the lake. Do you like to skate?”
Danny: “Well.”
Doris: “And then we can always go ice fishing. And then there’s sleigh rides and dances.”
Matt Cooper, her dad: “Whoa, whoa, whoa, Doris. You’ve got Danny plum tuckered out.”
Tom Eggers to Matt Cooper after he’s broken up a fight, at gunpoint: “Ain’t you forgettin’ this is my property?”
Matt Cooper: “Ain’t you forgettin’ this is my gun?”
Preston Foster as Tom Eggers takes Danny Turner (Lon McCallister) hunting in The Big Cat (1949)
Irving Bacon as Matt Cooper trying to separate Tom Eggers (Preston Foster) and Gil Hawks (Forrest Tucker) in The Big Cat (1949)
){kind=link}