For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

The short-lived trans-Atlantic studio Eagle-Lion gave both the English and American moviegoers this Depression Era tale of a young man going to live in the wilds of Wyoming to escape the growing poverty and joblessness in Philadelphia where he's from. He's got an uncle there in Forrest Tucker, but goes to live with his mother's old boyfriend Preston Foster who has a place. Foster and Tucker aren't exactly best friends and living between both of them and trying to keep peace is preacher/farmer Irving Bacon and his wife Sarah Haden and their daughter Peggy Ann Garner. Of course she prefers McCallister to Tucker's oafish kids Skip Homeier and Gene Reynolds.It's bad times like every where else. There's a drought, but also a mountain lion eating stock everywhere. The government has put a bounty on the cougar and Foster wants to collect it as he could use the money to jump start his ranch with significant timber holdings. Of course so could everyone else use the bounty money in those troubled times.The film is in bad need of restoration to bring out the lush color location cinematography. But without any truly big names in the cast the film I'm sure is far down the pecking order. The cast gives some decent performances with McCallister and Garner a nice young couple the audience can identify with.When it's restored I'm sure The Big Cat will be fine family viewing.

A young easterner returns to the drought affected valley where his mother grew up, aggravating the already intense feud between his mother's ex-fiancé and his estranged uncle. Complicating things even more is a huge mountain lion that holds the small community virtually hostage, killing precious livestock.Though not exactly politically correct, this is an outdoor adventure with a whole lot of heart. A simple folksy script, earnest performances, and excellent location photography make this almost impossible to resist.With all the limited resources of a low-budget film in nineteen-forty-nine, director Phil Karlson managed to pull off a minor miracle by getting believable performances out of the animals.

Set in Utah during 1933's drought and depression, this is the story of a city slicker going to the wilderness and looking up a friend of his mothers. He ends up getting involved with the daughter of one of the ranchers and hunting for a big mountain lion that has been attacking live stock and people. Dully made by rote this is a pot boiler tale set in the modern west that is a good cure for insomnia. To be certain the film has some stunning photography of the wilds of Utah, but the plot is so over blown and the acting, outside of Preston Foster and Forrest Tucker is merely adequate, making for a film that's best used as a sleep aide. To be honest I struggled to get through this film and found that toward the end I had reached for the remote of the DVD player. I'd take a pass.

Operating with a limited in number but generally talented group of eight actors, director Phil Karlson, soon to be known for his essays into noir, here creates an engrossing adventure film set in 1933 depression and drought wracked southern Utah, and incorporates many of the elements which later will prove vital to his deserved reputation as an important narrator of urban crime. Residents of a small secluded valley are being tormented by a large mountain lion which, due to a shortage of water, has invaded their region to prey upon livestock, and the bounty for the beast of $150 is coveted by two long-feuding neighbours, one of whom, Tom Eggers (Preston Foster) provides a place to live for a city-bred young man (Lon McCallister), the son of the former love of his host and also the nephew of Eggers' rival, Gil Hawks (Forrest Tucker). The well-crafted scenario includes elements of romance, suspense and humour to the basic plot, and a certain darkness of tone has raised the work above most others of its stamp, with crisp editing (Karlson and Harvey Manger) prevailing, and we enjoy particularly fine performances from Foster and McCallister, with a pleasingly large role for veteran character actor Irving Bacon, a standout as a farmer doubling as a preacher.