Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		2.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.0

Kitten with a Whip Blu-ray Movie Review

Throw me the idol I'll throw you the kitten with a whip!

Reviewed by Martin Liebman February 3, 2020

A curious one, Kitten with a Whip is. The 1964 film features Ann-Margret pitted against John Forsythe in a story with little in the way of identifiable purpose. Partly playful turns to somewhat scary and a little violent for good measure as a peculiar relationship takes several odd turns along the way. Douglas Heyes, whose background prior to Kitten saw him behind the camera on several popular television series (Maverick, The Twilight Zone, The Virginian), directs with a little uncertainty of purpose and story coherence. The picture moves breezily enough at under 90 minutes, but it ultimately bears little fruit in terms of its dramatic fulfillment, favoring situational awareness over the long haul approach.

A politician named David Stratton (John Forsythe), with aspirations of a senate position, finds a woman asleep in his bed while his wife is away. He’s never seen her before but she’s essentially moved right on in and quickly convinces her reluctant host to keep her at his home, and to keep her a secret. It turns out that Jody (Ann-Margret) is a juvenile hall escapee with a growing criminal record to her name. Despite this new information, David keeps her hidden, fearing political backlash, but things take a turn for the worse when several of her friends arrive at his home, transforming the dynamic and putting David, his family, his career -- everything he holds dear -- in jeopardy.

The movie is quite straightforward but also somewhat reluctant to build a compelling narrative and give reason for the audience to be drawn into the story rather than simply watch it unfold from afar. There's little in terms of dynamic narrative manipulation. The filmmakers favor a more straightforward approach, allowing the novelty of the situation, the growing uncertainty, the vice slowly gripping around David, and the inescapable invasion that follows to offer enough tension without building and shaping any sort of more convoluted story. The audience is challenged to fill in some of the pieces, refreshing in a way, but at the same time a little frustrating. The movie is of the give-and-take variety, having much to offer but at the same time building little in the way of a firm foundation on which to build and firmer footing for the audience.

Through it all, though, are currents of intense and interesting psychological drama, real and perceived, spelled out and left for the audience to unravel. Is there more to her invasion of his home? Is there an underlying political motive? It’s fun to watch Jody manipulate David, a politician who should have his head on a swivel and be keen in the way of the scheme and scam, but Jody is always one step ahead and only seems to tighten her grip on her stay when the truth is eventually revealed. The film takes a number of interesting turns along the way, with the action shifting out of the house, but it is in the first act where the film is at its strongest, when the interplay is limited to Jody and David and the story slowly takes it form. This is a classic example of a story of spiraling events and consequences, supported by a few intriguing performances, but none of it is quite enough to elevate the film beyond a curiosity.

Kitten with a Whip Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: IMDB lists this film's original aspect ratio as 2.00:1; Universal's Blu-ray is presented at a slightly more open 1.85:1.

Kitten with a Whip's 1080p transfer passes as acceptable but struggles to reach anything close to resembling perfection. The picture appears heavily processed. It's very digital rather than filmic in its appearance. It appears overly sharpened and grain is chunky as a result. The picture is not destroyed, however; fine detail remains with somewhat impressive clarity and definition, but the overall feel of processing reduces quality by a fair bit. Still, close-ups fare well enough, showing off essential skin, clothing, and location details with effective definition. The grayscale presentation is pleasant. Brights are crisp and blacks are solidly deep without crushing details or lightening around the frame, while the midrange grays enjoy quality gradation. There is some serious white bloom surrounding the opening titles. Banding is evident in places (see the 3:50 mark), compression issues are occasionally visible, and the odd speckle appears throughout. The image would have been better without the digital tampering, but it's adequate as it is.

Kitten with a Whip Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Kitten with a Whip purrs onto Blu-ray with a serviceable but imperfect DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack. The presentation includes a slight underlying hiss, at times, to keep with the feline lingo. It's mild and comes and goes with dialogue. The spoken word does position in a center imaged location with occasional drift away towards the sides (listen to a conversation around the 45-minute mark). General dialogue clarity is decent but does struggle with sounding a little tinny at times while also a bit loud at reference volume. Music and effects present with adequate width but also struggle to hold firm, lifelike fidelity. Like dialogue, both are a bit boosted at reference listening levels. The track certainly carries the material well enough but listeners wishing for a more fruitful, accurate presentation will be left listening to various shortcomings along the way.

Kitten with a Whip Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Kitten with a Whip contains no supplements content. There is no top menu screen; pressing the top menu button returns users to the player's menu screen, requiring a disc restart. The pop up menu offers only crude text options to toggle subtitles on and off. No DVD or digital copies are included with purchase. This disc does not ship with a slipcover.

Kitten with a Whip Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Kitten with a Whip builds a quickly interesting and pulse-pounding premise but never quite goes anywhere all that satisfying with it. The movie offers several juicy undercurrents and quality character dynamics but settles on leaving the audience to sort out some of the details rather than be spoon-fed the whole truth. And that's at least refreshing. But it's also a bit too opaque to truly elevate the material; in the hands of a Hitchcock type the movie may have very well worked much better. Universal's featureless MOD release delivers troubled, but passable, 1080p video and two-channel lossless audio. Worth a look at an aggressive sale price.