When the film begins, Frank Lucas (Kent Smith) opens up a mummy case and finds a VERY strange mummy. Its body is human but the head looks like a cat...much like the ancient Egyptian god, Bastet. Soon, the creature comes to life and kills him! Surely this is a tad unusual!Soon a nice young woman leaves work and on her way home, sees a nice black kitty and takes it home. Little does she know but it's the cat form of that mummy from the beginning of the picture and it soon hypnotizes her and makes her off herself!! This cat is one ungrateful creature, as the woman was trying her best to be kind to the creature...BAD KITTY!!!You soon learn that the dead woman worked at an occult bookstore run by Hester Black (Gale Sondergaard)...a most unusual old lady! She has just hired a woman (Meredith Baxter with dark hair--according to IMDb, it was a wig) to replace the one who just jumped to her death. Next, the detective investigating the case (Stuart Whitman) invites an archaeologist (David Hedison) to help him with the first murder. After all, the empty mummy case was there and Lucas was killed while examining the mummy inside. But the archaeologist notices that the mummy is gone and didn't disintegrate...there was no dust nor bandages. Instead, he tells the detective a goofy story about a cat cult that existed up until the 4th century BC and how its followers had the power to turn into cats at will!!! Yeah...okay....the cat cult.The trail leads the two to Hester's weird occult shop. There they put 2 and 2 together...and realize the dead woman used to work in that shop! So what's next and how will this new shop employee figure into all this? See the film.There is a lot of dopey religious mumbo-jumbo and the plot is silly when you learn the whole story. HOWEVER, at the same time, it's also highly entertaining...in a kitschy sort of way. So although stupid, some folks enjoy a silly horror film and this one certainly IS silly! Enjoyable and outrageous! The ending had me in stitches!!!!!!! Clearly a case where it's so bad, it's good!A WORD OF NOTE: In the film is a tiny part played by Peter Lorre Jr. (the pawnbroker). It is important to point out that he is NOT related in any way to Peter Lorre and Lorre in fact sued to force him to stop using this fictitious name. I have no idea what happened to this jerk....but I am glad he apparently just disappeared from films.

I haven't seen this movie since I was a kid in 1973,and have looked for it for years. Recently found it on You Tube. I remember being impressed with the eeriness film and the scary visuals of the ending, even though you know who the priestess is. However, what lessens the films enjoyment for me seeing it again is the appearance of abuse of cats, with an unnecessary plot device of alley cats surrounding and eventually attacking the priestess. It appears the cats were starved to congregate around the victims and thrown onto the victims, a lot like what was done with rats in Willard. I am glad we live in more animal conscience times. 2.5 out of 4 stars

An old attorney is in charge of cataloging a wealthy estate and is later found murdered near a mummy sarcophagus. On the case is Lt. Marco (Stuart Whitman), who quickly finds out that an amulet of Baast, the Egyptian cat goddess, was stolen. He enlists the help of Prof. Roger Edmonds (David Hedison) and they soon find themselves centering on an occult shop run by Hester Black (Gale Sondergaard) and her new assistant Rena Carter (Meredith Baxter). She admits a thief (Keye Luke) came by to try and sell the amulet, but she turned him away as she is out of the fencing game. Meanwhile, folks all over L.A. are being murdered with cat-like scratches found on their bodies. This ABC Movie of the Week was a return to TV for director Curtis Harrington (after his theatrical features WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH HELEN?, WHOEVER SLEW AUNITE ROO? and THE KILLING KIND). He definitely was looking to get into the Val Lewton mold a la THE CAT PEOPLE and it is pretty successful. The script by Robert Bloch moves quickly and there are some great performances in here. The best is Sondergaard as Hester Black, which might be one of the greatest names ever. Another interesting thing is Harrington, who was gay, fills the film with subtle gay moments (like Hester always asking her younger co-workers out for dinner and getting rejected).

This was another ABC television movie. Great modern take on the old Egyptian mummy curse idea. When the movie opens, the appraiser is going through the late millionaire's collection of Egyptian artefacts, some of which might have been smuggled. We are left to assume that the collector simply died from natural causes. We don't see the collector in the movie at all. We're given a quick overview of why the appraiser is there and that's it.The murders don't start until a thief steals the heavy gold amulet from around the mummy's neck, if you remember. Said mummy was a priestess from the cult of Bast, the cat goddess, and the amulet was meant to imprison the spirit of the priestess.Elements of the old detective story are blended with the supernatural in this tale. We are kept guessing until the very end as to the identity of the mysterious killer.Great special effects in the scene when David Hedison finally has the showdown with the cat creature!