Cat Chaser
| Cat Chaser | |
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DVD cover
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| Directed by | Abel Ferrara |
| Produced by | Peter S. Davis William N. Panzer |
| Written by |
Elmore Leonard James Borelli |
| Starring |
Peter Weller Kelly McGillis |
| Narrated by | Reni Santoni |
| Music by | Chick Corea |
| Cinematography | Anthony B. Richmond |
| Edited by | Anthony Redman |
| Distributed by | Vestron Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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90 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Cat Chaser is a 1989 film directed by Abel Ferrara and starring Peter Weller and Kelly McGillis, based on the novel of the same name by Elmore Leonard. It was adapted from the novel by Leonard and James Borelli.
A three-hour raw cut of "Cat Chaser" was screened at Anthology Film Archives in New York City in the summer of 2014. Ferrara, Weller and others involved are very unhappy with the released version, particularly with the added omniscient narration (Weller refused to provide this narration, which was not culled from the novel, so producers Peter Davis and William Panzer hired actor Reni Santoni instead).
George Moran is a former American paratrooper and veteran of the Dominican Republic intervention who now runs a small beachfront motel in Miami. While searching for a Dominican woman named Luci Palma who saved his life in 1965 (and gave him the nickname "Cat Chaser"), he begins a relationship with Mary DeBoya, the wealthy, unhappy wife of a sadistic former Dominican general. Moran gets involved in a plot by fellow military veteran Nolen Tyner and a former New York policeman, Jiggs Scully, to rip off the general. Moran must elude a number of double-crosses as he and Mary attempt to gain her freedom plus $2 million of the general's money.
The film was shot in Old San Juan and Miami and Coral Gables, Florida, as the crew decided shooting on location in Santo Domingo would be too dangerous and costly after scouting there.
Filming was not a happy experience for McGillis, who didn't make another major film afterwards for almost a decade. She said in 2001: "It was the most hateful experience of my life, and I said, if this is what acting is going to be, I will not do it. On the last day of shooting, I said to Abel, 'Are you done with me?' He said, 'Yeah.' I walked in my trailer and shaved my head. I said, 'Screw you, I never want to act again.'"
In a 2015 oral history of the making of "Cat Chaser," written by Sam Weisberg of Hidden Films, Peter Weller and various crew members acknowledged that Weller and McGillis openly clashed during filming, though Weller maintained that he never found out the reason for it. Several crew members confirmed that McGillis stormed off the set after shooting a love scene with Weller, though they differed on the exact cause of her outburst.
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Wikipedia