THAT DARN CAT.
US, 1965, 116 minutes, Colour.
Hayley Mills, Dean Jones, Dorothy Provine, Roddy McDowell?, Neville Brand, Elsa Lanchester, William Demarist, Frank Gorshin, Richard Eastham, Grayson Hall, Tom Lowell.
Directed by Robert Stevenson.
In the first half of the 1960s, Hayley Mills appeared in half a dozen Disney features, beginning with Pollyanna and The Parent Trap. This film was the last.
It is an engaging film with Hayley Mills and her pet cat DC, and the solving of an abduction and robbery because Miss Miller from the bank puts her watch around DC’s neck arousing the curiosity of Patti, Hayley Mills.
There are some subsidiary characters including Elsa Lanchester as the snooping busybody neighbour and William Demarest as her hard-hitting husband who can turn off his hearing aids when necessary. Roddy McDowell? is a fussy man, living with his mother, driving Patti’s sister, Ingrid, Dorothy Provine, to work and back.
Neville Brand and Frank Gorshin are the robbers – both serious and comic, Gorshin prone to pratfalls.
When Patti goes to the FBI, Dean Jones is the agent assigned, with a squad following DC, lots of mistakes, but finally solving the case.
The film was directed by Robert Stevenson who made very many Disney films, including Mary Poppins, after beginning his career in England with films like King Solomon’s Mines and Tom Brown’s Schooldays, moving to the US and directing Jane Eyre and a number of thrillers.
The film was remade in 1997, with Christina Ricci as a very unsympathetic Patti, comedian Doug E. Doug as the FBI agent and a whole host of veteran stars in supporting roles, glossy but not as entertaining as the original.
1. The popularity of Disney live action films in the 1960s? Cartoonish in style? The presence of Hayley Mills in so many Disney films? Dean Jones?
2. The city, homes, police, the banks, the streets? Ordinary? The musical score, the Sherman Bros song?
3. DC, the title, audience response to cats? DC wandering, attacking people, the robbers’ apartment, the reactions? Miss Miller as a hostage? The watch on DCs neck? Patti noticing? DC and his seemingly human ways, responding to people’s conversations? His instincts? The tests, his wandering, people following? His causing allergies? Gregory, the issue of the duck, and his getting the gun, his hostility towards DC?
4. Hayley Mills is Patti, going out with Canoe, the drive in, surfing films, always eating? The neighbour and her suspicions? Patti ousting Canoe, his coming to the door, not being let in, following, suspicious, getting stuck in the garage door?
5. Ingrid, the older sister, Gregory driving her to and from work? Attitudes towards DC? Coming home, finding the FBI using her room as headquarters, upset, locked in the cupboard, being rescued by Kelso? Her coming inside, involved, and the attraction towards Kelso? The future with him?
6. Mrs Mc Dougal, tensions with her husband, busybody, looking at the window, always suspicious, voicing her suspicions, continuing to snoop, making judgements? Her husband making the phone call, saying that there was a prowler disguised as a woman…!
7. Kelso, FBI work, Patti seeing him, choosing him, going to his desk, the story, the police chief, listening, far-fetched? Kelso coming, the headquarters and Ingrid? His allergies and sneezing? An eye on DC, following, the comic situation with the variety of police, DC eluding them? Pratfalls?
8. Patti, going to the shop, the discussions with the shopkeeper, phoning and pretending about the watch, the FBI more alert?
9. Patti following Kelso, the picture of the thieves, bickering with each other, their plans, the landlady’s intrusion, the money in the cases? DC disturbing them? Attempting to escape? Being caught, the cash floating around?
10. The ending, Canoe and Patti? Ingrid and Kelso?
11. Comedy, slapstick, the touch of the serious?
