Directed by: Paul Sloane

Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!

Synopsis: A yacht is found seemingly abandoned apart from a few corpses in the middle of the ocean. Flashbacks explain what happened.

Cat Burglars (Scene Stealers): The crew of the ship which finds the yacht searches for answers to the mystery. The captain named Swanson (Stanley Fields) enters the galley where he finds a black cat eating some food on a table surrounded by numerous open tin cans.

During the flashback scene, it turns out the man who chartered the trip, Maximilian Kreig (John Halliday) has learned that he is a wanted man for his dirty financial dealings and will be arrested if he returns to the States. He comes up with the brilliant plan to kill everyone on board and flee instead. His plan is temporarily put on hold when Jim Cowles (Neil Hamilton) the former boyfriend of Kreig’s intended, Lili (Shirley Grey), is found on a downed plane floating in the ocean. Even more surprising is when Jim opens his suit to reveal a tiny longhair white kitten tucked inside.

Kreig calls for the steward, Blackie (Charles Ruggles), to come tend to Jim. As Blackie looks out a porthole, he sees the ship’s black cat. Blackie is highly superstitious and counts the cat as just one of the bad omens to plague the yacht (actually black cats are considered good luck on British ships).

Jim explains to Blackie about his mascot, and Blackie is relieved to see the kitten is white, taking that as a good omen. Jim asks Blackie to take good care of the kitten. “I’ll be just like a mother to him,” Blackie promises. “All he really needs now is some milk,” Jim says, to which Blackie responds with a look of concern.

As more people are murdered, the crew decides to abandon the yacht. Blackie is in the lifeboat with them then tells them to wait and hurries off. While he is gone, Kreig threatens the crew, shooting one man and causing the boat to crash down and drop the men in the water. Blackie returns with the kitten and sees what has happened. He kisses the kitten, his new good luck charm.

Seeking shelter, Blackie finds another dead body then accidentally locks himself and the kitten in a wine storage room. He is about to hit the door with a bottle when he stops.

When Blackie is finally found, he is drunk. The kitten is sitting in an ice bucket.

At the end of the film, Lili, Jim and Blackie are standing on the deck of the rescue ship watching the yacht burn and sink. Blackie goes to kiss the kitten again, kissing its bottom by mistake before turning it over to kiss the head.

Final Mewsings: It’s a shame they couldn’t have saved the black cat as well!

Many thanks to Ted Davis for letting us know about the cats in this film.

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