by Ted Davis and Linda Kay

Starring: Felix

Directed by: Arthur Rosson

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

Synopsis: In this breezy comedy-mystery, the dapper silk-hatted Mr. Green (Raymond Griffith), city coroner, must solve the murder of district attorney Mr. White (Edward Martindel) within an hour to use the theater tickets which are burning a hole in his pocket, and that doesn’t even include the time it takes him to romance eye-catching suspect Dorothy (Dorothy Sebastian).

Cat Burglar (Scene Stealer): A very active black cat with a small white blaze on his chest is prominent throughout the movie, but is extremely busy during the first act. During a swanky party on a palatial houseboat, the black cat examines a combination calendar-clock-barometer gadget before hopping down from the covered table. The ominous date, pointedly displayed, is Friday the 13th.

The kitty picks a spot to lounge next to a man and woman with only their shod feet and lower legs being visible. The woman drops a necklace on the cat who departs immediately as the female hand reaches for the necklace and the male hand forcibly stops her.

The cat trots nonchalantly across a card table, then down from the table past another man and woman, who also are visible only by their shoes and lower legs. This woman drops an ornamental compact, causing the mirror inside to break.

By this time we realize the black cat is supposedly bringing bad luck to those he encounters. He scoots by the legs of a different man and woman sitting close together on a couch. They are joined by an additional woman who stands over them. The end of the cat’s tail can still be seen at this point; he seems to be sticking around long enough to watch the male and female move apart and the new woman sit pointedly between them.

Next, a couple of partygoers leave the ballroom, accompanied by the socially inclined black cat who hesitates briefly in the doorway before tagging after them.

The cat reaches the imposing Mr. White, and raises up briefly to bop him on the knee, then bustles off.

Moments later, as the chastened revelers approach Mr. White’s fresh corpse, the cat sits calmly in front of the murder victim. (The cat is not seen in the long shot.)

The spunky cat gets a close up between the shot of a couple overturning a card table and the arrival of the first policeman.

As the stolid policemen face front awaiting the arrival of the coroner, the door opens behind them, first admitting the kitty who sprints off to the left, followed immediately through the doorway by our hero Mr. Green.

Just after Mr. Green strikes a comically over-dramatic pose during the interrogation of a suspect, exclaiming “If I accuse you falsely — I hope heaven strikes me!”, a vase crashes down on him from the skylight above. The stunned but not seriously injured Green and the other guests look up to the skylight opening to see the mischievous feline peeking down at them. The cat is gathered up quickly by Mr. Gray (Granville Redmond), Mr. White’s deaf and mute valet.

Later the black cat nudges open a window to commit the untimely interruption of Mr. Green’s wooing of the not unreceptive Dorothy. The cat comments on the proceedings with a couple of brief meows then scurries away.

Mr. Green, Mr. Gray and two policemen look up again at the skylight opening to see the cat peering down at them from his station.

A second murder occurs, a close reprise of the first one, with the calm cat standing with one paw on the corpse as the party guests approach. (As in the first murder scene, the cat is not seen in the long shot.)

An interesting dissolve between this shot and the next has the cat’s eyes aligning perfectly with two lit sconces in the background!

Behind the Scenes

The scene stealing cat actor was apparently named Felix and he received his own notation in the film’s press release which was picked up by numerous newspapers around the time of the film’s release, as seen in the example below:

Felix Just Won’t Behave for Ray!

Black Cat is Cause of Trouble on ‘You’d Be Surprised’ Set

    The biggest job encountered since Raymond Griffith began the filming of “You’d Be Surprised,” has been the photographing of a black cat. The cat, Felix, shows a preference to “do his stuff” as an actor any place except in the scene and it keeps William Marshall, chief cameraman with this unit, continually using his wits to devise means of recording on celluloid the animal’s antics. — Hollywood Daily Citizen – July 8, 1926

The Times Colonist, British Columbia, Canada, added the line “The cat introduces some rare comedy into the picture,” to the above story.

Final Mewsings: Black cats only intend to share love, not bad luck!

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