by Linda Kay

Directed by: Allan Dwan

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

Synopsis: Dick Remington (Douglas Fairbanks) impersonates his college friend Reginald Burroughs (Leslie Stuart) to save Reginald from having to marry a woman his family has chosen. In the process, Dick falls for Mary McCulloughan (Wanda Hawley), an orphaned young woman with multiple siblings, and brings her and the children to live in his friend’s family estate, despite the fact the Burroughs have historically been upper-class snobs.

Cat Burglar (Scene Stealer): Mary and her siblings have a small black cat who is first seen in the bedroom of their run down apartment. The landlord is warning Mary that he will only let her stay if she “is nice” to his downstairs clients. Dick scares off the guy and invites Mary and the family to leave with him.

When Mary and the children arrive at the mansion, one girl is carrying the cat in her arms. She sets the kitty down on a table next to the family’s bird in a cage.

The cat is later present when one of the Burroughs matrons puts the little girl to bed.

The cat isn’t seen again until the end of the film when Dick thinks Mary and the children have left, only to find they had been hiding upstairs. The girl is once again holding the cat in her arms.

As the family reconciles with everyone marrying whom they want and all animosity being set aside, a shot of the cat sitting beside the bird cage is included. It probably would have made more sense for the cat to sit next to the Burroughs’ Pekinese dog but maybe the animal actors were not compatible.

Final Mewsings: Whether we are upper class or lower class, cats look down on all of us.

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