by Linda Kay

Starring: Rhubarb (aka Orangey)

Directed by: Jack Arnold

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

Synopsis: True crime researcher Henry (Edward G. Robinson), who provides the sordid details on crimes for a television program’s writers, tests his knowledge of recreating perfect murders when the bombshell actress Paula (Kathleen Hughes) winds up dead.

Cat Burglar (Scene Stealer): Another man who falls into Paula’s web is the married Don (John Forsythe), who recounts in flashback how he started being blackmailed by the ruthless vixen. Paula’s pet ginger tabby cat Marco is introduced sitting on the back of Paula’s couch, from which she unceremoniously pushes him away.

Marco has a penchant for chewing on electrical cords before pulling them out of the wall. Don and Paula are sitting on the couch when they are plunged into darkness after Marco unplugs the lamp. Seemingly unconcerned for Marco’s safety as a consequence of this dangerous practice, they use the opportunity to kiss instead.

In the next scene, Don is holding Marco in his lap and appears to be giving him some kind of treat.

Marco is later shooed from the couch by Paula’s housekeeper (Helen Wallace).

At the point where the story takes a serious turn, Don arrives outside Paula’s apartment in time to hear her in a heated argument with Henry. Don hides in a nearby stairwell for a time before trying Paula’s door again, this time finding it unlocked. He enters to see an overturned chair and Marco chewing at some rope on the floor.

Rounding the couch, Don finds Paula’s lifeless body. Marco is mewing worriedly and sniffs at Don’s hand (hoping for another treat perhaps?) before the man pushes the cat away.

As Don checks to see if Paula is alive, Marco looks on with true concern on his little fuzzy face. The sweetest little rolled mews are dubbed in for Marco’s voice.

Marco has one last role in the film as Don leaves the apartment and is confronted by two intoxicated female party-goers from next door. He is trying to leave without being noticed but the girls try to cajole him into joining them. A record player has been repeatedly playing the song Temptation in Paula’s apartment and one of the girls knocks on the door and starts to enter, hoping to ask for the music to be turned off. The body is in danger of being discovered when Marco pulls the record player cord from the wall, stopping the music and preventing the girl from entering. (The record player somehow just stops all at once, it doesn’t even wind down!)

Behind the Scenes

There was a fair bit of publicity regarding feline star Rhubarb (whom we often refer to as The Orangey Team) in this film, often citing the 3-D aspect of the movie and that this was the first cat to star in a 3-D film. As it turned out, the 3-D version of the movie was rarely (if ever) screened, although it does exist.

Rhubarb was still enjoying name recognition from his namesake movie and columnists were happy to share his continued success with their reading audience, such as Sidney Skolsky’s blurb in his Hollywood is My Beat column published in the July 1, 1953 edition of the Los Angeles Evening Citizen:

     Edward G. Robinson is getting ready to do a scene for “The Glass Web,” and I learned a secret. It concerns a cat. In particular. Rhubarb, the cat which played the title role in “Rhubarb,” is playing Marco, the cat, in this movie. Thus becoming the first trained movie animal to appear in 3-D. This is not the secret.
    Frank Imms (sic), the famous cat trainer, whispered that it took 36 Rhubarbs to play the part in that picture, and he’s using eight Rhubarbs to play Marco in this one.
    “Cats learn only one trick well,” Imms (sic) told me. “When they need another trick, I just get another cat.”

Press releases must have been sent out by the movie studio (or possibly by trainer Frank Inn himself), as Howard McClay also mentioned the kitty thespian in his column for the Daily News on July 6, 1953:

    MEOW! — Amateurs are O.K. for an occasional flash-in-the-pan success, but in Hollywood, says Rhubarb, it takes a pro to maintain the steady race under pressure.
    The famous orange-colored feline star, who made his mark in the film capital in a picture after his own name, was referring to his recent casting as the only witness to a murder in Universal-International’s 3-D thriller, “The Glass Web,” with Edward G. Robinson, John Forsythe, Marcia Henderson and Kathleen Hughes.
    While the role is not as large — or as whimsical — as the one in “Rhubarb,” it calls for special dramatic talent. Well, as dramatic as a cat can get. U-I tested 37 (somebody counted them?) amateur alley cats before Rhubarb was chosen.
    “The studio would have saved lots of time and trouble if they’d called me in the first place,” Rhubarb purred. “You’ve got to know what you’re doing to play that part in ‘The Glass Web.’ Who ever heard of a square cat?”
    Of course, Rhubarb tactfully refrained from bringing up the fact that he was just a plain old alley cat himself not so long ago.

Another odd story about Rhubarb’s role in the film made its way into newspapers such as the Honolulu Star Bulletin and The World’s News, published in July and August 1953 respectively:

    Even Rhubarb has to dye for his art. The orange-colored cat is a brunette in The Glass Web at U-I, to contrast with blonde star star Kathleen Hughes!

Since the film is in black and white it is impossible to tell if the cat team went through any such transformation of fur color, but it isn’t readily obvious if it happened.

Bridget Jones (not of Diary fame) jumped on the Rhubarb bandwagon, including a blurb about him in her Telling Tales column published in the October 9-11, 1953 edition of Reveille which focused mainly on famous animal actors:

    Rhubarb, for instance, is an ordinary alley cat living in the lap of luxury these days. He was the star of a Paramount film of that name and such a hit that Universal-International immediately put him under contract to play a big role in “The Glass Web.”
    Along with other stars Rhubarb now has his own dressing-room specially fitted with mouseskin covered carpeting in his “house” and toy rats on rollers to play with between scenes.

But with success comes scandal, and by far the most interesting (and entertaining) story to come out of the publicity department for The Glass Web involved Rhubarb attacking one of his defenseless fellow co-stars. This tidbit came from Helen Bower in her Star Gazing column for the Detroit Free Press published on December 18, 1953:

    Our old friend Rhubarb, who once starred as the cat that inherited a baseball team, appears in “The Glass Web,” opening next Wednesday at the Broadway Capitol Theatre.
    As the pet of Kathleen Hughes, Rhubarb was supposed to lie quietly on a couch during a love scene between Miss Hughes and John Forsythe.
    To the dismayed astonishment of all, the cat suddenly leapt across the set and pounced on a stuffed panda the property man had put on a chair as a decorative touch. Not only did Rhubarb tear the panda apart in growling rage, but he worked himself to such an emotional state that it took half an hour before filming of the scene could be resumed.

And, finally, yet another article, this time unrelated to Rhubarb, explained how actress Kathleen Hughes prepared for her part by studying her own four cats and their mannerisms to play the part of the catty Paula.

Final Mewsings: It’s probably not a good idea to train a cat to chew on electrical cords.

Many thanks to Mark Murton for letting me know about the cat in this film.

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