by Linda Kay
Also Known As: His English Wife; Die Lady ohne Schleier; Discord
Directed by: Gustaf Molander
Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!
Synopsis: Cathleen Paget (Lil Dagover) is an English widow who married for money and finds herself broke after her year of bereavement thanks to her spendthrift brother. Her family plots to marry Cathleen to a wealthy former prospect from Sweden named Birger Holm (Urho Somersalmi) but she is actually in love with society slime ball Ivor Willington (Gösta Ekman). After catching Willington with another woman she agrees to marry Holm but can she really get over Willington?
Cat Burglar (Scene Stealer): Birger Holm owns timberland in the northern part of Sweden and is holding a beautiful fluffy white cat outside his cabin when we first see him greeting lumberjacks as they return from their work.
His friend (Eric Gustafson) has a letter addressed to Holm and notices it smells of perfume.
The cat sits patiently as the friend reads the letter from Cathleen aloud. In it she says she is taking a vacation and would love to stop by. Holm seems both amused and apprehensive about this request.
Cathleen and her family make a rest stop near the lumber camp and almost immediately she manages to fall into the river. Holm rescues her and carries her to his cabin where he respectfully removes her clothes and puts her to bed to warm up. When Cathleen awakens the first thing she sees is the cat sitting on the windowsill.
Cathleen does not recognize Holm and mistakes him for a rugged Swedish lumberjack who speaks no English. He plays along with this and gathers his cat to leave Cathleen to rest.
Her anxious family, mother Mrs. Brock (Karin Swanström), brother Bruce (Håkan Westergren) and sister Poppy (Brita Appelgren) arrive at the cabin frantic with worry. Holm does not allow them to barge into Cathleen’s room but, still holding his cat, he opens the door to show them she is all right. Also believing him to be just a poor, dumb lumberjack, they offer him money. He plays along and mimes to them that Cathleen must rest for two hours.
It isn’t until they arrive at the Holms’ mansion that the Brock family realizes their mistake. Cathleen had been attracted to Holm when she thought he was just a lumberjack and he seems to realize the purpose of her sudden interest in him. But he has an affection for her and agrees to marry her. After the wedding the Brock family returns to England and Cathleen moves in with Holm and his mother (Stina Berg). But after only a short time she finds life in northern Sweden boring and gets resentful about her position, wishing to return to the gay London night life. Her pet French bulldog has also moved into the house and in one scene the cat comes down the stairs, prompting the dog to take chase.
The cat leaps to the top of a wardrobe and hisses at the dog from that position. This is clearly meant to represent the discord about to take place between Cathleen and Holm.
Final Mewsings: Never mind the man’s money, we’ll marry Holm for the cat!
Many thanks to Ted Davis for letting us know about the cat in this film.
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