Under Milk Wood (1971)

Dec 10, 2025

by Mark Murton

Directed by: Andrew Sinclair

This review contains an Implied Kitty Carnage Warning!

Synopsis: Dylan Thomas’ celebrated “play for voices,” originally commissioned for BBC radio in 1954, charting a spring day in the lives of the inhabitants of the fictional Welsh seaside village of Llareggub, gets a straightforward and faithful transfer to film.

Kitty Cameos: “And the anthracite statues of the horses sleep in the fields, and the cows in the byres, and the dogs in the wetnosed yards; and the cats nap in the slant corners or lope sly, streaking and needling, on the one cloud of the roofs.”

Under Milk Wood - ginger and white tabby cats running across roof
Under Milk Wood - ginger and white tabby cats running across roof animated gif
Under Milk Wood - ginger and white tabby cat on roof
Under Milk Wood - ginger and white tabby cat running down road
Under Milk Wood - ginger and white tabby cat jumping down from roof and running up road animated gif

“Now, woken at last by the out-of-bed-sleepy-head-Polly-put-the-kettle-on townhall bell, Lily Smalls, Mrs. Beynon’s treasure, comes downstairs from a dream of royalty who all night long went larking with her full of sauce in the Milk Wood dark, and puts the kettle on the primus ring in Mrs. Beynon’s kitchen.”

Under Milk Wood - longhair black cat on table

MRS. BEYNON (Loudly, from above): Lily!
LILY SMALLS (Loudly): Yes, mum.
MRS. BEYNON: Where’s my tea, girl?
LILY SMALLS: (Softly) Where d’you think? (Places teapot in cat’s litter box)

Under Milk Wood - teapot in litter box next to longhair black cat

Implied Kitty Carnage Warning! “From Beynon Butchers in Coronation Street, the smell of fried liver sidles out with onions on its breath. And listen! In the dark breakfast-room behind the shop, Mr. and Mrs. Beynon, waited upon by their treasure, enjoy, between bites, their everymorning hullabaloo, and Mrs. Beynon slips the gristly bits under the tasselled tablecloth to her fat cat.”

Under Milk Wood - longhair black cat on table

MRS. BEYNON: She likes the liver, Ben.
MR. BEYNON: She ought to do, Bess. It’s her brother’s.

Under Milk Wood - Mrs. and Mrs. Beynon Mary Jones and Hubert Reed with Lily Meg Wynn Owen and longhair black cat on table

MRS. BEYNON (Screaming): Oh, d’you hear that, Lily?
LILY SMALLS: Yes, mum.
MRS. BEYNON: We’re eating pusscat.
LILY SMALLS: Yes, mum.
MRS. BEYNON: Oh, you cat-butcher!
MR. BEYNON: It was doctored, mind.
MRS. BEYNON (Hysterical): What’s that got to do with it?

Under Milk Wood - Mr. and Mrs. Beynon Mary Jones and Hubert Reed with Lily Meg Wynn Owen and longhair black cat on table

“All the women are out this morning, in the sun. You can tell it’s Spring … That’s Mrs. Dai Bread One, waltzing up the street like a jelly, every time she shakes it’s slap slap slap. Who’s that? Mrs. Butcher Beynon with her pet black cat, it follows her everywhere, miaow and all.”

Under Milk Wood - Mrs. Beynon holding longhair black cat with Mrs. Dai Bread One Dorothea Phillips
Under Milk Wood - Mrs. Beynon holding longhair black cat with Mrs. Dai Bread One Dorothea Phillips

“And high above, in Salt Lake Farm, Mr. Utah Watkins counts, all night, the wife-faced sheep as they leap the fences on the hill, smiling and knitting and bleating just like Mrs. Utah Watkins.”

Under Milk Wood - Mrs. longhair tabby and white cat on floor by knitting

Cast members featured in cat scenes:
Lily … Meg Wynn Owen
Mrs. Benyon … Mary Jones
Mr. Butcher Benyon … Hubert Rees
Mrs. Dai Bread One … Dorethea Phillips
Mrs. Utah Watkins … Maudie Edwards

Final Mewsings: At least we get to actually see the cats in this film version.

Many thanks to Eric Bond Hutton and Ted Davis for also spotting the cats in this film.

Relevant Links:

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