Directed by: Don Chaffey
This review contains an Implied Kitty Carnage Warning!
Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!
Synopsis: Thomasina (voiced by Elspeth March) is the independent yet loving pet of Mary MacDhui (Karen Dotrice) who is traumatized when her veterinarian father Andrew (Patrick McGoohan) cold-heartedly refuses to treat the cat, causing Thomasina to experience different lives.
Featured Feline: Thomasina is a beautiful marmalade tabby who considers herself to be a self-made cat; serious, patient and devoted to her little girl. She has little care for Mary’s father, however. Adopted by the MacDhui family when they moved to the town of Inveranoch, Scotland, they originally named her Thomas but when they got to know her better they changed it to Thomasina.
Despite the indignation, Thomasina is even tolerant when Mary dresses her up in a bonnet and dress and plays with her as if she were a doll.
Kitty Cameo: Andrew is the town’s veterinarian who treats the local livestock but has a reputation for being pragmatic and cold-hearted when it comes to treating household pets, whom he looks down upon as frivolous and pampered by their owners. One woman is sitting in his office with her pet tuxedo cat.
Andrew reacts in the same callous manner when Mary has Thomasina sitting at the dinner table.
He also objects to letting Thomasina sleep in Mary’s bed, although the cat simply climbs the tree outside and comes in through Mary’s window once Andrew puts her out.
Thomasina sneaks to the local fish market to find something to eat. She is then chased by dogs and falls from some crates.
Kitty Cameo: When Thomasina doesn’t return the next day, Mary and some local boys look for her. Hughie (Vincent Winter) finds a ginger tabby that turns out not to be Thomasina.
Implied Kitty Carnage Warning! When the children realize that an accident has befallen Thomasina, Mary carries her to her father’s office and begs for his help. Unfortunately at the same time the seeing-eye dog of a local blind man has been struck by a car and Andrew is trying to save the dog’s life. He makes a quick diagnosis of tetanus and orders his assistant Willie (Wilfrid Brambell) to put the cat down. He saves the dog but breaks the news to Mary that her precious Thomasina could not be saved.
As the local children hold a funeral for Thomasina, the cat goes through an other-worldly experience, falling through space.
Cat Cattle Call: Eventually she climbs a long staircase into a cat heaven where the great cat god Bastet presides, along with countless Siamese cats.
When Thomasina awakens, she is surrounded by flowers in the box where the children have placed her. Before they can build a cairn, they are interrupted by Lori MacGregor (Susan Hampshire), a beautiful young woman who lives alone in the woods. Because of her isolation from the village and uncanny way with woodland creatures the children are convinced she is a witch and run away. Lori rescues Thomasina and takes her to her cottage.
Kitty Cameos: In the meantime, Mary has decided that her father no longer exists and refuses to even acknowledge him. Word has spread throughout the village about how Andrew killed his daughter’s cat, perpetuated by Mary’s friends Hughie, Jamie (Denis Gilmore) and Geordie (Matthew Garber). They stop Mrs. MacCleod (Gwen Nelson) before she takes her black cat to see Andrew and convince her not to go.
The boys suggest that townspeople take their pets to Lori instead. Lori has nursed Thomasina back to health and introduces her to her other animals, including two cats; a brown tabby named Molly and a longhair black cat named Whiskers (possibly the same cat that played Mrs. MacCleod’s pet?) Thomasina is taken aback at how she is no longer treated as someone special.
With his former clients taking their pets to Lori, Andrew decides to pay her a visit with the intention of reporting her to the authorities for practicing veterinary medicine without a license. But when Andrew meets Lori and sees the natural way she has with animals, he is forever changed. Observing Andrew with Lori brings back lost memories for Thomasina who recognizes him only as someone she hates.
Spurred on by this repressed memory, Thomasina returns to the MacDhui home during a rainstorm.
Having spotted her at the window, the already frail Mary races after her into the cold night. Andrew finds her in the street, crying out for her beloved cat. She falls desperately ill and Andrew’s dear friend Reverend Angus Peddie (Laurence Naismith) urges the usually agnostic Andrew to find it in his heart to pray for his little girl.
Thomasina returns to Lori’s cottage, feeling protected and loved there.
Eventually Mary declines so much that Andrew, in desperation, calls on Lori to come to her. Left alone in Lori’s cottage during a raging storm, Thomasina feels something pulling at her. A tree is hit by lightning and a window blows open, giving Thomasina the means to escape. She then remembers her life with the McDhui’s and runs through the rain to their home.
Everyone is shocked to see Thomasina sitting outside the window as Mary cries out for her. Lori explains she has been caring for the cat all along.
Andrew opens the window but Thomasina runs away from him. Lori explains that Andrew must be the one to give Thomasina back to his daughter to regain her love and trust. As he begs Thomasina to return, she realizes she has all the power to exact revenge on her killer.
But because of the kindness shown to her by Lori, Thomasina decides she doesn’t want revenge, she just wants to come home. She goes to Andrew who hands her back to Mary.
In the end Andrew marries Lori and Thomasina begins her third life with everyone living happily ever after.
For more information about the film, read our Behind the Scenes story!
Final Mewsings: We’re still waiting for the sequels covering Thomasina’s next six lives!
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