by Ted Davis
Behind the Scenes by Linda Kay

Starring: Orangey

Directed by: Melville Shavelson

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

Synopsis: Sartorially splendid and morally pragmatic Jimmy Walker (Bob Hope), brash Man-About Town, reigned as mayor of New York during the late Jazz Age and the early years of the Great Depression, but was tainted by his association with the corrupt and notorious Tammany Hall machine, which contributed to his early resignation during his second term in office. This valentine to Walker and the city of New York focuses on his time as mayor of the city and softens some of his more regrettable moral lapses.

Cat Burglars (Scene Stealers): In the early morning hours outside the Owl Club, nightclub singer and stray cat lover Betty Compton (Vera Miles) feeds three cats – a tuxedo, a yellow tabby, and a Siamese named Sam.

The Siamese is slightly tardy and Betty has to call for him, and, when he arrives, Sam has a brief spat with the tabby.

Betty walks the strays away from the doorway toward the end of the court, talking to them all the while, then sets down the platter of scraps for the cats to eat. The tuxedo and tabby dig into the food, but the vocal Sam is not interested.

Betty notices a drunk, passed-out Jimmy Walker on a bench, and steps over the cats to help him. She leaves the courtyard and kitties as she tries to guide Jimmy back to his home, at one point equating him, very tellingly, with the other stray cats she feeds.

Unable to find Jimmy’s home, softhearted Betty puts him to bed in her apartment, a process that is interrupted by another stray cat, a ginger whose name we later learn is Tom, who meows outside her bedroom window. In response, Betty sighs that she’s full up, and lowers the shade, temporarily shutting out the cat.

Later that morning, Tom the cat joins Betty as she walks down the apartment building steps, meowing for attention. Betty balks for a moment, telling the cat to get away, but softens quickly and picks up Tom to carry him with her, musing playfully to herself that the stray could be the next mayor of New York.

Tom is next seen on a pillow in Betty’s new upscale digs as the doorbell rings, presaging the inevitable and dreaded renunciation-request scene, this time delivered by Allie Walker (Alexis Smith), Jimmy’s in-name-only wife, to Betty. The cat is not seen for the remainder of the excruciating scene.

Tom is sitting in a chair by the sideboard in Betty’s apartment when she and Jimmy return from his successful Lamb’s Club roast performance. As Jimmy fixes a drink at the sideboard, the cat raises up and meows at him. Jimmy replies, asking, “What do you want, milk on the rocks?” The question goes unanswered, and Tom is visible on another chair in the background during the subsequent argument between Jimmy and Betty.

After Jimmy leaves the apartment, a weeping and emotional Betty briefly picks up Tom from the chair and hugs him, sets him back down, then quickly downs a drink and runs to the bathroom cabinet to swallow a handful of pills, as the scene fades out to the peppy music of the Depression era anthem “Happy Days are Here Again.”

Behind the Scenes

The ginger tabby known as Tom was played by Orangey, or more specifically the Orangey team member we usually refer to as Minerva.

Trained by Frank Inn, the cats known today collectively as the Orangey team were then referred to as Rhubarb after the movie in which they first starred.

A column by Harold Heffernan syndicated in June 1959 about Bob Blair, the man who, with Inn, supplied the cat actors, included a reference to the film Beau James specifically:

    Some of this cat’s ad libs are far better than the scripts call for, said Blair. For instance, in “Beau James,” there came a scene where Bob Hope goes to visit Vera Miles and pours himself a drink. Rhubarb, sitting on a stool, was slated to look up at him, with Bob then saying, “What will you have — milk on the rocks?”
    The cat went one better. When Hope began pouring himself the drink Rhubarb promptly put his forepaws up on the bar, making it even funnier. The scene, of course, was shot this way, with Hope grumbling, “Children and dogs are bad enough, now cats are trying to put me out of business.”

The ginger tabby who crosses the courtyard with the tuxedo and Siamese cats outside the club was also possibly a member of the Orangey team.

Final Mewsings: Stray cats need all the help they can get.

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