by Linda Kay

Starring: Bobbie Inn

Directed by: Mark Robson

This review contains a Kitty Carnage Warning!

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

Synopsis: Cathy Palmer (Carol White) meets a man named Kenneth (Scott Hylands) who takes her fancy in San Francisco, but soon she realizes he has some serious issues. Even though she is pregnant she breaks up with him and has the baby aborted. Later when Cathy is happily married to Jack (Paul Burke), an up and coming politician, and has his baby, Kenneth shows up demanding that she kill that baby as well.

Cat Burglar (Scene Stealer): The first time Cathy and Kenneth make love, a black cat enters the apartment through a window and helps herself to some leftover food on their table.

The camera focuses on the cat’s eye which reflects the couple making love (via cut matte processing).

The cat is next seen wearing a collar and lying on the couch. This couple has adopted her and named her Prissy.

But it’s clear Kenneth has no love for the cat. He sets up a large pile of books in a staircase format and encourages Prissy to climb the rickety structure to eat their caged parakeet, calling the poor cat a “bitch” to boot.

Cathy walks in on the scene and is appalled, especially at the way Kenneth watches all this eagerly. She’s even angrier when the books give way and Prissy falls (the books are actually pulled out from under the cat actor).

Kenneth picks up Prissy and tells Cathy he was just teaching the cat a lesson, that life is not as simple as it seems. Cathy snatches Prissy away from Kenneth angrily.

Cathy argues with Kenneth about his constant state of unemployment as Prissy sits in a nearby chair.

Amazingly Kenneth picks up Prissy and tells Cathy to get out (it is her apartment!) He viciously throws Prissy out (presumably against the wall in the corridor) and then pushes Cathy out as well.

At the home of her friend, Meg (Mala Powers), Cathy holds Prissy as the friends commisserate over the situation.

Prissy is not seen again until later when Cathy has married Jack. She is lying on the couch in the living room listening to a Pepsi commercial on television.

Prissy runs up the stairs and into the bedroom where she cuddles lovingly on the bed with the pregnant Cathy.

Later Prissy is in the basement trying to climb out of a broken cellar window to get to some noisy alley cats making poor cat screeching sounds outside. Eventually Prissy gets out (evident by the continuing screeches in the distance) and Cathy trips on a broken step going down to find the cat.

Later on, Prissy is on hand (and wisely makes herself scarce) when Jack opens the door to a photographer he met at the hospital while Cathy is having their baby, not knowing it is in fact Kenneth.

Still later, Kenneth outlines a plan for Cathy to kill her baby, saying she can suffocate the child with a pillow then blame it on the cat. Cathy is understandably alarmed and calls Ilsa the maid (Mathilda Calnan) to make sure the baby is all right. She then instructs Ilsa to lock Prissy up in her green wooden cat carrier, which she does.

Kitty Carnage Warning! When Cathy and Jack get home, accompanied by the police, they find Ilsa knocked out. Cathy runs to check on the baby and sees the bundle of blankets in his crib. Relieved, she runs forward to gather the child in her arms but screams in horror when she realizes it is the dead body of Prissy in the crib. Thankfully it is clearly a fake cat wrapped in the blanket. The wooden cat carrier would continue to be featured in a prominent way throughout the rest of the film.

Behind the Scenes

Prissy was played by cat actor Bobbie Inn who was trained by Glenn Smith who also worked with Frank Inn (whom we assume the cat was named for). Bobbie reportedly worked in dozens of movies starting in 1959. Very little is known about her, unfortunately. The only reference we could find for her was in an article which compared the success of Bobbie and her co-star Scott Hylands who made his screen debut in this film.

Actor and a Cat

Rough on Hylands, Fine for Bobbie Inn

    HOLLYWOOD — A “truth is stranger than fiction” story comes to life behind the scenes of “Daddy’s Gone A-Hunting,” a new motion picture from National General Pictures.
    The release of the film will mark two important events; the first is the debut of an unknown actor, Scott Hylands, and the second a tenth-year anniversary as a screen actor for Bobbie Inn — a jet black cat.
    The animosity between these two “actors” in the script can possibly be traced to a history of their own careers. Since Bobbie Inn started acting 10 years ago she has made dozens of movies and never averaged less than $500 to $1,000 a month.
    Hylands, an actor who has worked stock, repertory and off-Broadway spent the four years after leaving college in 1964 tightening his belt against hunger pangs.
    “I’m used to the Spartan life,” Scott admits, “My first home after leaving college was a $15 a week walk up flat with one window, a 25 watt electric bulb, kitchen privileges and — roaches. Where was Bobbie Inn then, when I could have used her?”
    Bobbie Inn, on the other hand, has always enjoyed the best of all possible cat worlds living in comparative luxury with her owner and trainer, Glenn Smith. — The Atlanta Journal, August 3, 1969

Final Mewsings: Sadly, the cat carrier didn’t survive the film, either.

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