by Linda Kay

Also Known As: Elsker hverandre (Love One Another)

English Title: The Marked Ones

Directed by: Carl Theodor Dreyer

Synopsis: Based on the novel by Aage Madelung. Several families, both Jewish and Gentile, co-exist with tension in a Russian town where a government undercover agent (Johannes Meyer), posing as a monk, escalates existing hostilities against the Jews leading up to the impending Revolution.

Cat Burglar (Scene Stealer): One of the main characters is Hanne-Liebe (Polina Piekowskaja), a young Jewish girl who is targeted in a fabricated romantic scandal, so her family calls upon a matchmaker (Mikhail Chernov) to find her a husband. When the matchmaker arrives, Hanna’s sister Zipe (Sylvia Torf) puts down her baby in a cradle and instructs her husband, Abraham (Hugo Döblin), to rock the child. Abraham has set up a foot pedal which pulls a string and rocks the cradle without his having to stop his work. As the camera pans along the string, a tabby and white kitten is playing with the vibrating thread.

The camera pans back and the kitten is still playing with the moving string.

Kitty Cameo: The matchmaker suggests a suitor named Finkelbaum, but the young man isn’t confident that he can win Hanna. He consults with the experienced Frau Machler who for some reason keeps a white kitten with black markings in a small cage.

Frau Machler sells him a lump of sugar which she tells him to keep close to his heart for nine days and nights then slip in Hanna’s drink to assure her love. The man doesn’t have the full price so she breaks the sugar in half and takes what money he can give.

Final Mewsings: Don’t take love advice from a woman who keeps a kitten in a cage!

Relevant Links:

To discuss this film and other cats in movies and on television, join us on Facebook and X.