Directed by: Frank Nesbitt

This review contains a Kitty Carnage Warning!

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

Synopsis: After a kidnapping goes awry, the kidnappers try to silence the only witness who might be able to identify them.

Cat Burglars (Scene Stealers): The witness is an older woman named Mrs. Marotta (Isa Miranda) who actually lives next door to the husband and wife perpetrators, Mr. Hopta (Dan Duryea) and his wife (Gwen Watford). Mrs. Marotta owns two cats; a gray cat named Bruno and a black cat named Pipo. The cats are mentioned several times early on in the film but don’t appear until Detective Sgt. Connor (Barry Warren) moves in to protect Mrs. Marotta from her would-be assassin. Bruno is sitting on a chair at the kitchen table one morning.

What Mrs. Marotta and Connor don’t realize is Hopta has poisoned their milk. He tries to spy to see what is happening but Mrs. Marotta invites him in to fix her iron. She offers him tea and he turns to sit down, picking up Bruno from a chair. Hopta looks as if he is about to throw the cat but stops and tosses him gently aside.

Bruno then jumps up on the counter (or rather is catapulted there by someone off screen) to drink some milk from a dish.

Kitty Carnage Warning! Fortunately for Mrs. Marotta and Connor, but most unfortunately for poor Bruno, the cat falls victim to the poisoned milk.

When Mrs. Marotta and Connor walk over to look at the cat, you can just barely see the cat’s head and ear move, proving the cat actor was quite all right.

Bruno is given a grave in the backyard. Later that night Mrs. Marotta is holding Pipo when she bids Connor good night.

She carries Pipo to her room where she settles the cat down on her bed.

Still later, Hopta breaks into the house in order to kill Mrs. Marotta. Pipo is lying on the foot of the bed and meows, although the cat actor’s mouth doesn’t move at all!

Mrs. Marotta sits up and speculates that Pipo is missing Bruno. She suggests they go downstairs for a cup of tea. But when she leaves the room, she is alone and the cat is not seen again.

Final Mewsings: If cats must be catapulted, they prefer it be done by Dan Duryea.

Many thanks to Rob G. and Mark Murton for letting us know about the cats in this film!

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