by Ted Davis

Directed by: Sidney Gilliat

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

Synopsis: Amiable working-class unemployed rental car driver Mike Rogers (Hywel Bennett) appears to have hit the jackpot when he wins and marries the fragile and lovely heiress Ellie Thomsen (Hayley Mills), who happily indulges all of Mike’s desires, most notably financing the building of his dream house, designed by genius architect Rudolph Santonix (Per Oscarsson). But all is most definitely not what it appears, and the fairy tale marriage takes a deadly turn, careening out of control to the nightmarish finale.

Kitty Cameos: Eccentric Miss Townsend (Patience Collier), local seeress, first appears when she and her two leashed cats, a seal point Siamese and a lilac point Siamese, disturb Mike and Ellie’s idyll in Gipsy Acres, where Mike’s dream house is to be located. Miss Townsend delivers dire warnings against building on a cursed plot of land, warnings which are ignored but are later remembered.

Miss Townsend and her two cats are next briefly glimpsed while Mike is awaiting Ellie’s arrival at Gipsy Acres. She’s carrying the seal point Siamese, and the lilac point is on the turf.

There’s another quick glimpse of Miss Townsend outside of the newly finished dream house, but only one cat is visible tucked into her shoulder.

Beautiful Greta (Britt Ekland), Ellie’s best friend and an irritant to Mike, delivers a large cat statue as a house warming gift, a strange selection considering Ellie’s allergy to cats, just one of her multiple allergies.

The cat later serves as a sort of portent of doom and tragedy as late night meows seem to emit from the sculpture, which is smashed just before a second murder is committed.

Final Mewsings: It’s best to pay attention when cats and their owners deliver ominous prophesies.

Relevant Links:

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