United Artists Corporation
Starring: Sean Connery, Daniela Bianchi, Lotte Lenya
Directed by: Terence Young
Synopsis: The underground evil organization SPECTRE comes up with an elaborate plan to gets their hands on a Russian decoding machine called the Lektor and eliminate their biggest threat, secret agent 007, James Bond (Sean Connery), in the bargain. To succeed in their plans they enlist the aid of a beautiful Russian woman named Tatiana (Daniela Bianchi) who believes she is simply working for the KGB while SPECTRE is actually playing the English and Russian agencies against each other.
Cinema Cat: This film marks the first appearance of Bond villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld. His face is not seen in the movie, we only ever see him from the angle of his lap in which he holds his white Turkish Angora cat, who is also not named. Blofeld would remain a faceless entity in the first two Bond movies in which he appeared. There are two scenes in this film in which Blofeld’s cat is seen, near the beginning and end. Blofeld pets the cat while talking to his minions and even feeds his beloved pet one of the dead fighting fish seen at the beginning of his first scene. While this was not the first example of an evil villain stroking a cat in a film it is without question the most iconic example and as such inspired many parodies.
Purr Blur: If you look closely when Tatiana first reports to Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya) in a remote building you will see a cat walk past her along the apartment walkway.
Final Mewsings: Evil villains who love cats can’t be all bad!
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