Films Sacha Gordine
Starring: Dane Clark, Simone Signoret, Michel André
Directed by: Frank Tuttle

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

Synopsis: Eddy Roback (Dane Clark) is an American who becomes a notorious gangster in Paris after the war.  Eddy breaks out of custody with the help of his cohorts and is aided by his girl Denise (Simone Signoret) much to the consternation of her new love interest, American reporter Frank Clinton (Robert Duke).

Featured Feline: One of the people Eddy and Denise call upon to help hide the fugitive is photographer Max Salva (Michel André) who, unbeknownst to Eddy, is the one who originally turned him in to the police.  Max owns a beautiful white Angora cat which is seen several times in the film.

Kitty Carnage Warning! This film contains a very distressing moment for cat lovers.  The first time we see Max’s cat he is holding it in his arms, stroking it gently in front of a mirror.  Suddenly, and without reason (except to show that at heart Max is a sadist . . . at the time he does this he is anticipating a romantic interlude with Denise) . . . he grabs the cat’s ear and twists and pinches it, hard!  The cat ends up letting out a yowl in pain, at which time Max pets it again, soothing it.  There is no way this scene could have been faked and the cat is obviously in pain.  There must have been some other way for the filmmaker to get his point across about Max’s character without this unnecessary bit of cat torture.

Somehow the cat still trusts Max and can be seen a short time later again in the man’s arms.

Later Eddy finds out that Max is the one who squealed to the police and as such he renders Max unconscious and lays him over the stove in Max’s kitchen with the gas on.  The cat is also left in the kitchen and becomes frantic at the smell of gas.

The cat scratches Max’s face to awaken him.

Max manages to get to the kitchen door and open it before collapsing. The cat races past him into the fresh air.

When the police arrive the cat is sitting in a chair in the room with them all.

Purr Blur: Near the end of the film when Eddy has turned Denise away, telling her to go with Frank, she runs across town to catch him before he can board a train.  As she runs down one street a black cat can be seen scurrying out of her way.

Final Mewsings: No animal should ever be hurt for a movie!

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