Directed by: Edwin L. Marin

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

Synopsis: June (Maureen O’Sullivan) and Tommy (Dennis O’Keefe) are both poor suitors who happen to think the other is wealthy, which leads to some crazy misadventures.

Cat Burglar (Scene Stealer): The couple decide to go to the Westminster Dog Show together. During the course of the evening, June finds herself the owner of a St. Bernard which she can barely handle. On her way home, the dog sees a bobtail tabby cat sitting on a post.

The cat races up the stairs towards June’s apartment with the dog and June coming up noisily behind. Every time the cat is shown there is a unique Poor Cat Screech and growl dubbed in as well.

Hearing the commotion, June’s brothers Chick (Mickey Rooney) and Ted (Phillip Terry) run to open the door. The cat comes tearing in (with the film sped up and another screech added to boot!) and proceeds to jump out the window.

After a little explanation from June about the dog to her family, the feisty cat pokes his head back in the window and give the dog another screech. The dog lunges for the cat, spinning the room into chaos once more.

Behind the Scenes

The St. Bernard, trained by Carl Spitz, was played by dog actor Buck, who had previously starred in Call of the Wild. An article at the time described the making of the last scene with Buck chasing the cat. Oddly enough, the scene described is very different to than what ended up being the final moment in the picture, where Buck simply lays down calmly between the couple after O’Keefe’s line of “Nothing will ever come between us again.” There is some comedy earlier in the movie with Mickey Rooney and Buck but nothing involving the cat apart from the aforementioned scene. The way the reporter talks about seeing this scene filmed in person makes one wonder if this was an alternative ending that was eventually scrapped.

With that in mind, this is how Lorna Arlen recorded the scene in her Feminine World column published in The Honolulu Advertiser on May 12, 1938:

    HOLLYWOOD — One of the most interesting bits of business that I witnessed at MGM was the filming of the final scene in “Hold That Kiss.”
    It was the fade-out and Maureen O’Sullivan and Dennis O’Keefe are sitting at the top of the stairway in what is supposed to be Miss O’Sullivan’s home.
    They kiss, and O’Keefe says, “Darling, nothing will ever come between us again.” At this moment a cat dives down the stairs between them and is followed immediately by Buck, a 180 pound St. Bernard, with Mickey Rooney at the other end of his leash.
    The trick was to make the cat and the dog perform. They did the scene nearly a dozen times before it was perfect, and after every attempt, O’Keefe would have to have the dog and cat hairs brushed from his suit and both he and Miss O’Sullivan would have to repair their make-up, removing lipstick smears made by the kiss.
    Buck is a wonderful animal and stood the tedious repetition and glaring hot lights with the patience of a lamb. After the seventh or eighth time of diving down the stairs after the cat, however, he really got into the spirit of the thing, and his trainer had to take special precautions to rescue the cat quickly before Buck’s exuberance got the better of him.
    One of the difficulties was that the stairway, which was actually a hole in the floor, wasn’t very deep and when Buck and Mickey dashed down the few steps they were supposed to be out of sight. But Buck’s huge fluffy tail kept wagging and it showed in the camera! So Mickey finally did the impossible and held Buck’s tail down as they huddled on the bottom step!

Final Mewsings: Cats know how to draw comedy from dogs!

Many thank to Jon Kennedy for letting us know about the cat in this film!

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