by Mark Murton

Starring: Little Cat

Directed by: Stephen Weeks

This review contains a Kitty Carnage Warning!

Cat Out Of The Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film.

Synopsis: In this reworking of Jekyll and Hyde, Victorian psychologist Charles Marlowe (Christopher Lee) invents a drug which will release his patients’ inhibitions. Using it on himself, he becomes the evil Edward Blake.

Featured Feline: Having developed his serum, Marlowe is about to test it on himself when his attention is drawn to his black and white cat.

Kitty Carnage Warning! Scooping up the cat, he injects it with the drug.

The drug has an immediate and dramatic effect as the cat becomes violent, snarling and charging around the lab. Actually, the cat is catapulted onto a shelf and a fake cat is pulled behind a row of bottles to send them crashing to the ground.

The real cat actor is clearly distressed during this scene.

The cat leaps onto and attacks Marlowe who wrestles it to the ground (in reality, Lee turns and guides the cat safely down) and (thankfully off-screen) beats it to death with a poker! There is one chilling moment when the cat meows pitifully, causing Marlowe a pang of guilt, before he finishes the job.

Cat Burglar (Scene Stealer): At the conclusion of the film, Marlowe’s lawyer, Utterson (Peter Cushing), is waiting in his rooms to confront Blake whom he believes is blackmailing his friend Marlowe. He holds his own tabby cat as he walks around the room, looking out of the window.

Behind the Scenes:

Not much is known about the poor stressed tuxedo cat from the earlier scene in the film, but the latter cat cradled so lovingly in Peter Cushing’s arms suffered no such apparent mistreatment. This preferential treatment may have come from knowing the right people, for indeed this tabby named Little Cat was owned by director Stephen Weeks!

A curious story appeared in the March 5, 1971 issue of The Fulham Chronicle (Hammersmith, London, England) concerning Little Cat going AWOL:

     In recent weeks, this page has taken on at times the appearance of a chronicle of the escapades of erring cats. First, Butch Cassidy upped his paws and left, and he was followed soon after by Tiddles.
     Then a couple of weeks ago, there was Little Cat who walked out of his home and went missing. Little cat is a rather famous pussy, though, and a reward for his safe return was offered by his film director owner, Mr. Stephen Weeks, of Filmer Road.
     For, you see, Little Cat is a film star in his own right and his latest movie, a horror film called “I, Monster,” with Peter Cushing (he’s in the picture) and Christopher Lee, is due for release in a few months’ time.

Promising

     “I, Monster,” is a rather “different” version of the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde story — and is directed by Mr. Weeks.
     There seems to be a promising film future ahead for Little Cat, but all that mattered nothing when he went missing. Mr. Weeks got increasingly worried and came to see me to ask if I would add another chapter to my wandering cats’ catalogue.
     Then, sure enough, before the few lines that I wrote came out in print in the newspaper, Little Cat ended his roaming of Fulham streets and went home, unhurt, but a little thinner.
     The British film industry can continue to set its cameras whirring, assured that its star feline actor is still safely around.

Final Mewsings: Anyone who experiments on cats truly is a monster!

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