by Linda Kay

Starring: Minnie the Third, Mona

Directed by: Eugene Forde

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

Synopsis: Inspector Hornleigh (Gordon Harker) and his sidekick Sergeant Bingham (Alastair Sim) investigate the murder of a man whose stolen attaché case, when located, is found to contain secret budgetary papers belonging to the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s.

Kitty Cameos: In the opening scene a tuxedo cat is sniffing outside the door of a room in a boarding house. The door opens and a man’s feet exit the room and walk down the corridor with the cat following. The cat stops when the man starts down the stairs.

Moments later the landlady (Vi Kaley) starts up the stairs with a tray of food. The tuxedo cat can just be seen still sitting at the top of the landing.

Later in the film Bingham is walking down a dark alley carrying the attaché, jumping at every sound. He hears a loud clunk and starts, then sees it is another tuxedo cat (same cat actor, though?) drinking spilled milk from a bottle which has been knocked over.

Behind the Scenes

This first entry in what would be a series of three Inspector Hornleigh films was made at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, U.K. Like most film studios around the world, Pinewood was the home of numerous studio cats, one of which, the progeny of one long time studio resident, appeared in this film. Or was it two progeny? It’s hard to tell if the tuxedo cats in the two separate scenes were one in the same. But at least two cats were on hand for this movie, as explained in this newspaper article:

Addition to the Cast

    Minnie, the Pinewood Studio cat, who broke the headlines a few months ago by having eleven kittens at one time, again makes news by having one of her lady kittens become a film star in “Inspector Hornleigh.” Minnie herself comes from a long line of studio cats, being brought from Elstree at an early age. Her mother, Minnie the First, can trace her ancestry back twelve years. Now Minnie the Third has broken family tradition by appearing before the cameras instead of behind them. Her sister Mona is acting as her stand-in. At present there are fourteen cats in the studio. Syd, the plasterer, who looks after them, reckons that in a year’s time there will be a hundred and forty! – Middlesex Advertiser and County Gazette – October 28, 1938.

The previously printed article about the birth of the kittens was only a quick blurb in the September 3, 1937 edition of the Buckingham Advertiser (with a slight discrepency in the number of kittens involved) and read as follows:

    Minnie, the [Pinewood] Studio cat, now surnamed Moocher, presented the company with ten kittens last week.

Final Mewsings: It seems that Pinewood Studios had an endless supply of mini-Minnies!

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