by Linda Kay

Starring: Kim

Directed by: Melville Shavelson

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

Synopsis: American Private First Class Ernie Williams (Danny Kaye) is a hypochondriac with a talent for mimicry, a skill which British Intelligence wants to exploit when one of their top brass, Colonel MacKenzie (also played by Kaye) is threatened by a Nazi assassin lurking in their midst. Williams not only takes over the role of the Colonel but ends up falling in love with the man’s wife, Lady Margaret (Dana Wynter).

Cat Burglar (Scene Stealer): Colonel MacKenzie and Margaret own a beautiful seal point Siamese cat whose name is not mentioned in the proceedings. Williams first encounters the cat when Lady Margaret returns home unexpectedly and he is trying to shoo MacKenzie’s mistress (Diana Dors) from the apartment. The cat is sitting on a chair inside the bedroom as he enters then scoots away quickly with a Poor Cat Screech.

During a party thrown in the MacKenzie apartment, where it is hoped the assassin will reveal himself, the cat reacts with a growl and a hiss as the spy approaches.

The cat is under the banquet table when Williams crawls underneath to look for his lost contact lens.

The kitty is playing with the lens on the floor, pulling it away from Williams.

In actuality, the trainer must have put something tasty or enticing on the lens as the cat actor is actually licking at the piece, pushing it away from them (or someone is pulling it away, it’s hard to tell) and the film was run in reverse to make it look like the cat was pulling the lens away.

Much later when Williams goes to sleep on the couch in the MacKenzie apartment he sets the blankets down and hears a meow. He picks them up to discover he has set them on the Siamese cat. “Sorry,” he sighs, picking up the cat and tossing her aside, adding, “Go find a mouse.” The cat meows in answer and is not seen again.

Behind the Scenes

While the cat has a very small role in this movie, that didn’t stop the press from announcing her inclusion:

Siamese Cat Star

    Producers Melville Shavelson and Jack Rose decided to let the cat out of the bag by announcing the feline casting of a Siamese cat named Kim for an important role with Danny Kaye in Paramount’s “On the Double” comedy in Technicolor.
    Kim, named for a blonde co-star in the film version of “Bell, Book and Candle,” has two key comedy scenes with Danny Kaye in this story of an American G.I. who becomes involved in a mysterious scheme to cover up the disappearance of an important British Army officer. – Thanet Times and East Kent Pictorial, February 14, 1961

The way the article is worded it is hard to tell whether or not this cat actor was one of the many who played Pyewacket in Bell, Book and Candle or if the name was just in tribute. It is very possible this was one of the stand-ins for Pyewacket, which means that trainer Frank Inn likely worked on this film as well.

We’re not sure what the original script for the film entailed but another article stated that Kaye was going to have “routines with a white horse, a Siamese cat and six tiny white kittens.” Only the Siamese cat appears in the film, none of the others.

Final Mewsings: Too bad they weren’t watching the cat, they would have known who the bad guy was right away!

Many thanks to Mark Murton for letting us know about the cat in this film.

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