by Mark Murton

Starring: Mirabel

Director: Anthony Asquith

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

Synopsis: A young American Air Force pilot, Gene Summers (Paul Massie), is recruited to take part in a secret UK government mission to eliminate Marcel Lafitte (Leslie French), a suspected traitor in the French Resistance.

Kitty Cameo: At the Summers’ English family home, his mother (Lillian Gish) is seen with the family cat.

At dinner, Summers feeds some of his soup to the cat.

Cartoon Cat: During a target-shooting training exercise, Summers is confronted by a decoy cardboard cat (he doesn’t shoot it)!

Featured Feline: In France, Summers has his first encounter with his target Lafitte in a restaurant (where Lafitte implies that the rabbit soup Summers is eating is actually cat). Summers accepts an offer to shelter in Lafitte’s office that night where he discovers Minou, Lafitte’s pet cat.

Lafitte returns to the office the next morning to feed Minou who is waiting patiently for him.

Lafitte explains that he keeps Minou at his office because his wife said they could no longer afford to feed a cat and he had to get rid of her but couldn’t bring himself to kill her.

Lafitte’s defense that killing a cat is not an easy thing to do hits home with Summers.

Starting to have doubts, Summers tells his Resistance contact Leonie that he thinks Lafitte might be innocent, not least because of his affection for his cat. Leonie angrily dismisses his concerns, chiding him over the “… dozens of Frenchmen who’ve risked their lives (for) you, only to have you go to pieces due to a stinking cat that should have been carved up and eaten months ago!”

Reluctantly, Summers continues with the mission, arriving at Lafitte’s office the next day just as Lafitte is leaving with the cat (unseen, but heard) in a box. Lafitte asks him to indulge in some subterfuge to save the cat which results in Summers accompanying Lafitte to his home and then leaving with the cat in the box.

The next morning Summers returns the cat to Lafitte’s office as agreed . . .

. . . and then bludgeons him.

Summers tries to make the murder scene look like a robbery as Minou watches on nervously.

Kitty Cameo: Learning later that Lafitte was innocent sends Summers into a spiral of despair. Drunk and guilt-ridden, he wanders the streets of Paris where he encounters a cat which reminds him of his killing of Lafitte, further increasing his misery.

Behind the Scenes

The tortoiseshell and white cat who played the part of Lafitte’s kitty Minou was named Mirabel. There was apparently a bit of a scandal when the cat actor disappeared for a night, leaving both cast and crew waiting, as reported in The Daily Telegraph and Morning on August 31, 1957:

Film Cat’s Night Out Cost Studio £2000

Shooting Held Up

Daily Telegraph Reporter

     Mirabel, a black cat with attractive markings, yesterday added £2,000 to a film’s production cost. She arrived late on the set at Shepperton Studios after a night on the tiles, keeping 40 actors and technicians waiting for six hours.
     The cat is one of the chief characters in the £250,000 film, “Order (sic) to Kill,” directed by Mr. Anthony Asquith and produced by Mr. Anthony Havelock-Allan. Lillian Gish is one of Mirabel’s co-stars. (CC: Gish does not appear in any scenes with Mirabel)
     The last scene in the film, Mirabel’s “big scene,” was to have been completed yesterday. But because of her absence filming has been deferred until Monday.

Chosen After Auditions

     Mirabel was chosen for her part after the auditioning of dozens of cats. She was put out as usual on Thursday night by her owner, Miss Audrey Martin, of South End, Kensington. But she failed to appear yesterday morning and a search for her began.
     Mr. Havelock-Allan offered a reward of £50 to anyone who found Mirabel in time to complete shooting. Local cats were collected and inspected in the hope of finding a double.
     “It was hopeless,” said a studio spokesman. “Mirabel had already been shot in previous scenes and was a marvelous actress. No other cat would do.”
     When it was too late, Mirabel was seen sitting by a chimney on a rooftop two blocks away from her home. A neighbor of Miss Martin said that Mirabel had been seen the previous night with a black tom-cat.

For most actresses this kind of incident could have been a career-killer. Whether it ended Mirabel’s acting career for good is something we may never know.

Final Mewsings: Reliable cat actors know better than to carouse the night before a film shoot!

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