Gloria Swanson Pictures
Starring: Gloria Swanson, Walter Byron, Seena Owen
Directed by: Erich von Stroheim
Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!
Synopsis: Prince Wolfram (Walter Byron) is engaged to the mad Queen Regina V (Seena Owen) but falls in love with an Irish lass from a nearby convent, the spunky Kelly (Gloria Swanson), causing disaster all around.
Featured Felines: The crazy Queen Regina V is introduced in the first scene of the film, shown with a white long-haired cat on her bed and another one in her arms. Both are wearing large dark ribbons.
She holds the cat as she drinks champagne and stares at the items on her nightstand, including a photograph of her intended, Prince Wolfram. According to one report on IMDb Stroheim spent over 24 hours shooting this scene and Owen had to hold the cat over her nude body. Eventually the cat started scratching her and so was fitted with mittens.
The Queen carries one white Persian cat almost everywhere she goes. She is holding the cat when she is on her balcony, looking down in shock as Prince Wolfram returns to the palace drunk after a night of carousing.
In a fit of anger, the Queen confronts Prince Wolfram in his bed. On the bed are the Prince’s dachsunds. He looks up to see the Queen with her cat standing over him.
Kitty Carnage Warning! When he ignores her, she goes into a fit of rage and literally throws the cat across the bed. It looks as if she throws the cat into some pillows, which fall away at the edge of the screen, but the throw is a very hard one. Then a slow motion insert of the cat swiping angrily at the dachsunds is shown as the Queen attacks the Prince.
Later the Queen is seen holding her cat while she takes a bath. The other cat is lying on a cushion outside the tub.
After her bath, the Queen enters the Prince’s room to see that he has dined with someone. She is incensed.
She listens at the door to his bedroom then sneaks around to look through a window into the room.
Finding him with Kelly in his bedroom, she angrily throws the cat aside again.
The cat is only seen one more time, when the Queen demands an apology from the Prince.
Final Mewsings: People who love cats don’t throw them when they’re angry.
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