Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions
Starring: Chuck Connors, Michael Rennie, Bill Bixby, Kathryn Hays
Directed by: Bernard McEveety

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

Synopsis: Jonas Trapp (Chuck Connors) marries the beautiful Jessie Larkin (Kathryn Hays) but feels stifled by a life of leisure living with Jessie’s wealthy aunt who doesn’t care for him.  He leaves home to earn a living of his own against his wife’s wishes.  After 11 years of hunting buffalo he returns, only to be set upon by ruthless men as he nears the town.  Robbed of his earnings, beaten and branded, Trapp returns to the town with a hunger for vengeance, which only grows when he realizes what he left behind isn’t necessarily what he’ll find when he returns.

Featured Feline: One of the group who beats Jonas is a slick, psychotic man named Johnsy Boy Hood (Bill Bixby.)  In his room at the hotel he has an orange tabby cat, which we first see sleeping on the man’s clothes.  This is apparently a cardinal sin because Johnsy Boy picks the cat up and throws him across the room.  The cat climbs under the bed and looks indignant, even when Johnsy Boy gets down on his hands and knees to apologize.

Later the room is occupied by Jonas and he takes a liking to the cat, holding and petting him throughout one scene.  The cat is present in the room in every scene following.  At the end of the film, Jonas takes the cat outside and lets him go.

Final Mewsings: Cats don’t like Bill Bixby when he’s angry.

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