Directed by: Charles Frend

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

Synopsis: British explorer Robert Falcon Scott’s sets out to lead a 1912 expedition to reach the South Pole.

Kitty Cameo: As was often the case in real life, the ship carried a black cat mascot along on the voyage with them. As the ship Terra Nova is about the sail and the gangplank is being pulled away, one of the crew members orders them to stop. The black cat, named Puss in the film, comes running on board and the ship then sets sail.

Later when the ship is about the sail away, leaving Scott (John Mills) and his expedition to begin their trek to the South Pole, one of the crew members carries Puss over to him and asks if he will take the cat with him to the Pole. Scott refuses, saying he mustn’t take the luck from the ship.

At this point Puss jumps out of Scott’s arms and runs, presumably back on board. “Great minds think alike, ey?” Scott comments.

The cat jumping out of Scott’s arms was not originally planned for the scene. According to online trivia, the cat, who was supposed to appear in additional scenes, proved to be shy and in fact ran off the set at the end of the scene and hid for several hours. Mills improvised the last line as a result.

The real life cat that went along on Scott’s ill-fated journey was not named Puss at all, but the n-word. The name was changed for the film to Puss. Black cats were often welcome on ships as they, among other colored cats, were considered good luck. They also kept food stores protected from mice and rats. Real life footage of the real cat is included in the silent documentary The Great White Silence which we will be reviewing in the future.

Final Mewsings: The cat actor was only method acting and knew darn well no cat would want to go to the South Pole!

Many thank to Ted Davis for letting us know about the cat in this film!

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