by Linda Kay

Starring: Corky

Directed by: James Cagney

This review contains a Kitty Carnage Warning!

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

Synopsis: Based on the same story by Graham Greene as was the previous film This Gun for Hire. Cold blooded hit man Kyle Niles (Robert Ivers) is on the hunt for his last employer named Bahrwell (Jacques Aubuchon) who set him up to be arrested by paying him with stolen money. On his quest for revenge, Kyle forces the plucky Glory Hamilton (Georgann Johnson), a well-meaning singer who showed him some kindness, to accompany him.

Cat Burglars (Scene Stealers): As in the previous incarnation, Kyle has a love for cats and is laying on his bed alongside a longhair ginger tabby when the landlord’s daughter, Daisy (Yvette Vickers), comes sniffing around. She pretends to be cleaning up but actually is doing her best to catch Kyle’s attention. Kyle pretends to be asleep in response.

When Daisy notices that Kyle is actually petting the cat and not asleep, she angrily snatches the poor kitty away. Kyle is quick to retrieve the cat and push Daisy out the door.

Kyle gives the cat some milk while preparing for his next job.

Later Kyle is back petting the cat on his bed when he overhears the police in the hallway questioning Daisy and her father. Kyle is quick to exit, leaving the cat behind.

Late in the film Kyle and Glory have holed up in an abandoned bomb shelter under a factory. Kyle is happy when a ginger tabby cat appears, not only because he loves cats but because it shows there is another way out.

The other way out turns out to be a grate to the factory grounds (just how the cat was supposed to come in that way is anyone’s guess.) Unable to escape, Kyle and Glory stay put. Glory comments that the cat is a “pretty little thing,” even though the large Tom is matted with dirt. Kyle picks up and pets the cat as Glory cleans and dresses a wound on his hand.

Glory notices how affectionate Kyle is with the cat, even though he insists he is just a heartless killer and tries to convince her to leave.

In a later scene the pair are startled when the cat climbs onto a shelf with canned foods and knocks some of them to the ground with a clatter.

Kitty Carnage Warning! Frantically Kyle snatches the cat, who has made a leap for freedom, and strangles the poor animal (just off screen). Horrified by what he’s done, Kyle gasps, “I didn’t mean to! I was afraid they’d hear.”

Behind the Scenes

This is a decent remake of this story, although different in the overall sense of hopelessness that pervaded the original. In This Gun for Hire, Alan Ladd’s character, Philip Raven, appears to accidentally smother the cat, whereas in this version Kyle quite deliberately strangles the cat. Oddly enough, Kyle shows much more remorse for his action in this version, whereas in the other film Philip only seems upset about having ruined his good luck.

Orangey has been credited online for this role and perhaps the latter cat in the film could have been a member of the Orangey team (although there are at least two different cat actors playing the ragged stray’s role. The one being cuddled by Ivers has more white on his face than a typical Orangey. But the jump from the shelf into Ivers waiting hands is a variation on a classic Orangey, or rather, Frank Inn trick. Plus the dirty cat on the floor does have the classic Orangey appearance.)

What we do know is that the name of at least one of the cat actor’s on this film was Corky who was trained by Orangey’s trainer, Frank Inn. A syndicated article about the cat’s role in the movie ran in newspapers around the country, including this excerpt from The Valley Times on September 24, 1957:

Alley Cats Act Rings Around Snooty Variety

    Among thoroughbred cats, Siamese are the most intelligent movie actors and Angoras are the most beautiful, but neither cat approach the common alley variety when it comes to all around ability.
    This is the assertion of Frank Inn, professional tutor and director of cats and dogs on Hollywood sound stages, who is responsible for the difficult screen antics of one “Corky,” a little tramp cat and a member of the “Short Cut to Hell” cast.
    In the film’s most dramatic scene, “Corky” had to undergo what seemed like extreme punishment when he was “strangled” by fugitive killer Robert Iver (sic) as he sought to sidetrack a cordon of police who were closing in on his bomb shelter hideout. Of course, “Corky” wasn’t injured, but Ivers sure played it that way, under Director James Cagney’s instructions.
    “Nothing upsets ‘Corky,'” Inn explains. “In fact, he sometimes upsets the bipeds he works with, and one day he shagged two dogs clear off the set. That’s what got him the job from Jimmy Cagney, who until then was undecided about using a cat or dog.”

It’s highly doubtful that Cagney considered using anything other than a cat for the latter scene, since it closely mirrors the same scene in the previous film (which was set in an abandoned train car). And sadly at this point we are left only to speculate about Corky’s connection with the Orangey team.

Final Mewsings: Killing a cat is definitely a short cut to Hell!

Many thanks to Ted Davis and The Horror Cats for letting us know about the cats in this film.

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