RKO Radio Pictures
Starring: Tim Holt, Lee ‘Lasses’ White, Jan Clayton
Directed by: David Howard

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

Synopsis: Don Cardigan (Tim Holt) and his buddies Smokey (Ray Whitley) and Whopper (Lee ‘Lasses’ White) arrive in Placer City to meet up with Don’s brother Brad who is the Marshal of the town, only to find an imposter in his place.

Featured Feline: The opening scenes find the trio shocked at the sight of a very drunk driver racing a Wells Fargo stagecoach with a woman passenger like a madman.  They manage to overcome the driver and bring the coach to a stop.  The woman exits and explains her name is Penny Blanchard (Jan Clayton).  She is holding a large basket which she says contains something named Emma.  Whopper takes the basket and at one point he lets it drop open and a black cat jumps out.

Emma the cat runs for some bushes and disappears.

Penny, Smokey and Whopper all call for the cat.  Whopper tries, “Here kitty!” but Penny explains that she only responds to her name and cries out loudly “EM — MA!!”  Eventually Whopper goes into the brush and comes out with what he thinks is the cat but is actually a skunk.  He drops the skunk and runs for a mudhole to get the smell off.  Don then shows up with Emma and places her back into Penny’s basket.

Later in the film the trio have arrived at Penny’s home where they are eating a home-cooked meal.  Whopper offers to take a huge stack of dishes into the kitchen.  Of course he ends up tripping over Emma and dropping everything to the floor.

Cat Burglars (Scene Stealers): The end of the film has a very cute joke.  The trio are saying goodbye to the family and Whopper asks Penny how Emma is.  Penny does her standard “EM — MA!” call and Emma walks out of the house, followed by several kittens.  Each of the kittens has a white stripe down their backs (very obviously painted on).  Whopper exclaims, “Ain’t nature grand?”  It’s especially funny if you figure that all the action took place over only a few days, making this not only an unusual pairing but one of the shortest gestation periods in history.

Final Mewsings: Interspecies relationships are usually only featured in Pre-Code films!

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