Step Down to Terror (1958)

by Mark Murton

Directed by: Harry Keller

Synopsis: Pursued by detectives, Johnny Walters (Charles Drake) leaves the city and takes refuge in his childhood home where his mother and widowed sister-in-law are ignorant of his criminal past.

Cat Burglar (Scene Stealer): This inferior remake of the same story which was the basis for Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt (1943) opens with Johnny Walters in his apartment encouraging a cat with a bandaged leg to drink some milk.

Step Down to Terror - Johnny Charles Drake holding gray cat with bandaged leg

Aided by Johnny, the cat moves unsteadily to the milk and starts lapping.

Step Down to Terror - Johnny Charles Drake holding gray cat with bandaged leg
Step Down to Terror - Johnny Charles Drake holding gray cat with bandaged leg
Step Down to Terror - Johnny Charles Drake helping gray cat with bandaged leg to drink milk from dish animated gif

They are interrupted by the arrival of Johnny’s nosey landlady, Mrs. Duprez (Ann Doran), who makes a nuisance of herself causing Johnny to order her out, but not before she has revealed there are two detectives outside the building waiting for him. The poor cat is completely forgotten as Johnny makes a quick exit.

Step Down to Terror - Johnny Charles Drake with gray cat on floor and Mrs. Duprez Ann Doran

Final Mewsings: Not a patch on Hitch, but then his film didn’t have a cat.

Many thanks to Ted Davis for also spotting the cat in this film.

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