Review by Mark Murton
Behind the Scenes by Linda Kay

Original Air Date: May 5, 1979

Directed by: Rodney Bennett

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

Synopsis: A musically appreciative stray cat comes between elderly husband Edward (Joseph Cotton) and his wife Louisa (Wendy Hiller).

Featured Feline: As Edward works clearing the garden a stray ginger tabby cat approaches.

The cat settles down near the bonfire Edward has made.

Louisa joins Edward in the garden and seeing the cat so close to the bonfire she moves it to a safe distance.

When Edward and Louisa head back to the house the cat follows.

Edward is adamant that the cat shouldn’t be allowed in the house but in the next scene it is sitting contentedly on the sofa upstairs in Louisa’s room.

As Louisa holds and pets the cat, she feels five unusual bumps on his face.

Louisa goes to her nearby piano and starts to play, immediately catching the attention of the cat.

First she plays some Schumann which doesn’t impress the cat who (off-screen) vocalises his disapproval. However, when she chooses a piece by Liszt the cat jumps up on the piano and purrs loudly.

Intrigued, Louisa then plays some Bach which causes the cat to run to the window and turn his nose up before pawing at the pane as though trying to escape.

Playing another piece causes the cat to jump down from the window and up onto a small table containing miniature busts of various composers, knocking them all over . . .

. . . all except for the one of Liszt.

Louisa plays more Liszt and the cat returns to the sofa and settles down again.

Increasingly convinced that she is in the presence of the reincarnation of Franz Liszt, Louisa seeks advice from F. Milton Wills a self-styled expert on the subject. (A single shot of the cat in the back of a car suggests Louisa has taken “Maestro”, as she has now dubbed him, with her, although she doesn’t introduce him to Wills.)

Back at the house Louisa explains her belief to a sceptical Edward, insisting he feels the bumps on Maestro’s face which mirror the five warts Liszt had on his face.

Edward remains unconvinced so Louisa plays the one piece by Chopin that Liszt was known to dislike and as she plays Maestro jumps off the sofa and exits the room. She then plays some more Liszt and Maestro duly returns to the sofa.

Increasingly tired of what he considers Louisa’s obsession, Edward exits and is next seen stoking the bonfire. Returning to the kitchen he brushes off Louisa’s concerns that the cat is now missing; however, as he washes his hands Louisa notices several scratches which he dismiss as being from brambles, but Louisa is far from convinced and picks up a large kitchen knife . . .

In the original published short story the cat isn’t seen again but in the TV version the episode ends with Maestro climbing back in through a window and returning to Louisa’s room where, in the final shot, he stares at the bust of Liszt.

Behind the Scenes

This series was based on stories written by Roald Dahl. Edward the Conqueror was originally published in The New Yorker magazine, then republished in a book of short stories by the author.

In the original story the cat was of “a most peculiar color.” A ginger tabby cat starred in this adaptation, although faded prints of the show make the cat appear more grey and unusual in color. The ending was also changed from Roald Dahl’s original short story. In the printed story it is implied Edward actually did kill the cat by throwing him on the fire and this sends Louisa into hysterics. In the television episode, Louisa angrily attacks Edward with a knife as we see the cat coming back into the house uninjured. This revised ending might have had more impact if we could have seen Louisa, maybe spotted with blood, see the cat re-enter the home.

Several publicity photos for the show made their way to the television listings of local British newspapers the week the episode aired.

Unfortunately we could find no detailed information about this notable cat actor, although if we believe the article from the Tele-topic column in the Leicester Mercury on May 14, 1979, the cat might have had a very brief career:

Dame Wendy and a Nasty Cat

    In nearly 50 years in theatre, films, radio and TV, 66-year-old Dame Wendy Hiller has done just about everything — except act with animals. That situation was remedied recently but it is one she is not keen to repeat.
    She starred with veteran American screen idol Joseph Cotten and a cat in Edward the Conqueror, one of the adaptations of Roald Dahl’s mystery stories in the series Tales of the Unexpected, networked on ITV by Anglia on May 5.
    “Joseph was a darling man to work with,” Dame Wendy told me, “but I’m afraid we both got a bit tired of the cat. In the play I am obsessed with the idea that it is a reincarnation of the composer Edward Liszt.
    “If this particular cat was a reincarnation it certainly wasn’t of anybody as likeable as Liszt,” she laughed.
    “Although it was well-trained, everything always had to wait until it was ready to play its part. You can’t make cats do anything they don’t want to, you know.
    “It scratched me all over the place and as soon as it had finished its work it was taken off to the vet and we never saw it again. I don’t think it was very well.
    “Even for experienced actors like myself and Joseph, it was a bit traumatic,” Dame Wendy admitted. “We had to be very, very patient.”

Final Mewsings: This handsome fellow certainly conquered our hearts.

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