by Ted Davis and Linda Kay

Original Air Date: April 14, 1964

Directed by: Robert Stevens

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

Synopsis: Based on the short story by Patrick Quenton. Wealthy and benevolent Adelaide Snow (Patricia Collinge) holds the purse strings for niece Lorna Richmond (Jessica Walter) and her husband Bruce (Don Chastain). Lorna will receive her inheritance within the next year, but Bruce has racked up pressing and substantial gambling debts, and resorts to forging Aunt Addie’s name on a series of checks to clear the deficit. Addie discovers the subterfuge and confronts Bruce, who panics and commits a more unforgivable crime, from which there is no return.

Cat Burglars (Scene Stealers): Early in the episode, Aunt Addie feeds her two beloved and spoiled seal point Siamese cats, Jack and Martha (in the original story the cats were named Chiang and Mei-Ling). Jack is wearing a fancy jewel-studded collar while Martha has no collar at all (presumably so audiences and the actors could tell the cats apart).

In keeping with her affection for cats, cat figurines are set on Aunt Addie’s desk and bookshelves.

Jack and Martha are next seen when Bruce enters Addie’s office, one cat on the comfy chair and the other on the desk.

After the confrontation, Bruce locks Addie into the walk-in safe with Martha, which is tantamount to murder because the safe has a limited air supply and is without a supply of food and water, plus the mansion will be deserted over the long weekend. After realizing that she’s trapped, Addie holds Martha in her lap and tries not to despair.

Jack runs from the office and into the kitchen as Bruce leaves the house (the door of the kitchen is left open).

As the clock nears 8pm, Addie experiences the first stirrings of real panic as family friend and lawyer Hillary Prine (George Macready) rings the doorbell to pick her up for a dinner date, but departs without further investigation. Martha also begins to feel the figurative and literal heat, and meows in complaint.

Several sequences follow with a slowly suffocating Addie talking to her cat and trying to remain calm, but she eventually becomes disoriented and begins singing to herself.

Even though there is nothing she can do, Martha is of comfort to Addie, even rubbing against her leg affectionately.

Meanwhile, Lorna’s suspicions of Bruce have erupted and she drives back home in a frenzy to confirm Aunt Addie’s whereabouts. Upon arriving and searching the mansion, Lorna meets Bruce in the office where she hears Jack meowing. She traces the noise to the kitchen (the door to the kitchen has somehow been closed although it was clearly open when Bruce left the house earlier.)

Lorna carries Jack to the office where the cat manages to wriggle out of her arms and starts to sniff around the door to the safe. Lorna finally figures out what has happened to her Aunt Addie as Bruce, who realizes that his risky gambit will have failed if the elderly woman hasn’t perished, nervously lights a cigarette.

Lorna finds the combination code in the desk, works the lock on the walk-in safe, and opens the door, letting in fresh reviving air to her Aunt Addie, and releasing Martha who scurries from the room with a Poor Cat Screech. As a true cat lover, Aunt Addie’s first concern is for Lorna to fetch the cats some food.

Final Mewsings: After being such a comfort to Addie we hope Martha got a fancy collar of her own.

Relevant Links:

To discuss this episode and other cats in movies and on television, join us on Facebook and X.