Paramount Pictures
Starring: Bob Hope, Paulette Goddard, Gale Sondergaard
Also Starring: Scarlett O’Hara
Directed by: Elliott Nugent
Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!
Synopsis: Based on the play by John Willard. A family gathers at the home of a rich relative who stipulated that his will be read ten years after his death. They soon learn that Joyce Norman (Paulette Goddard) is the sole heir but her life may be in danger thanks to a clause in the will disinheriting her if she should die or go mad.
Featured Feline: This story had been previously produced as a film in the 1927 version but this time the results are a bit more lively and fast-paced. While there are no canaries in the film there is Miss Lu’s (Gale Sonergaard’s) black long-haired cat which puts in several appearances. (You may remember Gale Sonergaard in her role as a cat in the 1940 version of The Blue Bird.)
The cat appears early in the film when the lawyer Crosby (George Zucco) arrives at the house. The housekeeper Miss Lu watches from the window and sitting beside her is her cat. When the door opens for the lawyer the cat is sitting on the floor in the middle of the room.
After the will is read the family members hear a scream and run into the entrance area where Miss Lu is standing on the stairs. The lights go out and when they come back on her cat is sitting in her place. The cat then leaps up and screeches, running away.
The cat’s most notable scene is with radio star Wally Campbell (Bob Hope) and Joyce when they think there is someone behind the curtains in her room. Wally throws a chair at the window and the curtains fall to the ground. When they examine the curtains they only find Miss Lu’s cat. Joyce picks up the cat and laughs but her nerves are clearly strained. She carries the cat with her when her concerned relatives knock on the door and she hands the cat over to Miss Lu. This is the last the cat is seen in the film.
The cat actor in this film was named Scarlett O’Hara and she was given some press coverage during the making of this picture (we could find no record of how the cat got its name but it’s interesting to note that Paulette Goddard was one of the many actresses who had tried out for the role in Gone With the Wind released that same year.) According to the Lewiston Daily Sun from June 29, 1939, Scarlett set a record for goldfish swallowing (a fad at the time). The article reads:
A local Paramount record for goldfish swallowing had been established today by Scarlett O’Hara.
Scarlett is the big black alley cat working in the Bob Hope – Paulette Goddard picture, “The Cat and the Canary.” There was also a bowl with eight goldfish.
Scarlett is allowed to roam around the set when not working. And when the company returned from lunch, she had knocked over the goldfish bowl and eaten all eight fish.
In the November 25, 1939 issue of The Daily Chronicle, it was stated that Bob Hope had commented that the black cat used in the film wouldn’t let him cross in front of it.
Sadly, as is all-too-common in Hollywood, Scarlet O’Hara’s life came to a tragic end. The St. Petersburg Times commented on the tragedy on May 10, 1939:
Scarlett O’Hara, the much-publicized black cat working in “The Cat and the Canary,” is an obit — she was run over by a car and killed yesterday.
Final Mewsings: Did anyone check to see if the car was being driven by a goldfish?
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