The Cruel Sea (1953)

Directed by: Charles Frend

Synopsis: The story of a British convoy escort ship and its crew navigating the treacherous Atlantic waters during World War II.

Purr Blur: During a tense moment when the ship has stopped to make repairs in hostile territory, the men wait anxiously and jump at every little noise, knowing it could be heard by the enemy. In the mess area there is a shot of a table with a cup. On the out of focus table in the background is the ship’s black and white cat.

The Cruel Sea - black and white ship's cat out of focus on table in background

As the boat lilts a pencil rolls across the front table and hits a cup. There is an odd edit where the cat is then suddenly looking up. This could have been a method to make it appear that the cat reacted to the sound of the pencil hitting the cup, or the original print could have been damaged and spliced.

The Cruel Sea - black and white ship's cat out of focus on table in background
The Cruel Sea - black and white ship's cat out of focus on table in background reacting to pencil rolling across table animated gif

Final Mewsings: Cats don’t get much blurrier than this!

Many thanks to Ted Davis for letting us know about the cat in this film.

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