by Mark Murton

Directed by: William Fairchild

Synopsis: In the Mediterranean in 1941 Axis forces are using frogmen and manned torpedoes to attack previously impregnable harbours. Explosives expert Lt. Lionel Crabb (Laurence Harvey) arrives in Gibraltar to organise a team to thwart the sabotage.

Kitty Cameo: Crabb forms his Underwater Working Party and puts Chief Petty Officer Thorpe (Sid James) in charge of training the men. Their first problem is to find somewhere to work from and they are assigned a long-disused bastion. Among the debris inside they find a dog with a new brood of puppies and from further inside two of the men, Able Seaman Morgan (Alec McCowen) and Leading Seaman Knowles (Michael Craig), emerge with a tuxedo cat.

After seeing the puppies, Crabb suggests, “We’ll train them to sniff out Italians. And that cat, too!”

Morgan hands the cat to Knowles, who sighs, “Don’t tell me she’s got kittens?” “No, sir, only fleas,” Morgan says. “Make a nice present to the Chief,” Knowles adds.

Knowles keeps hold of the cat while Thorpe lines the men up at the entrance to explain their duties.

In the next scene the accommodation has been transformed and is spic-and-span with shining floors. The puppies are in the foreground tucked up in a basket as Thorpe enters holding the cat which he deposits on the floor.

Final Mewsings: Cats have no objections to cleaner living conditions.

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