Starring: Mademoiselle Dominique de France
Directed by: Allan Dwan
Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!
Synopsis: A musical and comical but otherwise fairly faithful retelling of Dumas’ classic novel pairs D’Artagnan (Don Ameche) with three Musketeer impersonators (The Ritz Brothers).
Kitty Cameo: As in other film adaptations of the story, the scheming Cardinal Richelieu (Miles Mander) has a pet cat, this one a lovely Smokey Persian. The cat is in the Cardinal’s lap when the King (Joseph Schildkraut) comes to see him. (It’s clear the actor has absolutely no idea how to properly pet a cat.)
Richelieu places the cat on his desk as the King approaches.
The cat remains on the desk, scratching and preening a bit.
Richelieu’s cat appears once more when he is talking to De Rochefort (Lionel Atwill). Richelieu pours some milk into a silver dish but the cat walks away, uninterested. Atwell does his best to keep the cat from jumping down from the table.
When the men turn away, the cat is still not drinking the milk.
Behind the Scenes
The cat who acted in this version had the auspicious name of Mademoiselle Dominique de France and she actually received a bit of press for her antics on the set (or rather ones likely thought up by the 20th Century-Fox press department). This article was published in the Chico Record on December 1, 1938:
Hollywood Film Shop
HOLLYWOOD — (LP) — Even the regal ways of Pola Negri never caused quite so much consternation on a movie set as did those of Mademoiselle Dominique de France, an actress from Persia, who has launched her film career here.
Traveling in a limousine with a chauffeur, Mademoiselle Dominique arrived for work on the 20th Century-Fox lot with eight stand-ins and three personal attendants.
She refused to look at the script of “The Three Musketeers” in which she is starring with the Ritz Brothers and Don Ameche; she snubbed the director, Allan Dwan; she flickered her beautiful eyelashes brazenly at Ameche; and she went into a rage when a prop man rustled a paper during an important scene.
Mademoiselle Dominique sent makeup women scurrying away in fear by turning on them most brutally and used all the naughty words in her language when the wardrobe woman stuck her with a pin.
The little actress, a blond, blue-eyed creature of loveliness, did what no other star ever did — she frightened the Ritz Brothers half to death and sank her fingernails into Harry when he made eyes at her.
She hissed and purred, just as all Persian cats do, but when she went before the cameras, she was letter perfect. As Henry East, her chauffeur, explained, she comes from as illustrious as family of thespians as the Barrymores. In face, her grandmother starred with Douglas Fairbanks in a silent version of “The Three Musketeers.”
Mademoiselle Dominique is valued at $3,000, earns $50 a day, and dotes on perfume baths. She needs eight stand-ins because she frequently wrangles with them and the eight are temperamental and may decide not to work.
She won the role in “The Three Musketeers” after undergoing a film test in competition with 20 other felines. Although she merely walks around a room in 10 scenes, says nothing and does nothing, the studio considered the role important since the cat is supposed to typify the principal characteristics of Cardinal Richelieu who motivates the story.
Just to emphasize the over-exaggeration of this story, here is another version with some slight differences printed in thr Daily Republican Register on February 18, 1939:
Movie Prevues
Mademoiselle Dominique de France, an actress from Persia, caused consternation and havoc on the set during the filming of “The Three Musketeers,” 20th Century-Fox’s musical comedy version of Alexandre Dumas’ story.
It has been a long time since such temperament has been seen in Hollywood and Director Allan Dwan was at a loss how to curb it.
Miss Dominique arrived in a limousine with a chauffeur, two standins and a personal attendant. She refused to look at the script, snubbed the director, scratched Don Ameche, bit one of the Ritz Brothers and went into a rage because a prop man rustled a paper. She fought with the make-up girls and then decided that she wouldn’t work at all that day! What a woman! Or — to the more accurate — what a cat!
Mademoiselle Dominique is a cat and a very beautiful one too. Don Ameche and the Ritz Brothers, starred in the film, forgave her after a while and grew quite fond of her before the picture was completed.
And yet another story about the difficult cat actress appeared in The Star Press (Indiana) on January 1, 1939:
Only Heated Milk Draws Attention of ‘Mademoiselle’
HOLLYWOOD, Dec. 31 — Mademoiselle Dominique de France, high-priced feline actress, has gone temperamental on the set of “The Three Musketeers,” at Twentieth Century-Fox. She is playing a retake sequence with Don Ameche, who is D’Artagnan, and Miles Mader, who is Cardinal Richelieu.
The script says: “The Cardinal crosses to a corner of the room, kneels and places the saucer on the floor. The cat laps up the milk.”
Sounded simple enough, but, at this moment, Mademoiselle Dominique is not interested in lapping up milk — even though she is earning $25 a day.
“What’s the matter with that silly cat!” screams Allan Dwan, the director.
The cat’s master dips a finger in the milk, looks up with a hurt expression and shakes his head.
“Mademoiselle is not used to drinking her milk unless properly heated,” he says indignantly.
A prop man sends out for an electric heater. The milk is warmed. The cat’s master tests it carefully. The lights burn brightly again and Mademoiselle now condescends to drink.
Whatever take Mademoiselle may have deigned to drink in was left on the cutting room floor, as the cat clearly has no interest in the milk in the finished film.
Final Mewsings: You can lead a cat to a movie set but you can’t make them drink.
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