Original Air Date: September 5, 1959
Directed by: Otto Lang
Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains spoilers for this episode!
Synopsis: The premiere episode of this series finds shrunken special agent Mel Hunter (Marshall Thompson) infiltrating a warehouse to get some hidden information.
Featured Feline: Mel’s partner, Bill (Arthur Franz), smuggles Mel into the warehouse inside a briefcase. As Bill enters the outer area, a tabby cat is sitting nearby.
The cat jumps down and walks near Bill. Bill is startled then relieved to see it is just a cat. When he takes Mel into the inner office he fails to mention there is a cat in the building.
The security guard also notices the cat when he comes by.
Things go awry when Bill shoots the guard and is knocked out himself. Mel is trying to figure out how to save the situation when the cat enters through the office door, which has been left open. As Mel puts it in his voice over narration, “I realized that cat was approaching me exactly as a leopard would approach a normal-sized man.”
Mel takes shelter from the cat in a partially upside-down garbage can. The cat manages to knock it all the way down, forming a cage around Mel.
Mel tells the cat to “shoo” but that doesn’t help.
Eventually Bill sneaks out of the can and makes his way to a fire extinguisher, which he manages to shoot into the poor cat’s face.
It’s clear at least three different cat actors were used to shoot this sequence. One is even a long-haired cat!
Final Mewsings: That’s one big leopard!
Many thanks to Omega for letting us know about the cat in this episode!
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