by Mark Murton

Original Title: Tante Zita

Directed by: Robert Enrico

This review contains a severe Kitty Carnage Warning!

Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!

Synopsis: Twenty-year old Annie (Joanna Shimkus) lives with her mother and aunt Zita. Zita (Katina Paxinou) suffers a major stroke and, for the first time in her life, Annie has to cope with death. One night, unable to watch her aunt’s suffering any longer, she escapes into the Paris night and embarks on a series of encounters which by morning will have taught her to leave her childhood behind and become a woman.

Kitty Cameo: The first cat seen is in one of the old photographs under the opening titles.

Cat Burglars (Scene Stealers): Annie, and her mother and aunt share their home with a Siamese cat. It is heard before it is seen, and even when first seen it is just a blurry ball of fur in the background. The cat is finally shown properly on the floor behind Zita as she moves around the room.

While suffering a stroke, Zita collapses. The Siamese is lying by her prostrate body as Annie enters the apartment some time later.

Finding her aunt, Annie immediately calls the doctor as the cat is wandering in the background.

Zita is made comfortable by the doctor and Annie goes to sit with her, cradling the cat in her arms as she watches over her aunt.

During her night-time odyssey, Annie wanders into a rundown area of the city and encounters a man seemingly calling to a cat; hanging at his waist are a sack and a large stick. She then spots a tuxedo cat emerging from a dustbin.

Another man steps out of the shadows, this one armed with a stick and a slingshot. The cat makes a run for it and the men give chase.

Realising the men are hunting the cat, Annie tries to intervene, screaming at them and trying to get between them and the cat to give the kitty time to escape. Reverse footage is used to make it look as if the cat is backing up behind some crates. Poor cat screeches are dubbed over much of this scene.

Kitty Carnage Warning! Again the cat makes a run for it but while ducking under a pile of rubble a snare around the back leg halts his progress and the two men descend on the poor animal and (thankfully out of frame) beat it to death.

A police car arrives on the scene and the two men run off. Annie follows and, ducking into the shadows to avoid detection by the police, she finds herself next to the first man she saw, billed only as The Spaniard (Roger Ibáñez), who implores her to stay silent. Once the police have passed by they have a brief conversation in which Annie asks the Spaniard why they killed the cat. “To eat!” is the simple reply and he holds up the dead cat to show her. This causes Annie to scream, and her screams reveal their location to the police. One of the policeman picks out the dead cat in the beam of his torch. (“A rat hunting a cat,” declares one of the policemen.) The Spaniard is arrested and he tries to abandon the dead cat but the police tell him to bring it with him. He carries the cat’s body with him all the way to the waiting police van.

Final Mewsings: Cat actors should never, ever be snared!

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