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THAT DARN CAT! (1965)
Disney Studios had one of their biggest live action hits with the 1965 classic That Darn Cat an elaborately mounted comic adventure that might have been a little too sophisticated for its intended demographic but still provides solid laughs for a film that's 52 years old.
The film follows a pair of bank robbers who use a bank teller as a shield to get out of the bank and continue to hold her hostage in their hideout. One of the robbers is followed home by a Siamese cat named DC, who is after the food the robber is carrying. DC gets into the hideout and while there, the hostage manages to slip her wristwatch around DC's neck with a partial message scratched on it. DC returns home to his owner, Patti Randall, a teenage drama queen with an overactive imagination. Patti actually figures out everything immediately and decides that she must report the watch to the FBI, where she decides a handsome young agent named Zeke Kelso is the man for the case, but getting the FBI to believe Patti's story and be on board with it is a lot more difficult than Patti thought but it is DC who actually convinces them that Patti's story might have some merit.
Director Robert Stevenson, fresh off his Oscar-nominated work directing Mary Poppins takes on an equally elaborate story here but with different challenges than his previous assignment provided. Instead of a lot of special effects and making us accept the mingling of live action and animation, Stevenson has the monumental task of making us believe a story where the smartest character in the movie is a Siamese cat, a cat whose primary mission is food but also knows where his bread his buttered and knows when people like him and when they don't. It's a little hard to believe that this cat has all these silly humans running around like chickens with their heads cut off, but that's exactly what he does and a lot of credit for this has to go to the director and the trainers in charge of making the several cats utilized in making the movie, a likable and believable movie hero who actually seems to understand whenever these silly humans are talking about him.
What did surprise me about this film was the surprisingly adult screenplay by Gordon and Dorothy Gordon, rich with sophisticated dialogue and some slightly edgy relationships for a 1965 Disney comedy. It is clear from the moment Patti and Kelso meet that Patti is attracted to the man, which seems a little icky on the surface since the character is clearly too old for Patti, but Patti's crush is never portrayed as unseemly and we never worry that anything inappropriate is going to happen between Patti and Kelso because Kelso knows it's wrong without making a fuss or slowing down the real story, though he does find himself attracted to Patti's older sister, Ingrid.
Stevenson has assembled a perfect cast for this comedy led by Hayley Mills, absolutely enchanting as Patti and the adorable Dean Jones as Kelso, whose work here is delicious and believable...Kelso is allergic to cats and I love the way Jones never forgets to have trouble breathing through his nose whenever Kelso and DC are in the same room. The terrific supporting cast includes Dorothy Provine as Ingrid and Roddy McDowall as her stuffy boyfriend. Frank Gorshin was very funny as one of the bank robbers as were William Demarest and Elsa Lanchester as neighbors who were clearly the inspiration for Abner and Gladys Kravitz on Bewitched. A winning Disney comedy that still provides major laughs after all these years.
Disney Studios had one of their biggest live action hits with the 1965 classic That Darn Cat an elaborately mounted comic adventure that might have been a little too sophisticated for its intended demographic but still provides solid laughs for a film that's 52 years old.
The film follows a pair of bank robbers who use a bank teller as a shield to get out of the bank and continue to hold her hostage in their hideout. One of the robbers is followed home by a Siamese cat named DC, who is after the food the robber is carrying. DC gets into the hideout and while there, the hostage manages to slip her wristwatch around DC's neck with a partial message scratched on it. DC returns home to his owner, Patti Randall, a teenage drama queen with an overactive imagination. Patti actually figures out everything immediately and decides that she must report the watch to the FBI, where she decides a handsome young agent named Zeke Kelso is the man for the case, but getting the FBI to believe Patti's story and be on board with it is a lot more difficult than Patti thought but it is DC who actually convinces them that Patti's story might have some merit.
Director Robert Stevenson, fresh off his Oscar-nominated work directing Mary Poppins takes on an equally elaborate story here but with different challenges than his previous assignment provided. Instead of a lot of special effects and making us accept the mingling of live action and animation, Stevenson has the monumental task of making us believe a story where the smartest character in the movie is a Siamese cat, a cat whose primary mission is food but also knows where his bread his buttered and knows when people like him and when they don't. It's a little hard to believe that this cat has all these silly humans running around like chickens with their heads cut off, but that's exactly what he does and a lot of credit for this has to go to the director and the trainers in charge of making the several cats utilized in making the movie, a likable and believable movie hero who actually seems to understand whenever these silly humans are talking about him.
What did surprise me about this film was the surprisingly adult screenplay by Gordon and Dorothy Gordon, rich with sophisticated dialogue and some slightly edgy relationships for a 1965 Disney comedy. It is clear from the moment Patti and Kelso meet that Patti is attracted to the man, which seems a little icky on the surface since the character is clearly too old for Patti, but Patti's crush is never portrayed as unseemly and we never worry that anything inappropriate is going to happen between Patti and Kelso because Kelso knows it's wrong without making a fuss or slowing down the real story, though he does find himself attracted to Patti's older sister, Ingrid.
Stevenson has assembled a perfect cast for this comedy led by Hayley Mills, absolutely enchanting as Patti and the adorable Dean Jones as Kelso, whose work here is delicious and believable...Kelso is allergic to cats and I love the way Jones never forgets to have trouble breathing through his nose whenever Kelso and DC are in the same room. The terrific supporting cast includes Dorothy Provine as Ingrid and Roddy McDowall as her stuffy boyfriend. Frank Gorshin was very funny as one of the bank robbers as were William Demarest and Elsa Lanchester as neighbors who were clearly the inspiration for Abner and Gladys Kravitz on Bewitched. A winning Disney comedy that still provides major laughs after all these years.