That Darn Cat!

Plot

"Darn Cat" or "DC" is a wily, adventurous Siamese tomcat who lives with young, suburbanite sisters Ingrid "Inkie" (Dorothy Provine) and Patricia "Patti" Randall (Hayley Mills), whose parents are traveling abroad at the time of the story.

One night, while making his rounds around town, teasing Blitzy the Bulldog as usual, DC follows Iggy (Frank Gorshin), a bank robber, to an apartment where he and his bank robber partner Dan (Neville Brand) are holding hostage a bank employee, Miss Margaret Miller (Grayson Hall), whom they nickname "Moms". Without intention, the robbers let the cat in and he tries to eat the food that caused him to follow Iggy.

When Miss Miller is alone for a moment (but still under total eye surveillance of the robbers) being forced to cook the meal for them, she removes DC's collar and tries to put her watch around his neck with a help inscription. In the process, she attempts to scratch the word "help" into the back of her watch. Then she releases him into the outdoors.

When DC comes home, Patti discovers the watch. She has a gut feeling that it belongs to the kidnapped woman and visits the FBI. She tells Agent Zeke Kelso (Dean Jones) of her discovery, and Supervisor Newton (Richard Eastham) assigns Kelso to follow DC in hopes he will lead them back to the robbers' hideout.

Kelso sets up a headquarters in the Randalls' house and assigns a team to keep the cat under surveillance, but through a couple of careless moves, DC manages to elude them. Eventually a bugging device is implanted in DC's collar and the cat leads Kelso into a comical chase at a drive-in movie and several backyards. After several failed attempts and without hard evidence about the watch, Supervisor Newton shuts down the operation. Patti disguises herself as a hippie merchant who pretends to be a niece of a jeweler she knows well, Mr. Hoffsteddar (Ed Wynn), and she calls the FBI to persuade them that the watch belonging to Miss Miller was indeed hard evidence. Patti and Kelso rescue Miss Miller and bring the robbers to justice.

Subplots involve a romance between Patti's sister Ingrid and Gregory Benson (Roddy McDowall) and a romance between Patti herself and a surf-obsessed slacker neighbor, Canoe Henderson (Tom Lowell), and the meddling of nosey neighbor Mrs. MacDougall (Elsa Lanchester) and her disapproving husband, Wilmer MacDougall (William Demarest). At the end, it is revealed that the gray cat in the opening sequence and DC have started a family. At the end, they are taking their kittens on a prowl.

Cast

Production

The exterior neighborhood scenes were filmed on The Walt Disney Studios backlot in Burbank, California.

Each of the Seal Point Siamese cats who collectively play the role of DC are so-called "traditional" or "old style" Siamese, as opposed to the more dainty, long and tubular modern Siamese show cats. One of the cats used for the movie belonged to longtime cat breeder Edith Williams, a member of the Stud Book Fanciers Association. One of the feline actors also starred, along with two dogs, in Disney's 1963 film The Incredible Journey.

Reception

Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote, "The feline that plays the informant, as the F.B.I. puts it, is superb. Clark Gable at the peak of his performing never played a tom cat more winningly. This elegant, blue-eyed creature is a paragon of suavity and grace", and concluded, "...it's an entertaining picture. Even a king might profitably look at That Darn Cat."

The movie was well received by critics, earning a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Awards and nominations

The film's writers, Mildred Gordon, Gordon Gordon, and Bill Walsh, were nominated by the Writers Guild of America for Best Written American Comedy. The film was also nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Motion Picture, and a Golden Leaf nomination for Best Supporting Actress (Elsa Lanchester). Mills won the 1966 second place Golden Leaf award for Comedy Performance, Actress. The Sherman Brothers won the third place Golden Leaf award for Best Song.

Comic book adaption