Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
Starring: Frank Morgan, Juanita Quigley
Directed by: Frank Borzage

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

Synopsis: Screen biography of Robert “Captain Bob” Yancey (Frank Morgan) of Lynchburg, Virginia who served multiple terms as district attorney.

Cat Burglar (Scene Stealer): As the film opens we see the youngest Yancey daughter, Caroline (Juanita Quigley) sitting on the front porch holding a large long haired cat. A paper boy delivers the newspaper and Caroline gets up to retrieve it.

Joel Yancey (Scotty Beckett) comes out of the house with a dog and Caroline yells at him to take the dog back inside. But the dog has spotted the cat and the cat hisses.

Caroline runs away with the cat and the dog chases her.

Caroline manages to stash the cat in an out building beside the house. Their mother Rosa (Spring Byington) comes running when she hears the commotion. Caroline explains that the dog was after Cousin Dorothy’s cat Tabitha (they pronounce it Tab-eeth-a).

A short time later Robert Yancey comes downstairs to breakfast. He is startled to see Tabitha sitting on his chair and shooes the animal away.

In a later scene Robert Yancey comes home and meets his wife and daughter Rebecca (Kathryn Grayson) in the library. Tabitha can be seen sitting in a chair behind him.

When Yancey turns to sit down he has to push Tabitha off the chair.

We see Tabitha sitting in the background, but in the next cut the cat is suddenly lying across the man’s feet.

When Yancey realizes the cat is on his feet he lifts his legs and the cat with them, forcing Tabitha to jump down. Rosa indicates that Tabitha is in the motherly way and Yancey complains, “Well, hang it all, she doesn’t have to have her kittens up my britch’s leg!” Sadly no mention of Tabitha or her kittens is made after this.

Final Mewsings: It’s not nice to push pregnant cats around.

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