Paramount Pictures
Starring: Marlene Dietrich, Victor McLaglen
Also Starring: Blackie
Directed by: Josef von Sternberg
Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!
Synopsis: A prostitute named Marie Kolverer (Marlene Dietrich) is recruited by the Austrian secret police to spy on Russian soldiers.
Cinema Cat: Marie owns a long-haired black cat which is not named. He is first seen in her apartment sniffing at a doll’s shoe which has been knocked to the floor by the chief of the secret service (Gustav von Seyffertitz) as he pays her a visit.
The cat plays a notable part in the film. When Colonel Kranau (Victor McLaglen), the man Marie (now known as X-27) is investigating, breaks into her apartment, he sees the cat on the bed and picks it up to have a closer look.
Marie enters the bedroom to find Kranau and he sets her on the bed by the cat. Moving around to the other side of the bed, Marie picks up the cat.
Marie then pulls a gun out of her bureau drawer and threatens Kranau as she continues to hold the cat.
She sets the cat down on a dresser as she tries to use the phone, which has been disconnected.
After Kranau leaves, Marie picks up the cat and catches a plane to her next assignment destination. She brings the cat with her.
Marie takes on the persona of a cleaning woman in a Russian officers’ building. Unfortunately Kranau spots the cat in the hallway and follows him into Marie’s room. Having read her orders earlier, he has been on the lookout for her.
Marie is caught trying to escape and is brought to Kranau. He points out that he recognized her cat and she explains the cat has always brought her good luck.
During a very tense scene, Marie holds her cat tightly as Kranau tries to decipher the secret message from the piano notes she has written. She is not only looking for a means to escape but is memorizing the notes being played.
Marie manages to drug Kranau and escape. When she returns to Austria she plays the transcribes the piano music for the secret service. The cat sits on top of the piano as she does this.
Later when Kranau is captured, Marie asks to see him alone. During their discussion he picks up her cat. Because she has fallen in love with Kranau, she deliberately drops her gun and allows Kranau to escape.
Because she willingly allowed Kranau to escape, Marie is sentenced to death for treason. In prison she has her cat close by and is even given a piano to play before her death.
As Marie is led to the firing squad, she carries the cat. At the last minute she hands the cat to a priest. The cat watches as the execution proceeds.
The inclusion of a black cat in this film was not a big surprise. Director Josef von Sternberg made it a habit to include a black cat in just about every one of his pictures. von Sternberg seemed to like setting up situations while filming without knowing exactly what would happen. In a piece for The Los Angeles Times published on November 30, 1930, von Sternberg explained about his directing technique of striving for realism from his actors and underplaying their overplaying. “There is a black cat in a scene of ‘Dishonored.’ von Sternberg is quoted, “One of the characters plays a piano. We placed the cat where it could see the flying fingers. We did not know what the cat would do. We thought it would watch the fingers, following their movements, but we were not sure. As it happened we were right; but the point is that we did not know, until we had placed the cat in that situation, what its reaction would be.”
What was a surprise was the fact that the black cat was so impressive he went from being an extra to having a major role in the film. In an article written by Robert S. White for the April 4, 1931 edition of The Scrutiner, he talks about animal actors, especially those who belonged to J.H. Kerr, the owner of an establishment called Animal Land which provided animals for film productions. Running down the list of animals provided for the film Morocco (another film directed by von Sternberg and starring Marlene Dietrich) a black cat is mentioned. The writer goes on to explain the cat’s name was Blackie and that he was one of Animal Land’s best money-makers. “Blackie was a stray that wandered into the tightly fenced preserves of Animal Land one evening just about feeding time,” White writes. “Finding the meal was first class, Blackie remained. He proved to be friendly, anxious to please and has become one of the most reliable of all animal actors.” (Another article from 1930 noted that Blackie was trained to stretch and yawn on command.)
The article goes on to explain how Blackie became the property of Paramount Pictures. After his role in Morocco, Blackie was hired for Dishonored. “But Blackie was not content to be just a fleeting brand,” White continues. “When put before the cameras in ‘Dishonored,’ he purred with conscious pride and proceeded to give one of the most remarkable feline performances ever witnessed by an astonished director and company. Blackie was promptly assigned a more important role. He became Marlene Dietrich’s pet, and thus carries an extended role through-out the entire production, even winning himself a big-eyed closeup at the end of the picture.”
White went on to explain how von Sternberg proclaimed, “That closeup will make ‘Dishonored’ worth ten thousand dollars more at the box office. Buy Blackie for the property department and give him a home. I want him for my next picture.” Because of this, Blackie was given a valuation of eight thousand dollars.
All of this is in direct contrast to an absolutely ludicrous article by Jesse Henderson printed in the Appleton Post-Crescent on August 13, 1932 (although it was copyrighted in 1931) which speculates that the inclusion of the black cat in Dishonored may have contributed to the ugliness of Sternberg’s wife voicing accusations in divorce court and demanding back alimony. The article itself even points out the unlikely connection between these things.
Finally, a Spanish poster for the film has a drawing of two black kittens on it, although there is only one cat in the film and Blackie was hardly a kitten.
Final Mewsings: Cats can add box office to films!
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