Twelve Crowded Hours (1939)

Twelve Crowded Hours poster

RKO Radio Pictures
Starring: Richard Dix, Lucille Ball
Directed by: Lew Landers

Synopsis: Nick Green (Richard Dix) is a newspaper reporter who pounds the pavement trying to get the goods on a local kingpin with the help of dance instructor Paula Sanders (Lucille Ball).

Kitty Cameo: As the title would imply the action takes place over the course of one evening from dusk to dawn. In the beginning of the film, we see a low shot of a street as people go about their early evening business. A woman pulls her shade down. A man sets out an empty milk bottle. A man stumbles home after a long day of work. And then a woman exits the same building, energetic and heading to work. As she passes some garbage cans a black cat is sitting atop the lid of one of them. The cat then jumps down.

Twelve Crowded Hours - black cat on garbage can lid

Twelve Crowded Hours - black cat about to jump down off garbage can lid

At the end of the film this is all done in reverse. The cat jumps back onto the garbage can lid as the woman passes, now tired after a long night. In succession the man exits as she enters the building, the man takes in his newspaper and milk bottle and the woman pulls up the shade.

Twelve Crowded Hours - black cat approaching garbage can