Starring: Tonto
Directed by: Paul Mazursky
This review contains Kitty Carnage Warnings!
Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains spoilers for this film!
Synopsis: Retired teacher Harry (Art Carney) loses his apartment in New York, the only home he has ever known. Finding himself at loose ends, with only a few possessions and his beloved cat, Tonto, Harry begins a journey across the country looking for a new beginning and a place to belong.
Cinema Cat: Tonto the ginger tabby is truly the co-star of this film, playing a major part and at least being present in more than half of the movie’s scenes. Harry walks Tonto on a leash in New York, which was inspired by director Paul Mazursky’s mother who owned a red Manx cat which she used to walk on a leash in the Village. Tonto is the one who is the unexpected catalyst to the beginning of Harry’s adventure.
Harry’s son leaves him at the airport to take a plane to Chicago but Harry doesn’t want to put Tonto through the X-ray machine, and so opts to take the bus instead. This doesn’t work out when Harry is unable to get Tonto to use the toilets on the bus and has to disembark to let Tonto go, at which time Tonto runs off. Harry ends up getting a used car and driving to Chicago, then later continuing to Los Angeles, he and Tonto meeting an entertainment and endearing collection of characters as they go.
Paul Mazursky explained on the DVD’s commentary that two cats were used for the movie. The shot in Harry’s apartment where the camera is on Tonto’s level was the director’s favorite shot of the film, achieved by the handler laying on a blanket holding the camera and being pulled down the hallway. He went on to explain that the trainer used pieces of liver places strategically around Art Carney to get Tonto to come up to him. Art Carney admitted to the director he didn’t like cats and had no pet other than a rock (a gift from comedian Jonathan Winters). “Cats are not my favorite animal,” Carney was quoted as saying in the May 30, 1975 issue of the Times-Advocate (Escondido, CA), “But I grew attached to this cat.” Carney didn’t act sentimental towards Tonto and as a result Tonto came to love him more and more.
Trainer Betty Schumacher offered the cat to the director at the end of the shoot, but his wife was allergic to cats. One newspaper article claimed that Art Carney wanted to buy Tonto after filming was done but the trainer wouldn’t sell him. Paul Mazursky also explained that Betty would sometimes lose her patience with Tonto and flick at his nose, sometimes inadverently hitting the cat, which both Art Carney and he said they would not tolerate. The DVD commentary from Mazursky is well worth a listen!
In an article written by reviewer Rex Reed for the September 29, 1974 issue of the Dayton Daily News, Carney was asked what it was like to co-star with a cat. “Well, W.C. Fields said beware of animals and children, the real scene stealers. But I grew very attached to Tonto. He was beautifully trained by Betty Schumacher and before the picture was over, everybody, including me, hoped they could buy Tonto. You know, nobody knows this but we had a real affair, Tonto and I. I handled and petted him as much as possible. He started coming to me without food as a bait. A lot of people think Tonto is Morris the Cat, but I’m prejudiced. Tonto is much prettier.”
Art Carney won the Oscar for Best Actor that year and Mazursky stated in that he felt the cat should have won as well. In fact, Tonto won the 1975 PATSY (Performing Animal Top Star of the Year) Awards for his role in the film, the equivalent of the Oscar for animal actors. A United Press International story cast dispursions about the win in a somewhat comical way, calling into question the number of votes cast, interference from the Fox Studios and the fact they felt that dog actor Higgins should have won for his role as Benji.
Kitty Carnage Warning! This is a major spoiler but we know some people are very sensitive when it comes to animals in films, so we have to forewarn you that Tonto dies at the end of the film. Mazursky explained that they had to give Tonto a sedative to make him lie still but emphasized that the cat did not die in real life.
Kitty Cameos: There are some other cats in the film as well. Near the beginning Harry takes Tonto into a small grocery store where Tonto sees another cat (presumably female) eyeing him.
At the end of the movie when Harry is alone, a woman sits next to him on a bench in Venice Beach and starts to feed numerous feral cats, who gather around her. Harry then sees one lone orange Tom and chases him onto the beach, picking him up.
Final Mewsings: Anyone would be lucky to have a cat companion like Tonto.
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