Columbia Pictures Corp.
Starring: Edward G. Robinson, Jean Arthur
Directed by: John Ford
Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!
Synopsis: Arthur Ferguson Jones (Edward G. Robinson) is a milquetoast of a man laboring at a thankless desk job all day while dreaming of becoming an author by night. He also harbors a crush on a beautiful blonde co-worker, Miss Clark (Jean Arthur) who is every bit as aggressive as Jones is shy. Jones’ world gets turned upside-down when he is mistaken for his doppelganger, a ruthless gangster named Mannion.
Kitty Cameo: In an early scene in the film, the character of Jones is seen in his apartment going about his daily routine of getting ready for work. He stops to talk to a small pet bird in a birdcage, and at the same time a black cat is pawing at his leg, meowing to be fed. The cat’s name is Abelard. When Jones suddenly realizes that his alarm clock is slow and he’s late for work, he makes a mad dash to get out the door, throwing bird food into the cage and pouring, but mostly spilling, milk into a bowl on the floor for Abelard.
While there are several scenes in the apartment during the film, Abelard is notably missing in most of them, but this is not surprising since many of these scenes required the split-screen effect which allowed Robinson to play both parts on screen at the same time. It would have been risky to include anything in the background which might have moved from one side of the screen to the other, so the cat was probably purposefully not used. To further verify this theory, the first scene after this when Robinson is only playing one character (Jones), Abelard is seen sitting on the bed. This is when Mannion’s goons come to collect Jones to take him to their hideout.
Finally in the last scene of the film Jones and his new bride (Miss Clark, of course) are seen boarding a boat for their honeymoon trip to Shanghai, a place where Jones has always wanted to go. Being wheeled along with the rest of their luggage is the bird in its cage and Abelard, sporting a big ribbon with a “S.S. Shanghai” tag attached. The pets are also seen being held by porters on the gangplank when Jones is asked to give his new wife a big kiss for the news photographers.
Final Mewsings: Cats don’t care whether you or your gangster double feeds them.
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