Original Air Date: January 26, 1960
Starring: John Newland, Margaret Phillips, Arthur Franz
Directed by: John Newland
Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains spoilers for this episode!
Synopsis: Elena Stacy (Margaret Phillips) is a successful actress who returns home after suffering from a nervous breakdown brought on by the sudden death of her young daughter. Her husband Kevin (Arthur Franz) tries to console her but shortly after she returns home Elena begins to hear the voice of a girl crying “Mama! Mama!” from nowhere.
Featured Feline: When Elena returns home she is in a room when an orange tabby cat enters. She picks up the cat and pets it, commenting on how it’s grown and assuring the cat she doesn’t blame him for her daughter’s death. Apparently the little girl chased the young cat into the street which is how she was hit by a truck and killed.
It’s then that Elena first hears the myserious cries of “Mama! Mama!” and the cat exits the room and enters her daughter’s room.
Elena is close to breaking down in her daughter’s room but her husband consoles her as the cat looks on from the crib.
Later Elena is reading lines from her husband’s script in preparation for her return to the stage. The cat is sitting beside her looking very happy as it rubs up against everything in sight (it almost seems as if the cat actor were given catnip to help relax!) Once again Elena hears the girl’s voice crying out “Mama! Mama!” and the cat leaves the room when this starts to happen.
In the final scenes Elena is getting ready for a dress rehearsal and the cat is in her dressing room.
After Elena goes on stage the cat leaves the theater by the back door to scrounge in some garbage cans.
A little girl sees the cat and pets it, then follows it into the theater. Shortly thereafter a stagehand shuts the large door behind the girl and she panics, seeing she is locked in. This leads to the dramatic ending which is quite unexpected and clever!
Final Mewsings: You don’t have to worry about hearing voices if the cat seems to hear them as well!
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