Hal Roach Studios
Starring: Priscilla Dean, Herbert Rawlinson
Directed by: Fred Guiol
Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!
Synopsis: A society wife (Priscilla Dean) is feeling neglected and gets the idea to hire a stranger (Stan Laurel) to flirt with her to make her husband (Herbert Rawlinson) jealous. This short features an early pairing of Laurel and Hardy.
Cat Burglar (Scene Stealer): Late in the short, the wife is in her bedroom when we see a cat in an adjoining room poking its head into one of her white stockings.
In a joke that was seen in several short comedies directed by Hal Roach, the cat somehow manages to crawl inside the stocking and then runs around the house looking like a strange mini-ghost.
The cat in stocking walks behind the wife who sees it in her mirror. The wife turns and sees the strange animal then lets out a scream, which her husband hears.
Kitty Carnage Warning! The wife climbs onto her chair and then jumps to the bed when the ghost cat “jumps” at her. The cat inside the stocking is actually being jerked up into the air by a wire, which was an unfortunately common practice in silent comedy films.
The husband arrives with his gun, prepared to defend his wife.
He picks up the cat and pulls the stocking off, showing his wife there is nothing to be afraid of.
Final Mewsings: Cats climbing into stockings seemed to be a common occurence in the 1920’s.
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