Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
Starring: Robert Montgomery, Robert Young
Directed by: Jack Conway

Cat Out of the Bag Alert!  This review contains some major spoilers for this film!

Synopsis: Lieut. Thomas Knowlton USN (Robert Montgomery) struggles with love and war as one of the members of a submarine crew fighting in the Mediterranean during World War I.

Cat Burglar (Scene Stealer): Knowlton’s bunkmate and friend is Lieut. ‘Brick’ Walters (Robert Young).  When the two retire to their cabin before leave we see Walters has a little female calico cat on his bunk which he pets.

Walters goes to pour some condensed milk from a can out for the cat but it is empty.  This sets up a running theme involving the cat.

Walters then sets the cat in Knowlton’s hat.

Knowlton sees this and takes the cat out, handing it back to Walters.  He then picks up the hat and looks into it before throwing it aside.  Walters asks, “Again?”

Later after Walters has been lost at sea, Knowlton is seen sitting on his friend’s bunk with the cat as Lieut. Comdr. T.J. Toler USN (Walter Huston) talks to him.

While on a mission to watch enemy mine planting, Knowlton thinks he sees Walters alive in a dinghy and fires upon the enemy, bringing swift retribution.  Knowlton is banished to his cabin as the submarine dives, trying to elude the enemy.  In the cabin, the cat is licking the edge of a can of condensed milk.

Knowlton picks up the can and tries to pour some for the cat but again it is empty.

Kitty Carnage Warning! Right after this Knowlton realizes that chlorine gas is leaking.  He shouts a warning and everyone runs to the other side of the submarine.  They lock the doors but the gas continues to cut off their air.  As the men struggle to get the submarine running again and not succumb to the lack of oxygen, one man named Flannagan is seen holding the cat which is now limp in his hand.

Flanagan is taken aside by torpedo man Mac Dougal (Eugene Pallette) who pours out some soda lime onto a table.  Mac Dougal tells Flanagan to “Stir her in that,” apparently to try to save the cat’s life.

Flanagan sets the cat’s limp body down on the table, ironically in a pool of condensed milk which the poor cat couldn’t get earlier.  The cat is still breathing and it would appear the cat actor was drugged for this scene.  The cat is not seen again so it’s unclear if the character was to have survived.

Final Mewsings: Submarine cats use whatever is available for their latrine.

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