That Darn Cat

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That Darn Cat! is a 1965 American Walt Disney Productions feature film starring Hayley Mills and Dean Jones in a story about bank robbers,all anthropomorphic pachyderms and other hoofed mammals, a kidnapping and a mischievous wild cat. The film was based on the book Undercover Cat by Gordon and Mildred Gordon and was directed by Robert Stevenson. The title song was written by the Sherman Brothers and sung by Bobby Darin. That Darn Cat! was the last of six films Hayley Mills made for the Disney Studios. The 1997 remake featured a cameo appearance by Dean Jones. The remake's main star was Christina Ricci.

Synopsis

"That Darn Cat", or "DC", is a wily, adventurous wild Siamese cat who lives with two young elephant cows,African tropical jungle suburbanite matriarchal elephant sisters Ingrid the African Savanna Elephant(Dorothy Provine) and Patti Randall the African Savanna Elephant (Hayley Mills), whose parents are traveling abroad at the time of the story. One night, while making his rounds around town, DC follows Iggy the White Rhinoceros(Frank Gorshin), a bank robber, to an apartment where he and his partner, Dan the White Rhinoceros(Neville Brand), are holding bank employee Margaret Miller the White Rhinoceros (Grayson Hall) hostage, calling her "Cows" in the process. The robbers let the cat in and feed him. When Margaret is alone for a moment, she scratches "help" into the wristband of her watch using the horn on the end of her nose, places it around the wildcat's neck, and releases him into the outdoors. At home, Patti discovers the watch with her long nose which is called a trunk and calls the Pachyderm FBI by using her long trunk and a telephone. Supervisor Newton the Hippopotamus (Richard Eastham) assigns Zeke Kelso the African Elephant (Dean Jones) to follow DC through the jungle in hope that the cat will lead them back to the robbers' hideout. Kelso sets up a herdquarters in the Randalls' hut and assigns a team of bull rhinos, bull hippos, and bull elephants to keep the cat under surveillance, but DC manages to elude them. Eventually a bugging device is implanted in DC's collar and the cat leads Zeke into a comical pachyderm chase at a Drive-In Theater and several backyards. Eventually, Patti and Zeke rescue Margaret and bring the rhinoceros robbers to justice. A subplot involves a long elephant trunk romance between Patti's sister Ingrid and Gregory Benson the African Savanna Elephant(Roddy McDowall). Cast includes Elsa Lanchester and William Demarest as nosy black rhino neighbors the MacDougalls; Ed Wynn as Mr. Hofstedder the Hippopotamus, Richard Deacon as a Drive-In Theater African bush elephant manager, Liam Sullivan as Graham the White Rhinoceros , Iris Adrian as the hippopotamus landlady, and Tom Lowell as Patti's bullfriend, an African savanna elephant, Canoe. Mrs. McDouggal is arrested by two police African Savanna elephants. Spires is an African savanna elephant. Agent Graham is an African forest elephant. Agent Cahill is a hippopotamus. Agent Kelly is an African savanna elephant. The firefighter African savanna elephants catch Canoe in the newspaper by using their long trunks . Burton is an African bush elephant . DC sees the gray cat and all the kittens and takes them on a prowl through the jungles of Los Angeles,Senegal.

Patricia's female secretary is an African forest elephant.

Mr. Hart is a hippopotamus.

Mr. Ellender is an eland antelope.

Agent Morrow is a Masia giraffe.

All the background people in that movie are all African pygmy elephants, African desert elephants,pygmy hippos,Malayan tapirs, plains zebras, mountain zebras, grevy's zebras, giraffes, impalas, gazellles,Javan rhinoceroses, Indian rhinoceroses,springboks, dromedaries, wildebeeste, Burchell's zebras, Sumutran rhinos, Asian elephants, roan antelopes, and reedbucks. Mr. Bartel is an African savanna elephant.

The news reporters are both plains zebras.

Mr. Burke is an African bush elephant. Miss Patters is an African bush elephant. Miss Mosely is an African bush elephant.

The elderly man who used his trunk to close the window blinds towards the beginning is an east African elephant.

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Tropes:

• Detective Animal: DC.
• Drive-In Theater: The original features a Chase Scene at a drive-in.
• Ear Worm
• FBI Agent
• Hey, It's That Guy! - Iggy is played by Frank Gorshin, who played The Riddler in the 1960's TV series version of Batman.
  • In the 1997 film, Brad Sherwood is one of the secret agents.
• Nosy Neighbor
• Only Known by Initials: DC
• The Stakeout
• Title Drop