Edward
Bartender
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- 25,113
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- London, UK
My favorite John Barrymore picture, "When A Man Loves," a silent from 1927 based on the story of Manon Lescaut, prominently features a cat in the first half of the picture -- in one scene, Barrymore swordfights a whole gang of rogues *while holding the cat,* who seems perfectly calm about the whole thing. But after about the halfway point, the cat just drops out of the story and you never hear what happened to her. First time I saw the picture I waited expectantly for the dramatic heartwarming reunion scene, but all that happened was Barrymore sailed off on a ship with Dolores Costello without so much an acknowledgement of the cat.
That has bothered me ever since. The cat really did steal the picture, and probably Barrymore demanded that she be written out or something.
I recall reading somewhere cats were routinely sedated to appear on screen in those days...
I'm also reminded now of inside Evan Davies - there's a prominent ginger cat in that, and I remember all my sympathy towards the protagonist evaporating when he leaves the cat behind - conventionally, far from the worst thing he does in that film.