Memorable, crazy movie

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Hayley Mills and Dean Jones head an all-star cast in this wacky, over-the-top, and unbelievable Disney film about the FBI tailing a cat, as it's a lead in a bank robbery/kidnapping case. When Neville Brand and Frank Gorshin rob a bank for $160,000.00 and take bank teller Grayson Hall with them, they hide out - only to be found by a hungry cat on its nightly rounds. She, Grayson, puts her wristwatch on the cat in place of its collar with a half-written HELP carved on the back of the watch, which of course sets off imaginative, highly intelligent and cute Hayley Mills on her quest to help the bank teller, of whom she's convinced has put the watch there. Dean Jones is an FBI agent picked by Hayley to help her and is given the odd assignment to follow that cat! Of course, he's allergic, too - of course, naturally. Tom Lowell is Canoe, a friend of Hayley's, who takes her out to surfer movies and eats her out of house and home, when he hangs out with her, stuffing his face with monster sandwiches. His jealousy of Dean and what's going in that house puts him in many situations and which provides much of the humor here. William Demarest and Elsa Lanchester are bickering neighbors who I'm convinced were inspired by the Kravitzes of "Bewitched." While mildly amusing, they were a little ingratiating to me, mostly her antics in being nosy. Dorothy Provine is Hayley's sister. Dean Jones makes it all look so easy as he underplays his unbelievable situation of tailing a cat, named DC for darn cat. But, perhaps the scene-stealer of the whole movie, besides the eerie cat is Roddy MacDowell, who drives sister Dorothy to work and has romantic designs on her. He is exactly perfect as the exasperated and outraged victim of DC's shenanigans. He doesn't underplay or overplay the role. His comic timing is on spot and this may be perhaps his best comic role in film. Disney must have had a sense of humor with "That Darn Cat." Anyone in a serious mood may find this awfully silly, but this is a wildly good and highly enjoyable time with a great cast and with a cool song sung Bobby Darin!

This is one of the longest movies in history. It was more boring than watching water vaporizing in a glass under the sun ! And at one of the authentic posters you'll read "Walt Disney's Most Hilarious Comedy". LIARS, LIARS ! It is an insult to both Disney's studio and us !! The cat is dull, and most of all incredibly ugly. His presence is awful on screen. The kidnapped woman was creepy, I wonder how the 2 kidnappers didn't die out of the horror of looking to her face ! Frank Gorshin is the best one ever impersonated Richard Burton and Burt Lancaster, the thing is here he gave the worst impersonation of Richard Wedmark. He was overacting with no comedy, and watching him was nothing but PAIN. Roddy McDowall was totally wasted, as much as everybody I think. Dean Jones did one of his worst roles and movies. His comedy as someone who's allergic to saying the word cat (??) was damn pathetic. His sudden cold whenever he faces the cat was there, then wasn't. He seemed unfunny idiot for half of the time, and stiff for the rest. And how come Hayley Mills talks with a British accent ?! Nobody contributed to give any explanation for that ! Even the title song, sang by Bobby Darin or else, isn't great or entertaining !This movie suffers from too many unfunny characters (adulator nervous neighbor, elegant FBI agent, chief of police who works as a chief of police, older sister who combs her hair before sleep, ..) I felt bland all over. Look at the old lady next door, played by Elsa Lanchester. According to the way she looked and shot, she was horrendous, and anything but laughable. At one moment she does slap her poor husband. Not a funny thing by any mean ! True there were more amusing characters (noisy landlady, neurotic jeweler, subdued semi-deaf husband), however – sorrowfully – they were all unused ! The main situation is dealt with by shamefully uncreative style. The sketches are dry, and there is absolutely no step goes ahead in the matter of the hostage or the search for her. Simply the comedy and the thrill are beaten to death in this movie. I watched so empty, so talkative, so silly first and second act. Then there was a short third act where some comedy and thrill appeared, yet didn't pay off 2 hours of useless nonentity before it. Being 80 minutes movie should have been more merciful !There is something greatly sexy about Hayley Mills. I believe that Hollywood, and the life, of today don't have girls of that shape anymore. Her short blond hair reminded me of my obsession; Marilyn Monroe, her type of clothes did seduce me more than looking decent, and with those glasses she oozed special sex appeal. What I'll remember form it though is some lines. The old "I know what cooks in your tiny little mind". The witty "I didn't come in from Stupidsville on last night's bus!". The expressive "I look yuck in yellow!". And the most funny, rather the only funny, : "Get me the police. I want to report a prowler. Yeah, he's dressed like an old woman. Running around, looking in windows. And tell your men to be careful. He's dangerous!".In other cases I may say "For the nostalgic feel of it.." NO. FORGET IT UTTERLY. THIS TIME I WOULDN'T. Because except very few factors : The bright image, Hayley Mills' presence, some lines, and that unforgettably raunchy weather forecast's girl, this is a movie that fails at achieving its goals. It ends up as bad memory, or – at best – sweet torture. A darn cat, a darn movie !

If you've ever had a Siamese cat, you will know that they are the wise guys of the cat world.In the history of the movies, there haven't been too many significant cat performances. Cats do not take direction well. On the movie set, they probably spend a lot of time arguing with directors over how to play a scene. If the studio would let them, cats would probably want to direct the movie themselves."That Darn Cat!" features the best movie performance ever by a cat. The leading man -- or cat, in this case -- is a crafty Siamese named D.C. (Darn Cat). He is the star of the movie, the one who carries the story. And he does it with suave feline sophistication. (Never mind that several cats played the role of D.C. in making the film. They were *all* good.)D.C. is a smooth operator. Like Bogart, he prowls the back streets of his suburban L.A. neighborhood, the king of his territory, his blue eyes observing everything, his nose to the wind, his mind working out all the angles.Throughout the movie, D.C. is performing tricks and stunts that would make Lassie or Rin-Tin-Tin envious. Take the movie's opening scene. D.C. hops up on a backyard fence, attracting the neighbor's dog, a Scottie, who jumps up and down at the fence, barking furiously, trying to get the cat. Then, D.C. hops down and slips into the yard through a crack in the fence. He strolls casually past the barking, leaping dog, and helps himself to the dog's supper dish. Eventually, the dog turns around. He does a double-take and runs at D.C., who calmly slips out through another crack in the fence.It's a classic Siamese trick! I have *owned* Siamese cats who would pull tricks like that on the neighborhood dogs.One night, when he is out for a stroll, D.C. stumbles into the hideout of two bumbling bank robbers (Frank Gorshin; Neville Brand) who took a female bank teller (Grayson Hall) as a hostage in their last robbery. The bank teller puts her wristwatch around D.C.'s neck with a message for "help" on the back, and tosses D.C. out the door.When D.C. returns home, his young owner, Patti Randall (Hayley Mills), finds the watch and the message. Patti is smart enough to figure out what has happened, and contacts F.B.I. agent Zeke Kelso (Dean Jones). The following night, the F.B.I. sets up a unique operation to track D.C. through the neighborhood, hoping the cat will lead them back to the bank robbers' hideout.The movie has a genuinely funny script, co-written by Bill Walsh (screenwriter on "Mary Poppins") and Gordon and Mildred Gordon, authors of the novel, "Undercover Cat," on which the movie was based. I've read the novel, and the Gordons really knew their cats, and how cats relate (or don't relate) to humans.A lot of the humor in the movie comes from D.C. having to deal with "non-cat people," especially Agent Kelso, who is allergic to cats. One of the funniest scenes in the movie comes when Kelso has to take D.C.'s paw print, and can't figure out how to fit D.C.'s prints onto the standard FBI fingerprint card. Needless to say, D.C. does not like having his paw printed.Hayley Mills does well in her last role for Disney. As Patti, she projects a kind of eager, Nancy Drew-like enthusiasm when she finds herself embroiled in a mystery. Even when the FBI starts to doubt her theory that D.C. has found the bank robbers, she still persists in her investigation. She knows she is right! Perhaps that's why she is the only human in the film that D.C. puts up with -- he finds her to be of equal intelligence to himself.There are small but ingenious supporting performances in the movie, little gems of character acting. Dorothy Provine plays Patti's older sister, Ingrid, who can't believe the fuss that occurs. Roddy McDowell is Ingrid's snobbish boyfriend. Elsa Lanchester and William Demarest are a pair of squabbling neighbors who know that something is going on next door. And Tom Lowell plays Patti's dopey boyfriend, Canoe, who is obsessed with surfing movies.(Some of the funniest gags in the movie occur late in the film, when Canoe accidentally gets involved in the FBI's trailing of D.C. through the neighborhood.) There are some funny cameos. Ed Wynn plays a nervous shop owner that Patti cons into helping her with the investigation. Iris Adrian has a great scene as a landlady who bullies the two bank robbers. And Richard Deacon has a funny role as a drive-in manager.But again, it is D.C. the cat who really carries the picture. It is the cat who outwits both the FBI and the bad guys, and saves the day at the end of the film. He probably wouldn't even care that Hayley Mills got star billing in the movie. For D.C., the greatest joy would be in the giving of his performance -- for what greater joy is there for a cat than simply the joy of...being a cat? P.S. The sly opening song, written by the Sherman Brothers, and sung by Bobby Darin, sets the tone of D.C.'s character perfectly. It is the most accurate song ever written about the character of a cat.

Disney brought back Hayley Mills to do this movie, the 1965 film "That Darn Cat!" It's a movie about a crime-fighting detective cat. What else could I say? It's fun, it's great, it's exciting, it's a great Disney film!!!!!I haven't seen this movie yet, although I have seen the 1997 remake, and that was good. I've seen the tail end of this 1965 version on the Old Disney Channel in 1997 in the afternoon (Wow. They don't do things like this anymore!!!!!) I have heard about how good this film was, and it's on DVD now. Maybe I'll check it out sometime."That Darn Cat!" has just one slight problem: it's a cat movie!!!!! This would continue five years later in "The Aristocats," a seriously dog-free film! Ugh! LOL10/10