That Darn Cat! | |
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Promotional poster
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Directed by | Bob Spiers |
Produced by | Robert Simonds |
Screenplay by | Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski |
Story by |
Gordon Gordon Mildred Gordon Bill Walsh (1965 screenplay) |
Based on |
Undercover Cat by Gordon Gordon Mildred Gordon |
Starring | |
Music by | Richard Kendall Gibbs |
Cinematography | Jerzy Zielinski |
Edited by | Roger Barton |
Production
company |
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Distributed by | Buena Vista Pictures |
Release date
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Running time
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86 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $18.3 million |
That Darn Cat is a 1997 American mystery comedy film starring Christina Ricci and Doug E. Doug. It is a remake of the 1965 film That Darn Cat!, which in turn was based on the book Undercover Cat by Gordon and Mildred Gordon. It is directed by British TV veteran Bob Spiers (most famous for Fawlty Towers, as well as Spice World) and written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, best known for Ed Wood and the first two Problem Child films.
A pair of bumbling kidnappers break into the house of the president with the intention of kidnapping his wife and holding her for ransom. Things don't go according to plan when they mistakenly kidnap house maid Lizzie instead.
Patti Randal is a bored and angry teen who is sick of her quiet and boring town of Edgefield, Massachusetts just 60 miles from Boston. She wishes for more adventure and excitement to come to her boring town. She gets her wish when her pet cat DC walks into the kidnappers hideout during his nightly prowl where Lizzie gives him a watch with HELL scribbled on it. She intended to fully write "HELP" on it, but had to nix on finishing and quickly put it on DC in such way to avoid being caught when the kidnapper's phone rings near her.
Patti sees the watch the next morning and immediately puts it together that the watch was from Lizzie and was meant to say HELP. Nobody believes Patti, causing her to doctor the evidence by turning the last L on the watch into a P. She goes to Boston and pleads her case to Agent Zeke Kelso at the FBI and he believes her.
Zeke's captain allows Zeke and his agent to tail DC during his prowl in hopes of being led to the kidnappers and Lizzie. The operation goes nowhere, causing Zeke to be taken off the case. Zeke and Patti continue investigating anyway, which leads to nothing but dead ends and eventually ends with them being arrested. Patti's manipulation of the watch evidence gets exposed shortly thereafter.