Alfred Hitchcock Presents (TV Series) Miss Paisley's Cat (1957) User Reviews

The Name Of The Cat Is Stanley

[telegonus · 7/10 · 27 July 2017]

Miss Paisley's Cat is a charming Hitchcock show featuring the marvelous Dorothy Stickney in the title role, or rather more properly one of the two roles in the title. The name of the cat is Stanley.

A lonely, eccentric retired school teacher has a cat pay her a visit one day, and after some hesitation, and the apartment building's ban on pets, she manages he keep it anyway.

The friendly feline is, alas, a mischievous fellow, and he even picks a fight with a dog. He manages to somehow get into the apartment of a bookie who lives downstairs and eats his food. The bookie threatens to kill the cat; and the building superintendent seems amused by it all.

Things heat up a bit in the second half of this slight tale, as Stanley disappears and is apparently murdered. Or was he? Did the bookie do it? Or the super? Maybe the old lady is losing her mind.

The episode's genteel shabbiness is of a bygone age,--it makes sixty years ago feels like a hundred--and this helps sets the tone.

For the cat-lovers among you

[Scaarge · 5/10 · 23 August 2010]

You might have always wondered about the "cat-Ladies" in your neighborhood, those elderly women who had hordes of cats. What other pathways do their brains follow? Does love of cats frame their thinking? What happens if--well, that might be a spoiler. In this case, there's only one cat (a charmer named Stanley), but the questions are there. And the excellent performance of Dorothy Stickney may make you think better of the eccentric cat-ladies among you...especially if you don't like cats.

An average episode, but a nice dose of humor, with a couple of interesting turns, a nearly unrecognizable appearance by the future Mr. Drysdale, and a very cute cat.

"I've allowed myself to become excited."

[classicsoncall · 5/10 · 8 September 2021]

Well, this story had an odd little denouement, didn't it? Did Mrs. Paisley (Dorothy Strickney) kill the miserable bookie Rindidtch (Fred Graham)? She certainly thought so, while unable to account for her missing time experience. Perhaps the episode was intended to convey the insecurity an aging person might experience with the onset of dementia. The fact that Inspector Graun (Raymond Bailey) didn't take her confession seriously was a little concerning to me, although on the other hand, the handyman guy Jenkins (Harry Tyler) didn't appear to object to being carted off by the cops for the murder. This was really a very puzzling episode that didn't provide any clear answer, unless you want to take Mrs. Paisley's word for it. Hitchcock himself wasn't very much help either. Did he really have to say that Stanley wound up as dog food?

Not the Cat's Pajamas

[Hitchcoc · 6/10 · 25 June 2013]

The little old lady seems to be a favorite of the Hitchcock mold. Here we have another scatterbrained matron who lives alone. One day a cat appears in her window and joins her permanently in her apartment. Once they've bonded, the cat begins to cause trouble. She has a dangerous bookmaker living in the apartment and the cat can't leave him alone. He kicks the cat at one point and lets her know he will do more if she doesn't control it. Unfortunately, she allows the cat free reign and he does what old wandering tomcats do. Whatever they want. She tries to get help to circumvent the threat but this fails to work. When she finds the nasty guy has done the unspeakable, it sets up a series of events that make for an interesting conclusion. It's not a great episode but it is passable.

Feline vengeance

[TheLittleSongbird · 5/10 · 14 October 2022]

Justus Addiss did direct a few very good episodes for 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents', they being "Salvage", "Martha Mason Movie Star" and "Night of the Execution". He also did a couple of disappointments, with "Nightmare in 4D" being his weakest. Was not all that excited about "Miss Paisley's Cat" before sitting down to watch it, as the premise is not that attention grabbing, but still saw it anyway as it is 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' and there are episodes that don't sound good on paper but turn out to be in execution.

"Miss Paisley's Cat" unfortunately is not one of those episodes, it wasn't attention grabbing on paper and it turned out to be even duller in execution. Of Addiss' 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' episodes, it is for me the second weakest with only "Nightmare in 4D" being worse. "Miss Paisley's Cat" is a case of an episode that is very well acted but marred by the story and writing being less than well done, in fact in this case they were both very weak in my opinion.

Am going to start with the good. As said, it does boast very good acting with Dorothy Stickney performing with one hundred percent commitment and aplomb. Raymond Bailey is just as good. Hitchcock's bookending is as ironic as ever.

While simple, the production values are slick and atmospheric enough and Gounod's "Funeral March of a Marionette" continues to be an inspired choice for theme music. The best faring scene is the ending, which was interesting and where the episode finally, sadly far too late, gained some mileage.

Other than those things there is little else to recommend about "Miss Paisley's Cat". The story is very silly and dull with a lot of draggy padding. Tension and suspense is pretty much near-non descript. Addiss' direction is very perfunctory.

The worst aspect is the writing, which is far too talky. Too much of the episode is dominated by very repetitive, over explanatory and banal talk that too often adds very little, and it badly stops the lead character from being easy to root for. Actually started to find her annoying.

Concluding, very, very average. 5/10.

Dare I say...a bad episode?!

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 9 March 2021]

"Miss Paisley's Cat" is a very weak effort on "Alfred Hitchcock Presents"...one that left me wondering why they made it in the first place.

Miss Paisley runs a boarding house. One day, a cat wanders into her room and she decides to name it Stanley. Well, this wild cat comes and goes as it likes...and while Paisley doesn't mind, her neighbor, a nasty bookie, does. In fact, he threatens to kill the cat if it keeps going into his room. When the bookie ends up dead, Miss Paisley insists she must have done it even though she has no recollection of the event.

I thought this one had a very weak script. It also relied on Miss Paisley CONSTANTLY talking to herself in order to fill in what's happening...which, to me, seems like a very weak way of writing the story. All in all, I was very disappointed in this dog of an episode.

Quite boring

[Lucy-Lastic · 3/10 · 8 April 2018]

And the cat could clearly seen to have been drugged. Cruelty like this would not be allowed these days!