CAT OF THE DAY 045: LOGAN’S RUN (1976)

Logan: “Are you alone here?”

Old Man: “Oh hardly. I’ve got all these cats.”

Logan: “Is that what they are called? Cats?”

Old Man: “Yeah, and they’ve each got their own name. Cats, of course. What else would they be called? CATS! You know they’ve each got three names? Yes! The naming of cats is a difficult matter…”

Peter Ustinov, for it is he, goes on to quote extensively from TS Eliot‘s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats (let us hope MGM squared the rights with Faber & Faber in advance), offers to trade a calico cat for the jewel embedded in Logan’s palm, and lets Jessica touch the cracks in his face. But these bits of business will only be at the periphery of the average cat lover’s attention, which by now will be fully engaged in trying to check out all the cats that are milling around and mewing the ruins of the Capitol in Washington DC.

Soon afterwards, Logan’s old Sandman colleague Francis turns up and the two men have an argy-bargy to the death in the cat room, during the course of which Richard Jordan throws Michael York on to a desk where one of the cats is lounging, minding its own business. It’s a close-run thing, but it manages to scoot out of  the way just in time. A bit anxious-making, though.

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