The Cat's meow [DVD]

Based on an old Hollywood rumour, “The Cat’s meow” is about William Randolph Hearst, the media magnate infamous in the 1920s for his power and wealth. In this story, “the whisper told most often” as one character puts it, the year is 1924 and Hearst’s private yacht is headed for San Diego, with a dozen guests, a mix of Hollywood power players and ambitious types, aboard. Amid the high profile travellers are Charlie Chaplin, gossip columnist Louella Parsons, actress, and Hearst’s long-term mistress, Marion Davies pioneering film producer and director Thomas Ince and acerbic novelist Elinor Glyn. As the ship sails, the intricate, and at times intimate, relationships between the players are placed under pressure by shifting power plays and the separate agendas of each character. Due to his legendary paranoia, Hearst has placed ‘bugs’ throughout the boat, enabling him to scrutinise, in particular, the relationship of Chaplin and Davies. The most interesting aspect of the film watching the larger than life Chaplin (deftly played by British comedian Eddie Izzard), operate not as a great artist, but as simply a man on the make. Hearst, depicted as a jealous and curmudgeonly buffoon, eavesdropping on his guests and girlfriend, trusting no one, is far more one-dimensional. Also of note is Kirsten Dunst who gives an infectiously joyous portrayal of Davies, a much-maligned comedian of her times. “The Cat’s meow” struggles as a murder mystery, but works well as a prism of 1920s Hollywood when the allure of stars like Chaplin was at a pinnacle, fed by an adoring public.