The Cat's Meow
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
The Cat's Meow is an American film released in 2001. It explores the events behind a November 1924 murder on a yacht owned by publisher William Randolph Hearst, played here by Edward Herrmann. The story places Charlie Chaplin (Eddie Izzard), Marion Davies (Kirsten Dunst), Thomas Ince (Cary Elwes), and Louella Parsons (Jennifer Tilly) aboard the ship. Steven Peros adapated his own play for the screen, which was there directed by Peter Bogdanovich.
According to Peros, the story was told to him by Orson Welles. If the HBO film RKO 281 is to be believed, Welles himself was told the story by Herman Mankiewicz. Due to the nature of the happenings onboard, this film presents one of the more popular, but of course unverifiable, versions of the events. Also, it is up to the story-teller who was actually on-board, as many more claimed to have attended the weekend than might have actually fit on a mid-sized yacht.
Bogdanovich wanted to shoot the movie in black and white to present an old Hollywood feel, but when he was told that it would have to be in color, he decided to present the same feel with costumes in entirely black and white (with some silver and gold highlights). The film was originally released on television, but then was issued for theatrical release.
