Cats on the Hearth

Lovers of cute cats will lap up this RSPCA film, about how to make friends with your feline

Produced for the RSPCA, this public information film talks the viewer through a how-to of cat ownership, from basics such as feeding and baskets, to more complex issues like adjusting a cat to a new home. Much of the advice is timeless - even if the emphasis on traditional family values does help to age the film. The narrator stresses that a pleased puss only comes with a harmonious home.

British Movietone News, a long-lived producer of newsreel material, was commissioned here for a different kind of film with a polemical message. Effectively an appeal from a charity, its commanding tone is lent some authority by its voiceover artist - actor Howard Marion-Crawford - who may have been known to some 1950s audiences for his roles in Sherlock Holmes dramas.