Cat House
About Cat House
The mother cat leaves the house. The kittens, alone, play with matches, catch the walls and the roof, and burn the place down. A fireman dog pulls them out of the flames. The house is gone. Soyuzmultfilm aimed the reel at children who play with fire. It uses Samuel Marshak’s tale only as a starting point, not as a full telling.
Cast & crew
More about Cat House
Panteleymon Sazonov directed Mikhail Papava’s script. Vladimir Degtyarev was art director, with Vlad Bochkaryov and Yakov Reitman among the artists. Iosif Kovner wrote the music. K. Krylova operated the camera. Animators include Vladimir Polkovnikov and Lidiya Reztsova. The black-and-white short is timed at 8 minutes 39 seconds and was released in 1938. It is the first of three Soviet cartoons drawn from Marshak’s The Cat’s House.
Themes
Making
Papava and Sazonov drop Marshak’s social comedy of a rich cat and poor kittens and keep the fire. The dog is a fireman, not a guest from the poem.
Look
K. Krylova photographed Degtyarev’s black-and-white drawings of the burning house.
Music
Iosif Kovner composed the score. The circulating copy carries a Czech dub rather than the original track.
Preservation
Only a Czech-dubbed version is known to survive. The Russian track has not come down with it.
Notes
- Later Marshak cartoons tell the tale. This one is a fire-safety warning.
- What survives is a Czech-dubbed version. A Russian-language original is not the print that has come down.
- Gosfilmofond’s description matches the matchbox plot: the dog saves the kittens and the house is ash.
- A catalog timing of 8 minutes 40 seconds sits next to the 8 minutes 39 seconds figure.
Scenes
- The mother leaves and the kittens strike matches.
- Flames take the roof.
- The fireman dog carries the kittens clear of a house that is already gone.
Influenced by
- The Cat's House (Samuel Marshak)
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (1938. Кошкин дом.webm)
