The Three Lives of Thomasina

Thanks to the terrific acting of Patrick "The Prisoner" McGoohan and the lovely Susan Hampshire, this film is not like other syrupy Disney films like "Pete's Dragon" or "Mary Poppins."

Dr. McDui's character, played by McGoohan, is a tense, conflicted, confused man. He grabs Susan Hampshire roughly to shake her in a few scenes. No sentimental courting here!

The plot hole mentioned in another comment is not correct - the fire takes place at the gypsy circus and we take it for granted that the abused animals escape.

In sparkling 1912 Scotland, an orange tabby named "Thomasina" explains how she came to live with little Karen Dotrice (as Mary), her stern veterinarian father Patrick McGoohan (as Andrew McDhui), and housekeeper Jean Anderson (as Mrs. MacKenzie). The cat amusingly states the family originally named her "Thomas" until they "…got to know me better." At this moment, you know you're going to like this animal. We also learn the cat, speaking marvelously through Elspeth March, has been murdered. This extraordinary opening perfectly introduces the cat's personality, and prepares you for its death.

The opening theme song, written by folk singer Terry Gilkyson, is purrfectly infectious.

The story intensifies when "Thomasina" is crushed under an avalanche of crates, while prowling a fish market. With her young friends' help, Ms. Dotrice finds the cat, and brings "Thomasina" to her father. You'd think Mr. McGoohan, a veterinarian, would do everything possible to save his daughter's pet, which he promises to do - but, McGoohan is saving the life of a blind man's seeing eye dog, and orders "Thomasina" put to sleep. Before this, we've seen him make this decision about other animals, and wonder if his decisions are being made in haste. Later, we learn he suffers from guilt regarding his wife's death.

McGoohan thinks he can simply replace "Thomasina" with another cat, and cannot understand why Dotrice is taking the death so hard. Dotrice's friends, Vincent Winter (as Hughie), Denis Gilmore (as Jamie), and "Mary Poppins" co-star Matthew Garber (as Geordie), give "Thomasina" a child-like funeral, which is interrupted by a woman they both admire and fear - spooky Susan Hampshire (as Lori MacGregor), the superstitious town's resident "witch". Ms. Hampshire takes the animal, which, we learn, is NOT dead. But, before this, it has what could be described as a "near-death experience." Or, is it "Cat Heaven?"

It's all cleverly plotted, from Paul Gallico's original novel, with enough room to support differing interpretations.

Dotrice's depression worsens. She will have nothing more do with McGoohan, telling others, "My father's dead," and, "My daddy's dead. I killed him." Her young friends successfully plot to end McGoohan's veterinary practice. "Thomasina" recovers, but with amnesia; she stays with the witch, aware something is wrong with her life. When his daughter falls deathly ill, "man of science" McGoohan tries to reconnect with his Christian faith, lamenting, "I've forgotten how to pray." He also begins to connect with Hampshire, which leads to the most unimaginative part of the story. Still, this is an excellent, underrated film.

******** The Three Lives of Thomasina (12/11/63) Don Chaffey ~ Patrick McGoohan, Karen Dotrice, Susan Hampshire, Elspeth March

This movie was on NBC's Walt Disney, while the Beatles were on CBS's Ed Sulivan show (or at least that was the line-up in Portland, Oregon). I remember my friend Tom was the only kid in the neighborhood who had his own TV. So we were at his house, when his parents came in to bring us all out to the main TV, where the Beatles were on. We watched it, wasn't much impressed, and went back to Disney in our own room. I mention this from time to time when we have trivia quizzes, and everyone always looks at me like I'm 100 years old. I agree with other reviews, that this is a very fine movie, that is well produced, and the acting is top-notch.

The presence of Patrick McGoohan, one of my favorite actors of the modern era, was my motivation for renting out the 1964 Disney picture "The Three Lives of Thomasina," but as it turns out, this charming film has much to offer besides his usual sturdy support. In this one, McGoohan doesn't play a secret-agent man or gay-smashing king, but rather a widower veterinarian named Andrew MacDhui living in the small town of Inveranoch, Scotland, in 1912, with his young daughter, Mary, and their 4-year-old ginger cat, Thomasina. Their peaceful domestic life is shattered when MacDhui is forced to put Thomasina to sleep, after the cat contracts tetanus, and Mary becomes walled off and unforgiving. Fortunately, Thomasina, after a surprisingly FX-laden dream sequence, during which she encounters the Egyptian cat god Bast, does return, and sets off on life #2.... It is almost impossible to speak of this film, even as a middle-aged adult, without using the words "cute" and "charming." If Paul Gallico's 1957 source novel, "Thomasina," which I have not read, is half as appealing as this adaptation, it must be very likable indeed. Besides a sweet and compelling story, the film offers sterling support by a raft of fine British, Irish and Scottish character actors, such as Laurence Naismith, Wilfrid Brambell (who will always be Paul's very clean grandfather to me!) and Finlay Currie. Beautiful Susan Hampshire stands out as Lori MacGregor, the nature girl "witch" with a superempathic way with animals, and the child actors are all wonderful, especially newcomer Karen Dotrice as Mary. Throw in some gorgeous Highland scenery, a catchy theme song, and even an action-packed and emotionally fraught finale, and you have one winning entertainment indeed, as suitable for the adults as the kiddies. Way to go, Walt!

If you're fond of the little fur-bearing parasites this is a movie you cannot watch without a large hankerchief. It's superior to the current family movies in a number of reasons; lovely color, the realism of a vet's life, delightful Scots Highlands locations, a fine dramatic structure bolstered by that underrated actor Patrick Macgoohan and by a pretty, startlingly black-eyed starlet named Susan Hampshire (the two represent science and faith, respectively, and they come together with an ease you wish these two opponents would share today). But the film is mostly about the tragedy of losing a cat, and the childish, unkillable hope that one day they'll return. The sequence of cat heaven, ruled by the Goddess Bast, is reminiscent of the best of Michael Powell, explicitly referencing Powell's A Matter of Life and Death. The excellent animation is done by the pioneer of the cartoon industry Ub Iweks. A family movie in the day when kids were tougher, it was memorably broadcast on Disney's Wonderful World of Color on TV. I Expect wracking sobs in the scene where a rain- soaked Thomasina comes to the window. Jeez, I'm tearing up right now, just thinking about it.