Orangey, Revisited

IN 2020, WHILE THE WORLD was hushed and indoors, I made “The Hardest Working Cat in Showbiz,” an essay film with the filmmaker and critic Dan Sallitt that grew out of his tender fascination with a screen presence: Orangey. At home, Dan watched his own cat, Jasper, attentively and patiently, with care for the smallest details. As footage arrived from his apartment, I was struck by how this domestic attention quietly became cinematic. That same gaze follows Orangey across film history—measured, loving, investigative. Exploring the mysteries that, to this day, circle around this marmalade tabby Hollywood star of the 1950s and 1960s, Dan writes that Orangey “contains multitudes,” and even as myth dissolves, he “salvages meaning from the wreckage of the legend.” What remains is an act of love—for cinema, for animals, for noticing gentle gestures and what is easily overlooked. —Sofia Bohdanowicz

Watch “The Hardest Working Cat in Showbiz” below. The essay film is shared here with the permission of Sofia Bohdanowicz, ahead of Metrograph’s five-film tribute to its star, Orangey, Hollywood’s Favorite Feline, opening February 7.