The Three Lives of Thomasina

Thomasina the cat brings a family together, through her mysterious death and reappearance.

• Director:Don Chaffey
• Genre:Family | Drama
• Runtime:97 minutes

Cast

Patrick McGoohan : Andrew McDhui
Susan Hampshire : Lori MacGregor
Laurence Naismith : Reverend Angus Peddie
Jean Anderson : Mrs. MacKenzie
Wilfrid Brambell : Willie Bannock

Set in the town of Inveranoch, Scotland in 1912, the story centers around Andrew MacDhui (Patrick McGoohan) a coldly-scientific and atheistic veterinarian, his seven year old daughter Mary (Karen Dotrice), and her cat Thomasina (voiced by Elspeth March). Andrew is a widower (the principal reason for his atheism) with little sympathy for people’s pets, preferring the hard-working, “useful” farm beasts of the farms around Inveranoch and other “useful” animals like the blind man Tammas’ dog, Bruce.

On the day Andrew is operating on Bruce (who was struck by a car), Thomasina is chased by dogs in the marketplace and falls off of some boxes, sustaining an injury. Andrew mis-diagnoses her as having tetanus – this is possibly due to the rush to save Bruce, and possibly due to the sub-conscious jealousy he himself feels towards Thomasina, which is later pointed out to him by his best friend, the Reverend Angus Peddie (Laurence Naismith). Andrew orders his assistant Willie Bannock (Wilfrid Brambell) to put Thomasina to sleep. Thomasina is not fully anesthetized, however; at this point in the story, she experiences an entertainingly-depicted, out-of-the-body, fantasy trip to “Cat Heaven”, where she encounters Bast the ancient Egyptian Cat Goddess.

Mary, meanwhile, is shattered by both Thomasina’s (apparent) death, and the tragically lost faith in her father. She turns violently, emotionally cold against Andrew (in spite of Reverend Peddie’s well-meaning but ineffectual attempts to comfort her). Mary and her playmates Hughie Stirling (Vincent Winter), and Jamie and Geordie McNab (Denis Gilmore and Matthew Garber) and other friends give Thomasina a funeral. They take her out to the glen beyond the town, but are (unintentionally) frightened away by “Mad Lori” MacGregor (Susan Hampshire), a beautiful and kind-hearted young woman who lives outside of the town. Some of the townspeople believe her to be a witch, but although she is a bit of a recluse, she has great love and sympathy for all sick and injured things. Lori nurses Thomasina back to health, but Thomasina now has no memory of her “First Life” with Mary. Read more

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