Cats in Movies- Orangey aka Rhubarb in Village of the Giants (1965)

Orangey aka Rhubarb the cat appeared in some great movies, as well as Village of the Giants (1965), which either “totally sucks” or is a “minor cult classic”. Oh, and Orangey aka Rhubarb was not just one cat- Cats in Movies- solving the Orangey aka Rhubarb mystery.

The only online footage I could find of Orangey aka Rhubarb in Village of the Giants was via Episode 523 of Mystery Science Theater 3000, as posted in longer version on YouTube. So, this snippet is a derivative of derivative of a..... (ack! the cat was eating that!!!) See the cat turn into a giant snarling cat... 2:03...



This, from the MST3K wiki explains important details for my snippet above, and the longer YouTube here:

The series features a man and his robot sidekicks who are trapped on a satellite in space by an evil scientist and forced to watch a selection of terrible movies, especially (but not initially limited to) science fiction B-movies. To keep sane, the man and his robots make a running commentary on the film, making fun of its flaws and wisecracking (or "riffing") their way through the film in the style of a movie theater peanut gallery. The movie was presented with a superimposition of the man and robots silhouettes along the bottom of the screen.

This is the Orangey aka Rhubarb filmography that I have so far:

Orangey aka Rhubarb appeared in the movies Rhubarb (1951)*; This Island Earth (1955); The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957); Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)*; Gigot (1962); The Comedy of Terrors (1964)*; Village of the Giants (1965). I couldn’t find online footage of Orangey aka Rhubarb from “This Island Earth”.

The list combines information from two pages at IMDB- here and here. I’ve used “*” to indicate movies where Orangey aka Rhubarb was “credited”. I’m not sure about the ins and outs of crediting, but my guess is that it has to do with the “face time” the “cat actor” got in a particular movie.

This is Orangey in Village of the Giants-

Orangey aka Rhubarb was trained by Frank Inn (most renown Hollywood animal trainer of all time). Frank in also trained Benji, and every other sort of animal. I'm sure he provided the disco ducks in Village of the Giants. My firm suspicion is that the movie includes an uncredited appearance from Benji.


In the image above left is "Woof" who turns into a giant dog in Village of the Giants, and above right is Mooch (aka Benji) from Mooch Goes to Hollywood (1971) via info here. Click through if for no other reason than to confirm that Mooch's wardrobe was provided by Frederick's of Hollywood. (Uh, if you lived there then, you'll know what I mean.)

Is “Village of the Giants a “cult classic”? I dunno. At least one person thinks so, and created a site to celebrate that view, here.

Click on "cats in movies" below for more... er... Cats in Movies