P.S. Your Cat is Dead! (2003)

24% of critics liked it
(17 reviews)
46% of users liked it
(1,354 ratings)

Jimmy Zoole (Steve Guttenberg, also making his directing debut) has been having bad, bad day. Not only has his one-man version of Hamlet (performed with hand puppets) just tanked, his girlfriend has left him, his cat is gravely ill, and his unfinished novel has been stolen. Plus, it's New Year's… More Jimmy Zoole (Steve Guttenberg, also making his directing debut) has been having bad, bad day. Not only has his one-man version of Hamlet (performed with hand puppets) just tanked, his girlfriend has left him, his cat is gravely ill, and his unfinished novel has been stolen. Plus, it's New Year's Eve. So when Jimmy finds Eddie (Lombardo Boyar), a gay burglar, lurking in his apartment, he isn't exactly thrilled. On the verge of a major breakdown, he ties up Eddie and uses him as an outlet for his multitude of frustrations. Eddie, it turns out, has a few of his own, including an ex-wife who won't let him see his child. What follows is a New Year's celebration replete with party hats, rope, and some very, very deep emotional issues. Based on James Kirkwood's cult novel (Kirkwood also won a Pulitzer as the author of A Chorus Line), P.S. Your Cat is Dead was screened at the 2002 Philadelaphia Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi

Play Trailer

Rating, Runtime: R, 1 hr. 32 min.
Directed By: Steve Guttenberg
Written By: James Kirkwood, Steve Guttenberg, Jeff Korn
Genres: Comedy

In Theaters: Jan 17, 2003 Wide
On DVD: Aug 12, 2003
Studio: TLA Releasing

Critic Reviews

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer
[The Boys in the Band] is much wittier and funnier than the comparatively frantic and frenzied shouting matches devised by Messrs. Guttenberg, Korn and Kirkwood.
Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times
Remains too much a filmed play.
Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle
It's another world now, which is why Kirkwood's play, adapted to the screen by actor Steve Guttenberg, feels so moldy and out of date.
John Anderson, Newsday
It is, inevitably, an actorly exercise -- not off-puttingly so, perhaps, but at no time do we have a sense that we've transcended the stage. Or, for that matter, 1970.
Lou Lumenick, New York Post
The performances are solid, but as a screenwriter, Guttenberg can't make the situation seem like more than a theatrical construct in a contemporary setting.
Dave Kehr, New York Times
The story doesn't have anywhere interesting to go once Kate, appropriately humiliated, slinks away.
David Elliott, San Diego Union-Tribune
Canned theater.
Kim Morgan, Oregonian
In 1975, the idea of a straight man tying up a gay burglar was exotic, darkly humorous and sexually charged. In director/star Steve Guttenberg's new film version, it comes off as no big deal.
Hazel-Dawn Dumpert, L.A. Weekly
Guttenberg is a capable director; his framing is crisp, his pacing brisk, his eye alert to telling detail.
David Noh, Film Journal International
Guttenberg ... obviously meant this as a major stretch, and does his best acting work since his breakthrough in Diner.
Brent Simon, Entertainment Today
A two-character roundelay whose modicum of enjoyment depends largely on your own personal appetite for social commentary transparently dressed up as assertively quirky entertainment.
Jeffrey M. Anderson, San Francisco Examiner
Guttenberg's Jimmy is such a natural extension of the actor himself, which adds a dimension the original playwright never could have imagined.
Maitland McDonagh, TV Guide's Movie Guide
Dominated by an unshaven Guttenberg mugging, ranting, screaming and hurling himself around the luxurious loft set we're meant to believe is a squalid dump that serves as a nagging reminder to Jimmy of his inadequacies.
, E! Online
The film's completely declawed of energy and comedy.