That Darn Cat

That Darn Cat is a 1997 American mystery comedy film directed by Bob Spiers, written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, and starring Christina Ricci and Doug E. Doug. It is a remake of the 1965 film That Darn Cat!, which in turn was based on the 1963 book Undercover Cat by Gordon and Mildred Gordon. Plot A pair of bumbling kidnappers break into the house of a businessman with the intention of kidnapping his wife and holding her for ransom. Things do not go according to plan when they mistakenly kidnap house maid Lizzie instead. Patti Randall is a bored and angry teenage girl who is sick of her quiet and boring (yet fictional) town of Edgefield, Massachusetts. She wishes for more adventure and excitement to come to her boring town. Her parents are unhappy at the way Patti acts and dresses. Every night D.C. leaves at 8 and harasses the neighborhood (such as tricking the dog and eating the dog food or playing with a birdcage while a geriatric and senile old lady orders travel packages). Meanwhile Patti gets her wish when D.C. walks into the kidnappers' hideout during his nightly prowl. Lizzie gives the cat her watch with "HELL" scribbled on it. She intended to fully write "HELP" on it, but had to nix on finishing and quickly put it on D.C. in such way to avoid being caught when the kidnappers' phone rings near her. Patti sees the watch the next morning and immediately puts it together that the watch was from Lizzie and was meant to say HELP. But nobody believes Patti, causing her to doctor the evidence by turning the last "L" on the watch into a "P". She goes to Boston and pleads her case to Agent Zeke Kelso at the FBI and he believes her.