THE NINE LIVES OF FRITZ THE CAT Directed by Robert Taylor (American International)

My friend Marya has a cat named Irwin who spends most of his spare time masturbating in the hallway. Fritz and his offspring do much of the same thing, except they do it on the movie screen. So why is Fritz a star, and Irwin just another long-tailed Brooklyn charmer?

Not for many good reasons, except breeding. Fritz, of course, was an underground comix star before being discovered in the catnip section of Schwab’s Drugstore. His first movie was an X-rated full length animated feature by Ralph Bakshi. Fritz the Cat upset R. Crumb, the creator of the comic strip, badly enough for him to insist his name be taken off the credits. It appalled audiences (well, it appalled me) because (watch out for sanctimony here) it proved to me that people involved with the so-called counter-culture were much better at damaging same than any outside agitators (cops, politicians, media).