Coventry
"Shadow of the Cat" is a modest and often overlooked Hammer horror production, but simultaneously also an underrated and genuinely creepy gem that is guaranteed to deliver a compelling plot, a moody gothic atmosphere, competent performances from a bunch of Hammer regulars and more than a handful of silly but nevertheless sinister murders committed by (or at least initiated by) a vindictive cat named Tabitha! Moments after her beloved heiress Ella Venable read Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" to her, Tabitha the Cat witnesses how poor Ella gets murdered by her husband Walter and two household staff members. The faithful housecat promptly makes it clear that she will avenge her heiress and terrifies the culprits so badly that they must call in the help of more vicious family members. While six (!) people are desperately trying to annihilate the evasive cat, the good-hearted niece Beth begins to suspect that aunt Ella's disappearance and the sudden fear for the otherwise friendly animal might have something to do with a missing testament. Sure, it requires a large dose of "suspension of disbelief" to accept how unnaturally petrified these people are of a simple cat, but George Baxt's screenplay is clever and John Gilling's direction is professional enough for the film to remain suspenseful. Gilling made some of Britain's best and most nightmarish horror films, by the way, like "Plague of the Zombies" and "The Flesh and the Fiends".
Leofwine_draca
SHADOW OF THE CAT is well known as being a 'forgotten' Hammer Horror, a movie that was unavailable on home video or DVD for many years until it finally came out last month via a UK DVD release. Having just watched it, I can see why it was 'swept under the carpet' so to speak; it turns out to be one of the company's dullest and silliest affairs.The basic template of SHADOW OF THE CAT is one of those 'old dark house' thrillers, which invariably involves hidden treasure and a bunch of ne'er-do-wells who find themselves at the mercy of a lurking menace. Except the menace in this case is nothing more than a cute cat whose antics in evading the various villains soon becomes tiresome. Andre Morell and Barbara Shelley are the ones mired in this mess, although neither are at their best.The film as a whole has a twee and childish feel. The plotting is very slim and even John Gilling's direction can't do much to lift things. Sure, the crisp black and white photography makes the movie look good and the production values are as decent as you'd expect for a Hammer flick, but that doesn't help when the story is so, well, inadequate. I ended up clock watching throughout which is very unusual given that Hammer was and is my favourite film studio of all time and that I typically love the grand Hammer Horrors of old.
Theo Robertson
This owes a lot to both Edgar Allan Poe and Hammer Studios . A man murders his wife with the help of his two servants to claim the inheritance quickly realising her cat Tabitha has witnessed the murder and is bent on revenge . It sounds slightly bonkers and it is but Poe in his short story The Black Cat brought a credibility to a macabre story of revenge . THE SHADOW OF THE CAT is much more in keeping with the spirit of Poe compared to the 1930s Universal film starring Karloff and Lugosi which took the title of Poe's story but absolutely nothing else .Alas SHADOW OF THE CAT is a rather mundane melodrama . Andre Morrell can do no wrong in my opinion and realises what sort of film he's appearing in and acts accordingly - by hamming things up every chance he gets including a laugh inducing scene where he's stuck in a cellar and shrieks like a banshee as he fights off an attack by Tabitha . As for the rest of the cast they're very mundane who have little impact in a film with a cheap feel with a rather uninteresting screenplay featuring a cat on a revenge mission . Maybe they could have got Charles Bronson to play Tabitha ?
malcolmgsw
Filmmakers have long faced a dilemma as to how to make benign domestic pets and unferocious animals look malevolent.Short sharp close ups and doom laden music ,mickey mousing are 2 ways of doing it.both are tried by the director,the redoubtable John Gilling.However even he cant make this feline look ferocious.Maybe he should have hired a Twetie Pie double.However this doesn't affect the entertainment to be had as a number of venerable actors make themselves go silly trying to look as if they are truly worried about the pesky canine.It is in fact the sort of film where you scream with laugh rather than fear.It is worth viewing if for no other reason.
AD
