15 commentaires
This is a slow burning murder mystery that keeps you guessing till the end. Perhaps the final reveal is a bit quick, especially if you are used to Columbo style re-enactments of the murder, so you need to pay attention. As usual there are plenty of possible murder suspects to choose from, or perhaps it's even suicide. Although based on a play (by Arnold Ridley, more commonly known for his role in Dad's Army) this does not have the usual hallmarks, such as the action being set primarily in one location. Well worth watching. A picture credit for the cat, an on-screen natural, would have been welcome though.
- jphoadexile
- 30 mars 2020
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Made in the sixties but with a distinctly thirties feel (except that in the thirties it would have taken place in a house the size of Blenheim). 'B' movie workhorse Montgomery Tully was still working in black & white and thirty shillings was still a substantial sum of money when this diverting little potboiler with a predominately female cast was dashed off (it even includes a very rare film appearance by the sorely missed Joan Sanderson).
No prizes for guessing who the prime candidate for the rat poison one of the characters buys is.
No prizes for guessing who the prime candidate for the rat poison one of the characters buys is.
- richardchatten
- 30 mars 2020
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A deliciously old-fashioned murder mystery ,with a threesome of mischievous old ladies who find it hard to make ends meet (a problem which is still relevant today when old people whose pension is too meager have to resort to charity organisations )but whose pride is intact and who would never,in a month of sundays ,accept any hand-out.
Their landlords was a generous man who did not force them to settle the arrears on their rent;but he's just passed away and his widow is a tartar , who treats her stepdaughter like Cinderella and ruthlessly raises her old tenants' rent.Her cruelty knows no bounds :she goes as far as to kill the cute kitten , adored by her mistress,one of the grannies, and everyone.
When the hateful woman (Vanda Godsell is incredibly wicked ) dies ,the viewer heaves a sigh of relief ,but the movie becomes a whodunit : he suspects the old ladies, the jeweler (who is also the stepdaughter's uncle) ,the young girl ,her boyfriend....all have motives,in the grand tradition of Agatha Christie.Although not to be mentioned in the same breath as the queen of crime's works, the screenplay is well written ,and acting is very good.
Their landlords was a generous man who did not force them to settle the arrears on their rent;but he's just passed away and his widow is a tartar , who treats her stepdaughter like Cinderella and ruthlessly raises her old tenants' rent.Her cruelty knows no bounds :she goes as far as to kill the cute kitten , adored by her mistress,one of the grannies, and everyone.
When the hateful woman (Vanda Godsell is incredibly wicked ) dies ,the viewer heaves a sigh of relief ,but the movie becomes a whodunit : he suspects the old ladies, the jeweler (who is also the stepdaughter's uncle) ,the young girl ,her boyfriend....all have motives,in the grand tradition of Agatha Christie.Although not to be mentioned in the same breath as the queen of crime's works, the screenplay is well written ,and acting is very good.
- ulicknormanowen
- 20 mars 2021
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- jamesraeburn2003
- 16 sept. 2021
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I watched this film expecting it to be dull and boring but it held my interest right through to the end. It was made at Twickenham Film Studios and they did not go far for the external scenes as the Police station shown is Twickham police station. I think the young actor playing the shop boy also had minor singing career. For a low budget film it is in my opinion worth watching.
A quiet and an unassuming but superbly polished British 'whodunnit' with charming and most effective performances, this engaging entertainment, concerning the loss of an elderly lady's kitten and the bitter - but mercifully balmed - consequences of that small tragedy, will completely bore and baffle anyone under the age of about fifty.
Unless your tastes were informed by an older and now almost entirely extinct set of cultural values - as were my own - this little cinematic treat will convey little beyond the sort of tedium small children bridle at when forced to listen to adult conversation. Every generation is a degeneration of the human spirit. Bright minds and good works there still are, and thank goodness for them; nevertheless, the general quality of life becomes ever nastier. This is because there is more - of everything, naturally, which of course includes also more that is bad.
What there is of human fineness is consequently ever more thinly spread across an ever vaster and more insatiable range of need. So it is that between this little Island of Britain and the looming masses of burgeoning China an impassable historical gulf is being set, which is euthanising the nostalgia of a World, our little world, which is still so familiar to some of us, and yet which is ever more faintly perceived - - - as if phantoms were flickering into their final oblivion over the cosy hearth of their dying memories, as the storm of change rages outside. This sense is a sure sign of the future's totalitarian intolerance of the past, and it's radical aversion to it. In an age of relentless global progress many delicate survivals will be vaporised by the great air-brush of history, and it will be as if they and their antediluvian world never were.
The survival of the Young chiefly depends upon the extinction of the Old: therefore such revenants must be impatiently and summarily swept away - for this is the hygiene of an era of Pandemics that sweeps away all the baffling contradictions of contrary old ways, so that the New World can pretend to it's own brief authority over the same fundamentally unruly Nature. Hence the impatience of many with what they see as a morbid interest in old dead things, like sentimentalised kittens and the frail passions of a powerless past; hence also humanity's equally morbid haste to assimilate itself to the indifferent future that is being brought upon us all.
The cat is dead; long live the cat.
Unless your tastes were informed by an older and now almost entirely extinct set of cultural values - as were my own - this little cinematic treat will convey little beyond the sort of tedium small children bridle at when forced to listen to adult conversation. Every generation is a degeneration of the human spirit. Bright minds and good works there still are, and thank goodness for them; nevertheless, the general quality of life becomes ever nastier. This is because there is more - of everything, naturally, which of course includes also more that is bad.
What there is of human fineness is consequently ever more thinly spread across an ever vaster and more insatiable range of need. So it is that between this little Island of Britain and the looming masses of burgeoning China an impassable historical gulf is being set, which is euthanising the nostalgia of a World, our little world, which is still so familiar to some of us, and yet which is ever more faintly perceived - - - as if phantoms were flickering into their final oblivion over the cosy hearth of their dying memories, as the storm of change rages outside. This sense is a sure sign of the future's totalitarian intolerance of the past, and it's radical aversion to it. In an age of relentless global progress many delicate survivals will be vaporised by the great air-brush of history, and it will be as if they and their antediluvian world never were.
The survival of the Young chiefly depends upon the extinction of the Old: therefore such revenants must be impatiently and summarily swept away - for this is the hygiene of an era of Pandemics that sweeps away all the baffling contradictions of contrary old ways, so that the New World can pretend to it's own brief authority over the same fundamentally unruly Nature. Hence the impatience of many with what they see as a morbid interest in old dead things, like sentimentalised kittens and the frail passions of a powerless past; hence also humanity's equally morbid haste to assimilate itself to the indifferent future that is being brought upon us all.
The cat is dead; long live the cat.
- philip-davies31
- 4 avr. 2020
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A nasty landlady is peeved because her late husband has left most of his estate to her stepdaughter. She takes it out on her boarders who are three lady pensioners. She raises their rent exorbitantly. One of the ladies has a cat which is then found poisoned to death. The boarders suspect their landlady is the killer. The landlady has been a thieving magpie helping herself to items from their rooms. For a moment the old ladies plan drastic revenge. But then the landlady is found poisoned to death anyway. This British mystery from Eternal Films has a fine senior cast. I enjoyed stage actress Ellen Pollock who plays a widow fantasizing about some rich grand past. Also entertaining is jeweler Mervyn Johns who keeps his safe permanently wide open. This is not Ladykillers or Arsenic And Old Lace but it is likely to appeal to fans of those movies.
- greenbudgie
- 20 juil. 2025
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This looked like a mid 1950s film rather that one of 1966 especially as it was not in colour but the story suited this look. The old ladies were great and in the mould of an Ealing film and I half expected Alastair Sim or George Cole to pop up at any time.
An excellent "who dunnit" which keeps the audience guessing all the way to the end and very well cast possibly with "William Tell" being it it to attract some more cinema ticket buyers.
A must see for lovers of classic 1950s mystery films even it it was made in 1966. I changed my mind several times as to who the guilty party was and still got it wrong.
An excellent "who dunnit" which keeps the audience guessing all the way to the end and very well cast possibly with "William Tell" being it it to attract some more cinema ticket buyers.
A must see for lovers of classic 1950s mystery films even it it was made in 1966. I changed my mind several times as to who the guilty party was and still got it wrong.
When the owner of a boarding house dies, he leaves his modest property empire to his daughter under the care of her jeweller uncle "Henry" (Mervyn Johns) and her stepmother "Ruth" (Ellen Pollock). Turns out the stepmother is every bit as wicked as stereotype suggests - and soon she decides to send the daughter out to work and to up the rent for the three elderly lodgers who live with them - safe in the knowledge that they could never afford it. One of these ladies has a kitten that has an habit of getting into rooms he's not allowed in, and when he is found dead the old ladies assume he has been poisoned, and set a trap for the supposed murderess. When the matronly landlady is discovered dead in her bed shortly afterwards, all eyes point to a bottle of whisky, a jug of water and, well, just about everyone, really... It falls to Conrad Phillips ("Insp. Bruton") to get to the bottom of things. It's quite a cleverly layered little mystery this, the three old ladies reminding you of Katie Johnson, and the ending is certainly not what I was expecting. Mary Merrall ("Janet") overacts dreadfully as the daughter, and her scenes do spoil it a bit, but for the most part it's an agreeable, well and amusingly paced amalgam of stories that I rather enjoyed.
- CinemaSerf
- 1 sept. 2024
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- scottbarry-88358
- 26 sept. 2021
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I thought I'd like this film as it ticks all the boxes for me - only it was better than that.
Won't spoil it but think of Charlie's Angels (great grandmothers) - joining forces to do a right from a wrong.
It's a dull, rainy cold day here just the perfect environment for me to get stuck into a good drama listening to clipped British accents & a character who plays a right cow and your hatred grows.
Many a face of an actor I still admire who have passed over. It's so good to see them, I'm talking about Joan Sanderson before her battle axe days!
This film has given me warmth.
I'd recommend this film.
Won't spoil it but think of Charlie's Angels (great grandmothers) - joining forces to do a right from a wrong.
It's a dull, rainy cold day here just the perfect environment for me to get stuck into a good drama listening to clipped British accents & a character who plays a right cow and your hatred grows.
Many a face of an actor I still admire who have passed over. It's so good to see them, I'm talking about Joan Sanderson before her battle axe days!
This film has given me warmth.
I'd recommend this film.
- xman-chaos
- 15 oct. 2024
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- Leofwine_draca
- 8 avr. 2020
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The most notable thing about this film is that the play upon which it is based was co authored by Arnold Ridley,Private Godfrey of Dads Army.The problem with this film is that there is rarely any tension.When it starts to get interesting it ends in a very lame climax.
- malcolmgsw
- 9 janv. 2020
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"Who Killed The Cat?" is a poorly made, cheap and virtually plotless murder mystery. It was made in the days when it was still the norm to show double bills in British cinemas. Such "B" features were churned out by the smaller studios as programme fillers and have now, mercifully, been consigned to oblivion. The film starts promisingly enough with a funeral, but that is about all the action you get. The rest is mostly talk.
This B movie is based on a stage play co-written by Arnold Ridley. Better known as Private Godfrey in Dad's Army.
Eleanor (Vanda Godsell) is the bitter widow whose husband has failed to leave her everything in his will.
Her stepdaughter Mary will inherit more from her father once she is old enough. Now Eleanor wants her to leave school and go to work.
The three elderly ladies who rent rooms had their arrears wiped, but Eleanor has raised the rent to make it unaffordable.
Eleanor also has little time for the young man who takes a shine to Mary.
When one of the elderly lady's cat is found poisoned to death. The ladies know Eleanor did it and want to take revenge.
How Eleanor is found dead but the ladies are sure they did not have anything to do with her death.
The police go for Mary's boyfriend but he claims he has been stitched up.
This is a creaky whodunnit and it does not feel like a movie made in 1966. Maybe the script should had been updated more.
Eleanor (Vanda Godsell) is the bitter widow whose husband has failed to leave her everything in his will.
Her stepdaughter Mary will inherit more from her father once she is old enough. Now Eleanor wants her to leave school and go to work.
The three elderly ladies who rent rooms had their arrears wiped, but Eleanor has raised the rent to make it unaffordable.
Eleanor also has little time for the young man who takes a shine to Mary.
When one of the elderly lady's cat is found poisoned to death. The ladies know Eleanor did it and want to take revenge.
How Eleanor is found dead but the ladies are sure they did not have anything to do with her death.
The police go for Mary's boyfriend but he claims he has been stitched up.
This is a creaky whodunnit and it does not feel like a movie made in 1966. Maybe the script should had been updated more.
- Prismark10
- 14 mars 2025
- Permalien