L'ombra del gatto

This Hammer film has a unique story while boasting the typically good to great Hammer assets of editing (which is especially well done this time) and production and of course acting. The copy I saw was a very poor dub of a dub and a good version would rate higher. I'm not sure if this was a Scope movie or not, though many of Hammer's Black and White films were and the full frame version I saw looked cropped. Originally the cat was supposed to be shown only as a shadow, this might have in the long run been more effective, or at least explained the title, though it's the shadow of guilt it still refers too. I can't think of another Hammer film quite like this as far as plot or structure. It starts with a very good longish pre-credit sequence and has typically effective music throughout. Director John Gilling is under-appreciated and this film is unique in his output.

It is fast paced, stylish and fun, actor Andre Morell does a great freak out job. It can be a problem with films where most of the characters are bad guys to keep interest, but this group sweats in fear and celebrates their own misdeeds in a way that makes them engaging. You want them to die but you also somehow sympathize with the inevitable cruel nature of their fate.

Some nice shots of cat's glowing eyes by the way as well.

"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".

No supernatural creatures in this Hammer film, but a lot of the human cast in The Shadow Of The Cat thinks Tabitha is the feline from hell. Not that they don't deserve what happens to them.

The film opens with Andre Morrell murdering his wife who controls the family fortune and with the connivance of two servants Andrew Crawford and Freda Jackson. The only witness to the event was Tabitha the cat and the sight of the cat gives them guilty consciences.

Other relatives arrive including Barbara Shelley and her fiancé Conrad Phillips and Shelley is the only one that Tabitha behaves with. The others now influenced by Morrell all hate the cat, ascribing all kinds of supernatural behavior. And attempts to trap and kill it result in a whole lot of the cast being eliminated.

This is a good one from Hammer because it relies on the human failings for these people to fail. Tabitha has no powers, she's just smarter than the rest of the humans in the cast.

Cat's got Pussynality.

After spending a typical evening reading Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" to her cat, poor Ella Venable (Catherine Lacey) is brutally murdered. With the cat as the only witness to the deed, the three miscreants responsible believe they've committed the perrrfect crime.

Not so fast!

It seems that kitty has a few tricks up her fuzzy sleeves, resulting in mayhem for the three cantankerous coconspirators.

Enter Ella's niece, Elizabeth (Barbara Shelley), who is so nice that she makes Pollyanna look like Mrs. Blaylock from THE OMEN! Also, a copper is under foot, snooping for clues.

As more relatives of the odious variety arrive, it's not certain just who will survive Ella's furtive feline!

THE SHADOW OF THE CAT is a highly entertaining ball of yarn. It's ghastly fun to watch the criminals reduced to jelly at the paws of the titular tabby! The POV, kitty-vision shots are particularly cool.

Andre Morell, Freda Jackson, and Andrew Crawford are all wonderfully wicked in their roles. Highly recommended for lovers of horror with a sense of fun...

This horror film from the other side of the channel is for me the best horror film of the sixties, and among the best of all times. The trade mark of John Gilling, the films that comes first in my mind when I think about Gilling, and certainly not his first adventure and crime movies, though excellent. Gilling has never been better than here. This movie inspired an AVENGERS series - 60's - episode: THE HIDDEN TIGER, especially the cat scenes using subective camera, very very impressive, unforgettable. Andre Morell awesome for this little golden gem. In the US, eight years later, you also had a film which the topic and story telling were very close to this one: EYES OF THE CAT.