Le spectre du chat

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.

Shadow of the Cat is a Poe-esquire horror film that focuses on a sinister animal - the domestic cat. The film begins with a reciting of the Edgar Allen Poe poem 'The Raven', and from there we begin to focus on the title animal. There is nothing about this film that officially suggests it has anything to do with Hammer studios, but the feel of the film is very much like Hammer and the fact that John Gilling - the man behind two of the best Hammer horror films, Plague of the Zombies and The Reptile - is the director means that it has something of an affinity with the studio. The plot focuses on the common Gothic horror theme of a family and an inheritance. The family here is the Venable family, and the story starts properly when a rich old woman is murdered by her relatives because they're after her inheritance. The only witness to the crime was the lady's pet cat, and while normally anyone committing murder in this way would get away with it scot-free, this particular cat takes exception to the murder of its owner and sets about exacting its own revenge.

The plot is, of course, pretty far fetched, but it's handled well and John Gilling never lets it descend into the realms of ridiculousness when it comes to people being murdered by the cat. The cat itself looks sinister enough, and while it doesn't have the same menace as, say, the murderous moggy in Lucio Fulci eighties impression of The Black Cat, the acting from the feline side of the cast is mostly fine. The thick Gothic atmosphere is the film's main asset, and John Gilling achieves this through the black and white cinematography as well as the decor of the central location and many of the events that transpire. The film is very short at around seventy five minutes, but this doesn't matter too much as Gilling makes his point and doesn't let too many sub-plots interfere with that. Of course, this sort of story is rarely going to give way to a truly GREAT film, as there isn't enough of it; but the film moves along nicely for the duration, and the events that build up to the ending ensure that the film does what you would expect of it. Overall, I doubt too many people will be disappointed with this and any fan of British horror will want to check it out.

"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".

Although supposedly made under the name of BHP Productions for contractual reasons, there is no doubt that what you are watching is a Hammer film. Everything about it reflects the Hammer trademarks of the era. The lighting, the music, the photography, the use of the exteriors at Bray (Hammer's first and most fruitful home) and the ever-present Black Park (a green lung in urban Slough that Hammer turned into everything from a Swiss mountain stream to a tropical river filled with piranha fish) - nothing is out of place. The plot is typical Grand Guignol - a rich elderly woman is murdered by her relatives for her money. They might get away with it too, except her pet cat takes exception to the plot and decides to exact revenge. While not thought-provoking by any means, the film moves confidently and swiftly along. Director John (Plague of Zombies, The Reptile) Gilling papers enough shocks over the holes in the plot to keep it interesting and the cast (led by Barbara (The Gorgon) Shelley and Andre Morell) do their jobs efficiently and entertainingly. The movie, though, belongs to Tabitha... Oh, and do you get the significance of the widow's reading of Poe's "The Raven" at the start of the film? Creepy stuff!

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...