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".

kapelusznik18 ***SPOILERS*** The planned murder as well as disappearance of Ella Venable, Catherine Lacey, by her butler and maid Andrew and Clara, Andrew Crawford & Freda Jackson, went off with out a hitch with Andrew bashing the elderly women's brains in and with the help of Clara burying her body in and around the swamps outside the Venable family home. The only problem is that Ella's sweet and cuddly cat Tabitha saw them commit the murder and where they buried Ella's body.This all was done under the orders and instructions of Ella's husband Walter, Andre Morell, whom Ella was going to cut out of her will and replace with her niece Beth, Barbara Shelly. It's Beth who among everyone in the Venable can was not obsessed with money and showed genuine love and affection for her aunt. It's in fact Tabitha who starts the ball rolling in avenging her mistress Ella's murder. And in the end she not only has everyone involved, both actively and behind the scenes, pay for their crime but also leads the police to where Ella's was buried in order to have her get a proper as well as Christian burial. That's more then could be said for her victims the entire, with the exception of Beth, Venable clan.Haunted house movie with the one doing the both haunting as well as killing being the family cat Tabitha who looks during the entire movie so cute and harmless that it was hard to believe that she was doing all this carnage. The cat seemed to gather strength as well as invincibility as the movie rolled along making her seem almost ghost-like or supernatural. At first Tabitha seemed a bit confused and in trouble when she was caught in a trap set by Ella's killers that she foolishly got caged in. But it was the bumbling buffoon of a butler Andrew who, by having his head stuck up his behind, let her escape and in trying to recapture her fell into and was swallowed up by the swamp. With Tabitha now free and given a second life, out of the nine that she already has, she went on to the business of finishing the job, of avenging Ella's murder, that she had already started.

Spikeopath The Shadow of the Cat is directed by John Gilling and written by George Baxt. It stars Conrad Phillips, Barbara Shelley, André Morell, Richard Warner, William Lucas and Andrew Crawford. Music is by Mikis Theodorakis and cinematography by Arthur Grant.Tabitha the house cat witnesses her mistress being murdered by her scheming family and sets about enacting revenge...Out of BHP Films, which is basically Hammer Films using an alias due to a technical legality, The Shadow of the Cat is a delightfully eerie entrant in the pantheon of Old Dark House movies.The picture kicks off with the brutal murder of an old dear, the setting a moody mansion full of shadows, murky rooms, rickety floors, nooks and crannies, and this while Tabitha the cat watches intensely. From here we meet the roll call of family and house servants, the majority of whom are nefarious, and as the paranoia builds amongst the guilty, their reasons for dastardly doings evident, Tabitha goes about her cunning assassinations.Of for sure it's bonkers in plotting, but Gilling (The Plague of the Zombies/The Reptile) was a very astute director, and he manages to wring much suspense and unease from the story, whilst he's not shy to play up some humour and even adds some decent shocks into the bargain. Cast are on good form, playing it just the way it should be played, and the Bray Studio surrounding areas once again prove to be a useful location for such horror shenanigans.Aided by Grant's (The Tomb of Ligeia/The Curse of the Werewolf) beautiful black and white photography, Gilling proves masterful at atmosphere. Naturally we have the requisite thunderstorm, but it's the oblique angles and looming shadows that really fill the mood with impending dread. While the use of a stretch screen technique to portray the cat's POV (Catovision?) is a nice trick that works very effectively.It's a hard film to get hold of, but there are decent sources available to view it (the Onyx Media International double DVD with Cat Girl is a good transfer that does justice to the photography). It's still under seen and little known due to its lack of availability. Which is a shame, because for fans of Old Dark House creepers there's good fun to be had here. 8/10

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.