The Shadow of the Cat (1961)
Directed by John Gilling

Film Review

The Shadow of the Cat is one of Hammer Films' lesser known horror offerings but one that is definitely worth rediscovering.  One reason for the film's comparative obscurity is that it was nominally made not by Hammer but by a company (BHP) that had been created to take advantage of a sponsorship deal offered by ACTT (the Association of Cinematograph Television and Allied Technicians).  The film was made at Hammer's Bray Studios with Hammer's staff and, to all intents and purposes, counts as a Hammer film.  It doesn't take a genius to work out that it belongs to the same stable as Taste of Fear (1961) and The Nanny (1965), two of Hammer's other joyrides into creepy psychological horror.

The film marks the beginning of director John Gilling's fruitful association with Hammer.  Gilling would later helm two of the studio's most highly regarded horror classics - The Reptile (1966) and The Plague of the Zombies (1966) - and the somewhat less successful The Mummy's Shroud (1967).  For The Shadow of the Cat, Gilling takes a well-worn concept and turns it into a compelling, fiendishly suspenseful thriller, which is marred only by the absurdity of its plot and a paucity of interesting, well developed characters.

Hammer regular André Morell (recently famous for playing Quatermass in Quatermass and the Pit on BBC television) heads a pretty undistinguished cast and has no difficulty dominating the proceedings as a vile, cat-loathing fiend who delights in manipulating others.  Morell's is the only performance that can be described as compelling, but Gilling's stylish direction makes up for this.  The film is atmospherically photographed in moody black and white, conveying a stifling sense of paranoia as the bodies start piling up.

The cat's weird point-of-view shots (which appear to have been achieved using a distorting mirror) and Mikis Theodorakis's portentous score, raging with the ferocity of a thunderstorm in places, add greatly to the sense of spine-tingling menace that pervades the old house-cum-abattoir.  Is the ubiquitous moggy to blame or is it merely the consciences of the guilty protagonists that lead them to do such idiotic things as go running into lethal bogs or clamber onto parapets in the dead of night?  If the film has a fault it is that the cat takes too active a role in the demise of its enemies, rather than having, as its title would imply, a more shadowy presence.  That aside, The Shadow of the Cat has much to commend it, an enjoyable retread over familiar terrain.

Film Synopsis

Anxious to get his hands on his wife Ella's fortune, Walter Venable murders her in cold blood with the help of his servants Clara and Andrew.  The killing and subsequent burial are witnessed by Ella's pet cat, Tabitha, who immediately starts to annoy his mistress's murderers.  Convinced that the cat intends to avenge his wife's death, Walter invites three relatives to his house to help destroy the irritating pet.  They must also find a will which Ella made before her death in which she makes her niece her sole beneficiary.  When Andrew and Clara die in mysterious circumstances, Walter is sure he will be next...