This slow moving but suspenseful Gothic thriller is not your every day old dark house movie, but one where you know who the villains are, await with glee their ultimate demise, and laugh with glee at much of the irony of the story line. It is obvious that the family who kills their aging matriarch hates the very protective cat who witnesses the murder and seeks revenge. Attempts to get rid of the furious feline prove impossible as the cat escapes every time, only turning up to dispatch cleverly those she witnessed being responsible for her beloved mistresses death. When other family members show up, suspicions of foul play become evident as the deaths which occur suddenly do not seem under any manner to be caused by anything other than natural causes or possibly human foul play. Each of the bad guys reacts in complete fear from the approaching cat as if realizing that "This is it. I'm going to be dead in a minute or so.".
Seemingly fragile, André Morell, as the widower of the wealthy murdered woman (Catherine Lacey), is very Boris Karloff like in nature, and he gives a riveting performance which shows a lack of any guilt over having his wife killed yet complete fear when he thinks about what the kitty knows. Freda Jackson is very Mrs. Danvers like as the ruthless housekeeper, and Andrew Crawford demonic as the butler who actually did the dirty deed in the first scene. Then there's the varying relatives, lead by Barbara Shelley as Lacey's favorite niece who appears to be the heir to her estate which had been the motive to the initial murder in the first place.Vanda Godsell is good as a rather suspiciously motivated female staff member. The dark, eerie photography and a chilling musical score are other plusses of this chiller which starts off with Lacey reciting Edgar Allan Poe and ends up with some plot twists that Mr. Poe himself would have been happy with.
Seemingly fragile, André Morell, as the widower of the wealthy murdered woman (Catherine Lacey), is very Boris Karloff like in nature, and he gives a riveting performance which shows a lack of any guilt over having his wife killed yet complete fear when he thinks about what the kitty knows. Freda Jackson is very Mrs. Danvers like as the ruthless housekeeper, and Andrew Crawford demonic as the butler who actually did the dirty deed in the first scene. Then there's the varying relatives, lead by Barbara Shelley as Lacey's favorite niece who appears to be the heir to her estate which had been the motive to the initial murder in the first place.Vanda Godsell is good as a rather suspiciously motivated female staff member. The dark, eerie photography and a chilling musical score are other plusses of this chiller which starts off with Lacey reciting Edgar Allan Poe and ends up with some plot twists that Mr. Poe himself would have been happy with.