Hammer Studios is best known for their versions of classic monster movies like Dracula, Frankenstein and the Mummy but they branched out into different areas of horror too. Like today’s film the 1961 movie The Shadow of the Cat.
Poor Ella Venable (Catherine Lacey). She’s been forced to change her will to leave her vast wealth to her evil husband Walter (André Morell). Walter along with the servants, who are getting a cut of the inheritance, then murder Ella and bury her body. The only witness to the crime is Ella’s cat Tabitha.
Ella’s daughter Beth (Barbara Shelley) comes home trying to find out what happened to her mom. Beth was originally the sole heir to the estate. Meanwhile Walter decides that the cat knows too much and brings in his brother and nephew to take care the feline. Tabitha has other plans and is out for revenge against those who murdered her mistress. Before you know it, the cat starts racking up a body count.
Despite not having Hammer’s name at the start of the film, this is a Hammer produced movie. It was shot on their soundstage and stars several Hammer regulars although the star of the film is Tabitha. Director John Gilling also uses a distorted lens to let viewers see through the cat’s eyes. It’s a different kind of revenge flick.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJeYJDuYYYg