The Shadow of the Cat (1961)

Following their relatives’ murder, a group of relatives gathered together at her house to read her will find their servants and other guests more concerned with killing the pet cat who had witnessed the incident and must try to find a way of stopping them from doing so. This one was quite a decent and somewhat enjoyable enough effort. One of the more enjoyable elements here is the fact that this one really goes quite nicely with the traditional style of efforts featuring that old-school film style. Playing on the archetype of the old-dark-house mysteries with the idea of relatives gathered together to read the will of a recently-deceased relative only to find themselves involved in a greater horror while staying there, that one gives this a great ploy for having suspenseful moments due to this type of storyline. From the large grand layout and Gothic design of the house, there’s plenty to like here while this one plays out the rather fun notion of what’s going on as the film’s main focus here on taking on measures to find the cat and silence it which plays out throughout the film. These are quite fun from trapping it within cages and trapping it to chasing it around the house and other means of disposing of it which makes for a rather striking and somewhat fun efforts, while there’s some rather good stuff to be had here with the later revenge tactics to showcase the cat going around the house with them being paranoid about it to the point of rather comical natures of what’s going on here. That in itself is the biggest problem with the film, in that it’s central premise is so ludicrous and laughably played-out here that it really strains itself way too often to the point of the cast themselves pointing out how insane the film’s plot actually is. That’s never a good sign, and it’s helped along by the fact that this one really strains the credibility of the action here with the relatives going for the cat in such contrived and increasingly bizarre ways that it feels somewhat silly to have them play out as they do. The last flaw here is the fact that this one really doesn’t have all that great of a pace here which really stumbles with all the time spent on doing some rather than dealing with the cat as the family squabbles over the money or the group conniving about finding ways to stop the cat which are so stuffy and bland that it doesn’t feature much of any interest during these parts. It’s enough to really make it stumble along during the mid-section when it’s not involved in anything, and these here do hold it down rather significantly. Today’s Rating/PG: Violence and tense themes of animal abuse.