This is such a curious work. Its producer Jon Pennington seemed to be attracted to unusual themes, the year before he made "Faces in the Dark" another story with a haunting ironic final outcome. He also seems to have been fond of working with the much exiled political activist and great Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis ~ an unusual choice for both movies. In fact, if you took the exciting Theodorakis score for 'Cat'...with its eerie grinding base and shrill stings (perfectly bringing to mind the quick movements of a panicked cat) this film would lose much of its considerable atmosphere. The pounding (near symphonic) main title, played over the image of an old dark country manor at the turn of the century sounds reminiscent of a ghostly steam locomotive, this makes the setting appear doubly creepy and hammers home the seriousness of the nasty crime that's just been committed.

People rave about the directorial touches but director John Gilling, while he does a most capable job, had such superb assistance from several important professionals...Veteran director of photography: Arthur Grant ('Quartermas and the Pit '67) works wonders with stark, super sharp B/W images in various difficult indoor situations as well as wide open spaces. The remarkable look of the indoor settings were stylishly created by two hard working gents, Art Director: Don Mingaye ('Phantom of the Opera' 61) and Production Designer: Bernard Robinson who, also in '61, is known for the super atmospheric 'Scream of Fear'. The editor: John Pomeroy (who has also been known to direct) cuts tricky scenes together with much flourish. Then there's veteran sound recordist: Ken Cameron capturing all the verbal dramatics and atmos. Writer, American born George Baxt weaves individual nuances into each of his greed-driven characters - that just seem to keep coming out of the rotting woodwork. This is an A1 team at work behind the camera.

In retrospect, it might perhaps be a pity that director Gilling decided to change Baxt's original script, where the cat was intended to be seen only in 'shadow' (a form of psychological metaphor). Then again, others will argue there are some fine shots of this impressive feline used to good advantage, so maybe it's not easy to decide what may have been better (although I like Baxt's thoughts) Some Cat lovers will be delighted, others won't be overly impressed. Some won't buy the idea of a cat causing such panic, but this bunch of characters are murderers under close investigation, living on their guilt ridden nerves in an era where superstition was rife. They are also struggling with a haunted 'collective', bad conscience.

The entire cast are rather amazing at what they have to convey, such a gathering of stalwart British ensemble players. Any lesser performers may not have been convincing within some of the more difficult to grasp situations. It seems this was originally intended as a Hammer studios film but I've found some of the smaller Hammer productions can at times look a little cheap. The quality production values of this film suggest that Independent producer Jon Pennington may have invested his own larger budget for this odd little work. Two years ago my sister purchased a DVD of 'S. O. T. Cat' from a seller in the UK who claimed his was the only DVD available. It had annoying permanently 'burnt into the image' subtitles! At last, we can now get this new Final Cut release DVD, which features one of the best 'Stills Gallery' extras I've ever seen --sections of the full original music score are synchronized to wonderfully edited images from the feature--

Congratulations Final Cut for this rare quality product. Look for it while you can! It may not please everyone but those who view it as a product of its day, and within the limits of its very well used budget, could be pleasantly surprised ... Anyone seen Tabitha? Purrrr.... KenR.

No supernatural creatures in this Hammer film, but a lot of the human cast in The Shadow Of The Cat thinks Tabitha is the feline from hell. Not that they don't deserve what happens to them.

The film opens with Andre Morrell murdering his wife who controls the family fortune and with the connivance of two servants Andrew Crawford and Freda Jackson. The only witness to the event was Tabitha the cat and the sight of the cat gives them guilty consciences.

Other relatives arrive including Barbara Shelley and her fiancé Conrad Phillips and Shelley is the only one that Tabitha behaves with. The others now influenced by Morrell all hate the cat, ascribing all kinds of supernatural behavior. And attempts to trap and kill it result in a whole lot of the cast being eliminated.

This is a good one from Hammer because it relies on the human failings for these people to fail. Tabitha has no powers, she's just smarter than the rest of the humans in the cast.

Cat's got Pussynality.

SHADOW OF THE CAT is well known as being a 'forgotten' Hammer Horror, a movie that was unavailable on home video or DVD for many years until it finally came out last month via a UK DVD release. Having just watched it, I can see why it was 'swept under the carpet' so to speak; it turns out to be one of the company's dullest and silliest affairs.

The basic template of SHADOW OF THE CAT is one of those 'old dark house' thrillers, which invariably involves hidden treasure and a bunch of ne'er-do-wells who find themselves at the mercy of a lurking menace. Except the menace in this case is nothing more than a cute cat whose antics in evading the various villains soon becomes tiresome. Andre Morell and Barbara Shelley are the ones mired in this mess, although neither are at their best.

The film as a whole has a twee and childish feel. The plotting is very slim and even John Gilling's direction can't do much to lift things. Sure, the crisp black and white photography makes the movie look good and the production values are as decent as you'd expect for a Hammer flick, but that doesn't help when the story is so, well, inadequate. I ended up clock watching throughout which is very unusual given that Hammer was and is my favourite film studio of all time and that I typically love the grand Hammer Horrors of old.