The Shadow of the Cat(1961)Movie Review

Trailer here.

The Shadow of the Cat is a 1961 horror movie directed by John Gilling and starring Andre Morell, Barbara Shelley, William Lucas, Freda Jackson and Conrad Phillips.

An old woman called Ella Venable is killed in her house. Her cat, Tabitha sees it and knows who the killer is. There are two men and a woman involved in it. The cat witnesses them burying the body. Police come to the house. Ella's husband is called Walter(Morell) and he is in on the murder along with Andrew(Andrew Crawford), the butler and Clara(Jackson), the maid. Walter tells the police that Ella has been missing for a few days. He tells them that he hasn't seen her at all. Andrew tries to catch the cat but it won't come to him. Clara tries too. The cat is lurking, watching everything. Andrew tries to kill it. It runs into the basement. Walter tries to get it too. Tabitha attacks him. Andrew tells Inspector Rowles(Alan Wheatley) that the cat is being vicious.

Ella has a niece called Beth(Shelley) and she is coming to the house. A reporter called Latimer(Phillips) is on the case of the missing lady too. He comes to the house and he meets Beth. Andrew tells them that the cat attacked him. Tabitha goes to see Beth and she pets it and it likes her. When Clara appears, the cat gets angry and vicious. Walter sends for his brother, Edgar(Richard Warner) and his son Jacob(Lucas).Jacob brings his wife, Louise(Vanda Godsell) with him. Clara is worried about the cat. Beth asks her what is going on. Walter informs his family about the cat and he orders them to kill it. Tabitha and Beth have no problems at all. She calls Latimer and tells him that she is frightened of what is happening in the house. Michael Latimer thinks that the cat knows what happened to Ella.

Tabitha is making the culprits feel guilty. Michael tells her that he thinks that Walter is behind it all. Edgar and Jacob find the cat and trap it in a bag. Andrew runs off with it and goes into the woods but it escapes. The cat leads him to a swamp. Andrew falls in and dies. Tabitha returns to the house. Beth asks everyone why they are frightened of a little cat. Clara realises that something has happened to Andrew and she tells Walter. She wants to go but Walter won't let her. She dies when the cat jumps on her and tumbles down the stairs. Michael shows up at the house and Louise blames the cat for Clara's death. The Inspector comes and informs them about Andrew. 

Beth and Michael explore the house and they see that there is a broken wall. Edgar, Jacob and Louise disscuss Walter. They want to get rid of him. Beth hears noises at night. The cat sits on Walter's bed. He has a heart attack and dies. The Inspector and Michael arrive. Edgar has a will that leaves everything to him. Louise thinks that Jacob had something to do with  Walter's death. Michael thinks that there might be another will. The police look for the cat. Ella had put her papers in a safe deposit box. Michael thinks that Ella was killed and the cat witnessed it. The Inspector asks about the will and he wants to search the house for it. The cat comes in and runs upstairs. Jacob chases it. He goes onto the roof and falls off. Edgar is searching for another will. Michael and Beth are searching too. Edgar finds Ella's box and the cat comes in. He chases it and he gets hit by a beam. The box is found. Beth is the one who was supposed to inherit Ella's estate. Tabitha leads the police to Ella's body. The house is sold and the new occupants are moving in. Puss is there, looking for a new family.

This was a really good movie. I liked the idea of the cat witnessing the murder and making sure that the guilty are punished. The cast were great and there were some really great moments in this one. Interesting note- this is actually a Hammer movie. I recommend this and I am giving a 7/10.

Out of the Dark(1988) Movie Review

Trailer here.

Out of the Dark is a 1988 horror movie directed by Michael Schroeder and starring Karen Black and Bud Cort.

The movie begins with a man calling a sex phone line. A woman called Camille(Black) is starting work at the sex line. A creepy clown talks to a woman in the park. He hits her with a baseball bat and kills her. The cops are on the case. She was working at the sex line. Kevin (Cameron Dye) is a photographer who also knows some of the girls at the line.  The cops pay him a visit. The cops are led by Lieutenant Myers(Tracey Walter) and McDonald. They question Kevin about the dead girl. A man called Dave (Cort) is working in the same building as the sex line. He is an accountant and he likes a woman called Barbara. She is giving one of the sex line workers, Camille, a ride home. The clown is following them.  Barbara drops her home and the clown follows her. He forces her to crash her car and then he kills her.

Kevin gets another visit from the cops. His girlfriend is Kristi and she works at the sex line. She is upset about Kevin being accused of being the killer. The boss, Ruth(Black) is not happy about all of this. A witness saw the killer and she says that he wore a clown mask. The cops decide to set up a phoneline to draw the killer out. The clown calls Camille and he gets angry with her. Later on, he finds her and he kills her. The cops realise that the clown outsmarted them. They find Camille's body. Ruth is very upset at the cops for causing the killer to strike.

Kevin and Kristi suspect Dave. They discover sex items in his office. Kevin and Kristi go to a seedy motel to hide. The killer just happens to be at the same motel. He murders a prostitute. The motel owner discovers the body. Along come the cops and Kevin and Kristi see them. They make a run for it but get caught. Kevin is taken to jail and he calls Kristi and tells her to go back to Dave's office and find something to incriminate him. She finds stuff but gets caught by Dave. He chases her and tries to kill her but he gets hit by a car and dies. The cops think that he was the killer. Kevin is cleared and released.

Kevin and Kristi go to his place in the desert. Kristi finds a clown mask in his trunk. She realises that Kevin was the real killer. He has a gun and he tells her that he used to be a professional clown. He tries to kill her and she ends up shooting him. He isn't dead though and he comes back to finish her off when he is shot dead by Meyers who found them just in time. This is a decent thriller/horror. It has some good stuff in it even though it is a little cheesy in parts. I think that it is worth a look and I will give it a 5/10.