by Mark Murton
Directed by: Radley Metzger
This review contains a severe Kitty Carnage Warning!
Synopsis: In this most recent film version of the 1922 stage play, a group of potential heirs are summoned to the mansion of a deceased benefactor, Cyrus West, to view the filmed reading of his will. Upon arrival they discover that a deranged killer who believes himself to be a cat may have infiltrated the event.
Kitty Cameos: In a 1904 pre-credits sequence a canary is hanging in a cage up a tree in a wood near Glencliffe Manor. On the ground below is a black and white cat. The cat looks up at the cage before settling down on the ground.
Severe Kitty Carnage Warning! A child’s voice is heard calling to the cat. The child is then seen running back to a group of adults, one of whom calls out to the cat to come in, too. The calls go unheeded as the camera pans slowly up the dead body of the cat hanging by the neck in a noose attached to a low branch of a tree.
After the credits the scene switches to same location thirty years later as a group of guests, all relatives of the now-deceased owner, arrive at the long-abandoned manor. Unseen by anyone, a black cat peers out from underneath a white cloth covering a table.
Cyrus lets it be known in his reading of the will how much he despised his kin before revealing that the mentally fragile Annabelle West (Carol Lynley) is to be the sole beneficiary. However, to claim the inheritance, she must spend the night in the house with the rest of the family and be deemed sane the next morning. Soon after this Annabelle is in the library with West’s lawyer Mrs. Crosby (Wendy Hiller). Annabelle is distracted by a black cat on the floor which she picks up and smooths.
When she returns her attention to Mrs. Crosby the woman is nowhere to be seen. The search for Mrs. Crosby begins while the cat does not appear again.
Various posters for the film in different counties featured the cat prominently in their artwork.
Final Mewsings: The cat isn’t a very good representative for the killer when it ends up being the one who is killed!
Many thanks to Nick Wale for also spotting the cats in this film.
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