Cyrus West has a huge fortune to leave. Twenty years after his death he still holds the strings to his family, he arranges for his family, solicitor and faithful housekeeper to gather for the reading of his will. It's 1934 and Glyncliffe Manor plays host. Cyrus was considered an eccentric, ahead of his time, he presents his bequest via moving pictures, presenting his legacy from beyond the grave. His fortune is left to the beautiful Annabelle, just because she shared the same surname, West. Wanting to put a bittersweet twist on the affair Cyrus added a proviso, should the heir die or be judged insane in a twelve hour period the legacy would go to a second heir. Events that evening are made all the more complicated when Doctor Hendricks bursts in with a warning, an escaped psychopathic killer is on the loose, he believes he's a cat, killing his victims with his bare hands. Annabelle has a tough night ahead, a killer on the loose and a greedy grouping of dubious relatives.
I'll start off by saying I think it's a really great movie, I prefer this to the previous version. It was produced more so as a horror/thriller then a supernatural thriller. It does have some moments of humour which work, mostly coming from Paul Jones.
Annabelle is set up nicely as the victim, she is made sweet, nice, kind, such a contrast to most of the others who are shown as greedy, devious, even murderous. Paul being the exception.
The acting is solid as opposed to awesome, it's the two seniors that I enjoy most, Wilfred Hyde White and Beatrix Lehmann, both are so much fun, quite underrated gems. Honor Blackman too is excellent, she's tough but rather creepy. Carol Lynley played the English Rose really well, I had no idea she was a native New Yorker.
This film was not Edward Fox's finest moment, I think he's guilty of overacting somewhat, he's definitely enjoying himself, just a little too much.
There are some excellent moments in this film, some of the best ones include, the disappearance of Mrs Crosbie, the theft of a slumbering Annabelle's necklace and of course the finale. That torture room was a rather nasty creation, although nobody lost any blood after being shot.
Another good moment, the attack on Susan was ruined a little as it ended in a somewhat cartoon sketch.
Mrs Pleasant says to Annabelle 'The Canary in a cage almost dies of fright when the cat walks around the cage. Dies a thousand deaths, although it's quite safe.' It's a great analogy for the film, with the house acting as the cage, and the killer, the cat.
Such an underrated film. 9/10
