FAQ

After watching the murder and clandestine burial of her mistress -- elderly Ella Venable (Catherine Lacey) -- committed by butler Andrew (Andrew Crawford), Ella's husband Walter (André Morell), and the maid Clara (Freda Jackson), house cat Tabitha goes after them. Meanwhile, the murderers attempt to get rid of Tabitha, knowing that she is the only witness.

The Shadow of the Cat is based on a screenplay by American author/screenwriter George Baxt.

While chasing Tabitha, Andrew falls from a log and drowns in the swamp. Tabitha leaps on Clara, causing her to fall down the stairs. Walter, already bedridden, suffers a heart attack when Tabitha crawls up the covers toward him.

Just minutes before she was killed, Ella was forced to write a will, witnessed by Andrew and Clara, leaving her fortune to Walter. Walter then wrote a will leaving it all to his brother Edgar (Richard Warner). However, it's believed that Ella left a prior will giving everything to her niece Beth (Barbara Shelley). If Ella's prior will can be found and verified, it would negate the will written under duress, which would mean that the fortune was not Walter's to give away.

After Walter's death, Edgar and Beth, along with remaining family members Jacob (William Lucas) and Louise (Vanda Godsell), plus Police Inspector Rowles (Alan Wheatley) and Michael Latimer (Conrad Phillips), search the house for Ella's will. While chasing after Tabitha, Jacob climbs out on the roof and falls to his death. Edgar notices a portrait of Tabitha hanging in Ella's room and, behind it finds a metal box. Before he can open it, however, Tabitha appears. Edgar chases her into the attic and is killed by a falling timber. Inspector Rowles opens the box and finds Ella's prior will leaving everything to Beth. Tabitha then leads the police into the woods where they find Ella's body buried in a shallow grave. Not wanting to be in the house any longer, Beth puts it up for sale. In the final scene, a new family -- father, mother, son, daughter, and grandfather -- moves into the house. As mother and father discuss getting grandfather to change his will, Tabitha watches them through her cats-eye view.