This film is not a re-make of the 1935 classic we've already discussed. The only things it's got in common with that are Bela Lugosi ( in a much smaller role ) and an equal distance from the Edgar Allen Poe story implied by the title. The film is much closer to The Cat And The Canary and wastes a very impressive cast list by playing it for laughs most of the time.
An elderly woman, Henrietta Winslow ( Cecilia Loftus ), who maintains a household full of cats is thought to be dying and greedy relatives descend on her mansion. When they get there she reads out her will with the proviso that none of them will get anything until the last cat perishes. When she is bumped off , it falls to the local estate agent Gil Smith ( Broderick Crawford ) and most likable beneficiary Elaine to piece together what's going on. Lugosi plays the creepy manservant Eduardo and Basil Rathbone plays the old woman's avaricious nephew.
The film has too few casualties - although the villain's demise is spectacular - and too much of Hugh Herbert's clowning as the antiques expert who tags along with Gil. You dearly want him to be the next victim but sadly he survives.
Anne Gwynne ( as Elaine Winslow )
Sex : No
Death : Survives
Anne's character is described as the old lady's selfish granddaughter but she's actually the heroine.
Claire Dodd ( as Margaret )
Sex : She's having an affair with Rathbone's character but the action is offscreen
Death : Survives
Claire was originally Dorothy Dodd and made many films in the thirties , rather typecast as a mistress or blackmailer. This was one of her last films as she retired on her second marriage. She died from cancer in 1973 aged 61.
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