(1961)
Dir - John Gilling
Overall: MEH
This awful venture from the generally solid John Gilling, (The Plague of the Zombies, The Reptile), is so dull that one cannot truly justify having such strong, negative feelings towards it. The entire premise for The Shadow of the Cat is especially stupid. This is another unremarkable setup of a will being fought over by traitorous family members who all become absurdly convinced that a house cat must be destroyed at all costs because it knows they are all guilty. Saying "at all costs", means that almost every minute of the movie is spent by them running, falling, and dying about like cartoon characters trying to chase and murder the stupid feline. The fact that this is played straight most of the time is very confusing and downright aggravating after awhile. Then adding to that is the fact that there is actually some unsuitable, comedic moments where the music gets all jovial during some of these cat hunting sequences, making it all the more perplexing as to what we are supposed to find funny and what we are supposed to take serious. There literally is nothing more to the story than this and even at less than eight-minutes in length, it is a burden the entire time.
(1962)
Dir - Terence Fisher
Overall: MEH
The last "classic monster" remake to get an updated version from merry ole England's Hammer Studios via distribution from Universal in the U.S. who had produced the previous two versions, The Phantom of the Opera pulls off a few nifty tricks but climatically falls short. The film's villain for one is not the Phantom at all but instead a nicely wretched Michael Gough. This is not a problem in and of itself, but it is disappointing that Gough's Lord Ambrose gets virtually no comeuppance and there appears to be an entire scene missing where he satisfyingly comes to his end. In the title role, Herbert Lom is far more sympathetic than vile which again is fine, but the character is also barely utilized throughout his own movie. The final two minutes of the film in fact seem completely tagged on at random to bring his misfortune to a close and they are completely unsatisfying at doing so. The liberties taken with the source materiel are to be expected and up until the disappointing finale, they could have really gone all the way in making this version something both unique and remarkable. Instead, it is a bit of a hodgepodge that leaves a few gaps, fills up too much time away from the main plight of the Phantom, and has a forced, sloppy ending to make the film tragic in an unintended way. Which is to say "tragic" in that it nearly managed something much more favorable.
(1963)
Dir - William Castle
Overall: MEH
In his only collaboration with Hammer Studios, gimmick extraordinaire William Castle's remake of The Old Dark House is closer to being a dud all around than anything else. Compared to James Whale's superb original or many of Castle's other notable entries such as House on Haunted Hill, The Tingler, or 13 Ghosts at least, it is quite forgettable. In fact, calling it a remake at all is misleading in that it has absolutely nothing to do with 1932 version and besides the family being named Femm, it could have and probably should have been its own cinematic entity. There are some familiar genre faces such as Robert Morely, (Theatre of Blood), Janette Scott, (The Day of the Triffids), and Mervyn Johns, (Dead of Night), but the slapstick heavy presentation and kind of lazy who-done-it plot grows a bit irksome. The mystery is highly predictable though admittingly, the movie is far more interested in its silly elements than keeping the viewer on the edge of their seat. There are a handful of chuckles to be found though mostly, the combination of familiarity with other film's of its kind including some of Castle's own work, (particularly with the once again far, far superior House on Haunted Hill), does not really make anything happening here all that engaging.
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