- A house cat sees her mistress murdered by two servants under orders from her husband , and becomes ferociously bent on revenge.
- A woman disappears and suddenly her pet cat seems to harbor ill will to everyone in the house--everyone except for her niece, Beth. The missing woman's husband announces that the woman had rewritten her will, leaving everything to him, just before her disappearance. Meanwhile, everyone in the house is either afraid of the cat or just wants it gone, especially after it leaves deep scratches in the side of the butler's face. Beth disagrees, as the cat is always sweet around her, and she thinks that it's foolish for anyone to fear a cat. After a meeting where everyone but Beth agrees that the cat must be caught--and killed--people start dying. The cat is captured in a cage and the butler puts it in a bag, vowing to drown it in the river. The cat escapes and leads the butler out on a branch over a mire, where he loses his balance and sinks to his death. After muddy footprints in the kitchen cause the maid to chase after the cat, it jumps on her at the top of the stairs, causing her to fall and break her neck. How many more will become victims of the cat before they can kill it, or the reason for its attacks revealed?—antigrace
- It's late 1904 at a vast British country manor. The manor's wealthy owner, Ella Venable, has gone missing. Her favorite niece, Beth Venable, has been dispatched to the manor during this trying time, including to look after her uncle, Ella's husband Walter Venable, who has become largely bedridden in the emotional distress just having suffered a heart attack. Walter, Andrew the butler, and Clara the housekeeper seem further distressed by Ella's cat, Tabitha, who they believe is terrorizing them. As such, Walter also dispatches his brother, Edgar Venable, and Edgar's son and daughter-in-law, Jacob and Louise Venable, to the manor to help him and the two servants find and kill Tabitha. Beth cannot understand their fixation with Tabitha who is sweet on her whenever she sees her. In reality, Walter forced Ella to update her will leaving everything to him, nullifying her original will which left everything to Beth, after which Walter, Andrew and Clara killed Ella and buried her body deep in the woods on the manor's grounds, the two servants to share in the inheritance. The only witness to the murder was Tabitha. For their assistance, Walter, forced to tell them what he did, is also cutting Edgar, Jacob and Louise in on the inheritance. They are also tasked with finding and destroying the only copy of Ella's original will supposedly hidden somewhere in Ella's sanctuary of the attic. One wrinkle which may raise suspicions for Inspector Rowles who is leading the investigation into Ella's disappearance is that Jacob is an ex-con only recently released from prison. As the six become increasingly paranoid in their inability to kill Tabitha, with Tabitha only raising fear in them, Beth is not aware that her own life may be in danger from the six who will stop at nothing to ensure they get all of Ella's money. Michael Latimer, Beth's childhood friend and a newspaper man, as a proverbial outsider may be able to see things a little clearer in his suspicions that Walter, Andrew and Clara fear the cat in Tabitha knowing what they did to Ella, especially in Michael having no doubt about the validity of the rumors that Walter only married Ella for her money.—Huggo
- Late one night in the early 1900's in the English town of Great Melling, Ella Venable (Catherine Lacey), an elderly and wealthy woman, is murdered in Duncroft Mansion by her butler Andrew (Andrew Crawford), in collusion with Walter Venable (André Morell), Ella's husband, and Ella's maid Clara (Freda Jackson), who then dispose of her body. There is only one witness to the murder, in the form of Ella's tabby cat, Tabitha (Bunkie), so the murderers make plans to kill Tabitha.
Walter gathers the people together and informs them that Ella has disappeared, but she had re-written her will just before the disappearance (Walter had actually forced Ella to sign this new will before he murdered her) to leave everything to him, but her original will, which left nothing to Walter, remains hidden somewhere in the attic. Walter has to find and destroy the original will in order to claim Ella's inheritance.
Inspector Rowles (Alan Wheatley) and newspaper reporter Michael Latimer (Conrad Phillips) are called to Duncroft Mansion to investigate Ella's disappearance. Walter invites Elizabeth "Beth" Venable (Barbara Shelley), Ella's favourite niece, to stay at the mansion. After Beth arrives, Walter begins to worry that she might question the legitimacy of the altered will and decides to deal with her in person. When Beth used to live in the mansion with Ella, she first developed a friendship with Michael, and they become closer as their old friendship is renewed. Most of the people in the house either become afraid of the cat or, like Ella's murderers, want it gone, and these feelings increase after the cat leaves some deep scratch marks in the side of Andrew's face, but Beth is the only person who disagrees with their plans because Tabitha is always sweet whenever she is with her, and is puzzled as to why the other people in the mansion are afraid of a domestic animal that she herself sees as being harmless. Michael hypothesises that everyone else's fear of Tabitha may have arisen from guilty consciences, which leads him to suspect that they may have some culpability in Ella's disappearance.
Walter goes up to the attic, which is structurally unsound, to search for Ella's original will, but he has an accident there. Later, he encounters Tabitha and has a heart attack as a result of seeing her. Unable to continue searching for the will as a result of being bedridden, Walter invites his brother Edgar (Richard Warner), Edgar's criminal son Jacob (William Lucas) and Jacob's wife Louise (Vanda Godsell) to Duncroft Mansion and promises them a share of Ella's inheritance if they find and destroy her original will and kill Tabitha. They set a cage trap that is baited with mice and succeed in using it to capture Tabitha. They place the cat into a sack and request Andrew to drown the sack in a nearby river with Tabitha inside, but they forget to tie the sack shut, so when Andrew drops the sack, Tabitha runs out of it. She climbs up a tree close to a swamp and Andrew follows her up the tree and out onto one of its branches, but he loses his balance, falls into the swamp below, and drowns after sinking into it.
Clara discovers that there are some muddy footprints in the kitchen and follows the prints up a flight of stairs. When she reaches the top, Tabitha jumps onto her and sends her falling down the stairs to her death. Meanwhile, Jacob continues searching for Ella's original will in the attic, but he becomes worried that Walter might not honour his part of the bargain, so he turns on his uncle by letting Tabitha into the bedroom where Walter is still in his bed. When Walter sees Tabitha again, he has a second heart attack, and this one proves to be fatal.
Walter's will is read out, and he has left everything to his brother Edgar. Beth, Michael and Inspector Rowles accuse the other people in the mansion of conspiracy. Edgar uses his new-found status as Duncroft Mansion's owner to order them to leave. As they are departing, Jacob sees Tabitha and pursues her up to the mansion's roof, watched by Beth, Michael and Inspector Rowles. Jacob slips and falls off the roof to his death.
Edgar uses the distraction of Jacob's death to sneak up to the attic and search for Ella's original will, which he eventually finds behind a painting of Tabitha hanging on the attic wall. When Tabitha herself appears in the attic, Edgar frantically tries to kill her but demolishes the attic in the process of doing so. He is eventually struck by a falling attic beam and killed.
Tabitha then leads the police to the swamp, and they find the body of Ella there. After Ella's original will is found near Edgar's dead body and read out, she leaves everything to Beth. Beth tells Michael that she never wants to see the house again and requests that he take her away.
Duncroft Mansion is put up for sale. After it is sold, Tabitha watches from the courtyard as the family who buy it, consisting of a husband and wife and their daughter and grandfather, move in. The grandfather complains that he will probably die of boredom while he is living there, and the husband and wife have a discussion about convincing the grandfather to change his will.
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