This is all about Gale Sondergaard, the veteran Oscar winning actress, blacklist survivor and brilliant portrayer of sadistic villainy. Back on the screen after 20 years of obscurity thanks to the McCarthy era, she's continuing where she left off in "Anthony Adverse", "Maid of Salem", " The Letter", "The Blue Bird", "The Black Cat", "The Spider Woman", "Road to Rio" and the many other classics where she was the screen's perfect "dark lady". There's something delightfully nefarious about her character of Hester Black who runs a specialty store for the dark arts, hiring Meredith Baxter after her previous clerk commits suicide. With the police on her trail, she seems calmly involved in murder, putting the naive Baxter in danger. David Hedison, as a professor of the supernatural, gets involved as he makes an obsession over solving this mystery.
Pretty silly and melodramatic, this is raised a notch by that sweet disposition which is obviously hiding years of secrets and agendas. Stuart Whitman is the determined police investigator who won't stop, even under the threat of tarot card death. This really keeps you glued, thanks to a sinister looking black cat who yowls like a plaster statue moving its snarling mouth open and closed. Sondergaard is basically playing an older version of the character she played in all those spooky comedy's of the 1930's and 40's. John Carradine has a rather pointless cameo. Other veteran actors (Keye Luke and John Abbott) are wasted as well. Sondergaard ends up being the entire show, looking like she's having a ball.
Pretty silly and melodramatic, this is raised a notch by that sweet disposition which is obviously hiding years of secrets and agendas. Stuart Whitman is the determined police investigator who won't stop, even under the threat of tarot card death. This really keeps you glued, thanks to a sinister looking black cat who yowls like a plaster statue moving its snarling mouth open and closed. Sondergaard is basically playing an older version of the character she played in all those spooky comedy's of the 1930's and 40's. John Carradine has a rather pointless cameo. Other veteran actors (Keye Luke and John Abbott) are wasted as well. Sondergaard ends up being the entire show, looking like she's having a ball.