The Black Cat (1941)

If you like what you expect from a plot that has greedy relatives pursuing the inheritance from a will suspected in the murder of a wealthy and elderly widow of a great architect, set inside the murder victim cat lady's vast castle and estate, during a feisty thunderstorm, where secret passages can allow a killer to move about undetected, as odd staff such as a lurking gardener and spying housekeeper sneak about, where motives for large sums of money serve as more than enough incentive for any number of suspects to emerge, then "The Black Cat" will offer plenty of what you desire. Lugosi has a very limited role, as the conspicuous gardener who seems adverse towards showers and shave. Crawford is the real star of the film, while Rathbone gets top billing, and amusingly, a young Ladd appears as a brooding chemist among the relatives, but I thought Sondergaard steals the film as the outre housekeeper these films always shoots at sinister angles, lit for optimum effect. Gladys Cooper, for whom I love from Twilight Zone, has a role as a relative Rathbone married for her money. Lugosi, of course, falls under suspicion, but he's a set up patsy. I thought the murderer unveiling was surprising enough but Gwynne (given much more to do than in the next year's "Night Monster") offers a ton of exposition, certainly placing herself in direct danger since the killer had a gun! Mr. Penny, as the oblivious estate items value inspector accompanying Crawford's sales rep, offers amusing comic relief, and the black cat is heavily involved as it is always around when the killer is around. 3/5

User comments from 2010:

Murder-mystery-in-a-mansion whodunit with Broderick Crawford as Gil Smith, attempting to negotiate the sale of a mansion and its belongings from a girl he's personally smitten with, Elaine(Anne Gwynne), whose grandmother, with an innumerable amount of feline pets, is dying.

The Winslow family are awaiting their very wealthy ancestor's demise, anxious to know what's in her will. So anxious that one among them stabs her with a knitting needle(the first attempt on her life via poisonous milk winds up in a cat's death, with Gil almost drinking it himself)while the old woman is in her "cat crematorium".

Despite leaving members of her family monetary inheritance, there was a clause in the will that stated that they wouldn't receive a dime until woman servant Abigail's death. Abigail(Gale Sondergaard) was loyal to her employer, helped feed and manage the cats, while tending to the day-to-day maid routines. When Abigail is hit across the back of the head by a coffin in her room(!)and left unconscious inside the box, it's quite clear that someone wants her out of the way so that he or she can collect on their inheritance. Gil becomes a bumbling sleuth, the very definition of amateur, who stumbles and falls in pure slapstick form while trying to not only protect Elaine, but find the murderer responsible for Madame Winslow's death.

As expected in a chiller set within a massive mansion, there are secret passageways which the killer uses to move about(such as when he or she kills Madame Winslow, a passage from the mansion into the crematorium designed by her brilliant architecture husband, his genius which built the fortune the relatives want to get their hands on)soon discovered by Gil's "antique specialist", Penny(Hugh Herbert; seemingly oblivious to all the shenanigans going on around him)by accident. Elaine, no surprise, becomes a damsel in distress Gil, God bless him, must rescue as the killer(the least suspect you expect, the motive being jealousy, and a last ditch effort to keep a husband from leaving her)prepares to turn her to ash as the grandmother did with her dead cats. Basil Rathbone and Bela Lugosi turn up in smaller parts despite their recognized names, the former as the philandering husband of an older Windslow due to inherit, Myrna(Gladys Cooper, many will know from her three appearances on Serling's THE TWILIGHT ZONE), the latter as merely a suspicious, grubby servant on the grounds with little dialogue. Lugosi's role is so minor, if wasn't introduced in such epic fashion, holding a lantern towards the mansion's entrance gate, his ghoulish eyes in close-up, you'd barely remember him(he is seen listening on from the outside, looking in from the windows). Rathbone is the handsome scoundrel actually having an affair with Myrna's sister, Henrietta(Cecilia Loftus), using his aging wife's vulnerability to his own advantage. Sondergaard has a sizable part as the center of controversy, a maidservant the others despise for being the barrier between them and their precious money. Gwynne will be familiar due to her role as Dracula's desired bride in HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN. Crawford has the largest role, a foil for most of the picture, especially towards the end when he believes Lugosi's Eduardo is the killer(even jumping off Elaine's balcony into a mud puddle to chase him down)and moves about in hysterics worried that Elaine has been kidnapped. Alan Ladd has an early part as Myrtle's son, who knows about Monty's(Rathbone) unfaithfulness and confronts him about it. Even in the smaller Universal Studios pictures, style, atmosphere, and sets add quality which make even this B-movie look and feel like an A-picture. Superb cast adds class to the proceedings. Probably the prize of the Universal Archives set released recently.