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Cat People
USA 1942
produced by
Val Lewton for RKO
directed by Jacques Tourneur
starring Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Tom Conway, Jane Randolph, Jack Holt, Henrietta Burnside, Elizabeth Dunne, Dot Farley, Mary Halsey, Theresa Harris, Alan Napier, Betty Roadman, Alec Craig, Eddie Dew, Charles Jordan, Donald Kerr, Connie Leon, Murdock MacQuarrie, John Piffle, Elizabeth Russell, Stephen Soldi
written by DeWitt Bodeen, music by Roy Webb
review by
Mike Haberfelner
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Oliver (Kent Smith) spots Irena (Simone Simon), a girl of Serbian
descent, at the panther cage at the zoo, and he immediately finds her
fascinating, so much so that he asks her out ... and a few months later
they're already married. But Irena has a problem, she can't get intimate
with Oliver due to some sort of (imagined?) that turns her into a panther
every time she gets excited or aroused. Of course, Oliver believes the
curse to be nothing but superstition, but he sends her to a psychiatrist,
Dr. Judd (Tom Conway). Irena though is very convinced about her condition,
so she doesn't believe Dr. Judd will be able to help her and after the
first session cancels all future appointments, much to the dismay of
Oliver. Oliver talks to his colleague and best friend Alice (Jane
Randolph) about Irena, and she confesses her undying love for him, putting
him into even more emotional turmoil. Of course, Irena soon notices that
Alice is drawn to Oliver, and - well, every now and again, Alice has the
odd feeling that she's followed by something catlike, and there's evidence
for that, like some sheep at a nearby meadow slaughtered by a panther, and
her bathrobe ripped to shreds while she was swimming at her apartment
building's indoor pool. Over time, Oliver falls more and more for Alice,
as Irena grows more and more distant, to the point where he decides to
break up with Irena - but first he, Alice and Dr. Judd want to have
something like an intervention for Irena - to which she doesn't show up,
but Dr. Judd, whose fascination with Irena has long gone past the
professional, somehow gets his hands on her apartment key, to surprise and
force himself onto her - but he's ultimately killed by a panther, yet not
before wounding Irena - who eventually throws herself in the very panther
cage from the beginning of the movie, to her death ... Now Cat
People is a film that holds up incredibly well over the decades,
basically because it plays the suggestive horror riff incredibly well, and
it's psychological undercurrents seem to be universal, while the film is
also just really well shot and cast. But while the film still seems
somewhat fresh today, it must have been a revelation back in the 1940s,
where mainstream horror, domineered by the Universal
horror cycle, has become more of a cookie-cutter monster of
the week sort of thing - charming in its own way of course, but also a
tad infantile and not to be taken seriously. Cat People on the
other hand treated very adult themes - of course without being explicit in
either picture or word - and was very mature about things, something also
mirrored in the deliberately slow approach that gives things enough time
to properly unfold. Now this approach to horror, a brainchild first and
foremost of producer Val Lewton, sure was a gamble back in the day - but
it paid off nicely at the box office, and has created a deserved genre
classic (and then some to follow during Lewston's time with RKO).
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