Cat People (The Original)

Cat People (1942)

Runtime: 73 minutes

Directed by: Jacques Tourneur

Starring: Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Tom Conway, Jane Randolph, Jack Holt

From: RKO

It was a wise idea to watch this really old horror film, as I explain below:

Whenever I've watched horror films the past few years when it is the holiday season, while plenty of the selections have been older flicks, only a few have been from the first half of the 20th century. That may change this time around. TCM will be showing plenty of horror from that time period and I should check some of them out. Last night I actually watched two movies but the second one I'll wait to review until tomorrow.

I figured it was about damn time I reviewed one of the famed collaborations between producer Val Lewton and director Jacques Tourneur. It's a tale where the lead guy (his character's name is Oliver Reed!) meets Serbian immigrant Irena and they fall in love... although she is haunted by her own town's legends of how the women of the distant past turned into cat people and that will happen with her if she's real upset or... ahem, sexually aroused. That is why she is standoffish and some would use the term “frigid” when it comes to romance. They try to deal with her fears... but then creepy things start happening, and most animals don't seem to like her at all...

This movie is well done overall. The direction is solid, the performances were at least good from the small cast (Simone Simon as Irena was the best; she was indeed animalistic and it was not a surprise that men would be drawn to her), and the score from Roy Webb was cool. However, there were two highlights I'll mention: Nicholas Musuraca's cinematography was outstanding. He worked in various genres and his highest profile movies were Out of the Past and I Remember Mama; late in life he worked in television, which was at least a paycheck. The photography said a lot just from what was lit and what wasn't. Plus, there were some subtle things in the background. The highlight for me was a painting you only see the bottom part of, but it includes two creepy as hell cats staring at what looks like a peacock on the ground, ready to pounce and tear it apart.


The second highlight is how the story can be looked at more than one way. Irena for sure is being driven crazy by her fear of being a Cat Person, which is related to her having fear of intimacy and as I have seen said by others, possibly it's repressed lesbian desires. Either it's true and she does turn into a black panther or it's just in her mind and the events we see aren't entirely accurate in terms of the attacks and the other characters become loony also and the big cat they see is actually Irena as a human being doing those things, including killing. Either interpretation works and that is something I can greatly appreciate. No matter what, it's about a couple who really did hook up when they probably shouldn't... the warning signs were seen but ignored and you get to see their marriage fall apart. The film manages to say a lot in less than 75 minutes.