Horror Extreme Movie Catalog

Yes, "Curse of the Cat People" is a sequel to Jacques Tourneur's Cat People (1942) . . . sort of. But this follow-up is really the story of an odd little girl with a rich inner life. Through her eyes, we get a glimpse of what it's like to be a child, to live in a world where the lines between fantasy and fact are wonderfully blurred. And if you're going to believe in the spirit of Christmas, you have to look beyond the cold, hard light of the day-to-day.

Robert Wise's first directorial attempt makes something wonderful out of a story close to producer Val Lewton's heart. Simone Simon returns as the ghost of Irena (the Cat Woman from the first movie) and the wonderful child actress, Ann Carter, plays Amy, our haunted heroine. Oh yes, the story builds toward a climax on Christmas Eve and we hit our crisis on Twelfth Night so it fits right into the holiday spirit.

This DVD offers both "Curse" and its older sibling, the genre-defining, psychological horror wonder, Jacques Tourneur's "Cat People," in really good prints. Both features offer excellent commentary tracks by film historian, Greg Mank, too (complete with some phone-interview comments from Simone Simon).

This odd, accomplished, and beautiful film technically belongs to the "horror" genre, but while disturbing and sad, and with some tense moments, it is not so much frightening as rather like a film noir-folk-morality tale. Legendary filmmakers Val Lewton and Jacques Torneur (who did "Curse of the Demon", another cult classic that is more in the "horror" style than this film) collaborated on this atmospheric little gem.

Set in Manhattan in the 1940s, the story follows the fate of a recent emigre to America from Serbia, the beautiful Irena Dubrova (French actress Simone Simon). Irena is drawn to the black panther in the Central Park Zoo, visiting his cage often to sketch him. It is there that Oliver Reed (Kent Smith) spots her and, immediately smitten with her exotic magnetism, approaches and begins to pursue her. Irena's wistful vulnerability, combined with a graceful physical evasiveness, completes Oliver's conquest, and he soon asks her to marry him.

But as soon as they are wed, Oliver discovers that Irena's evasiveness is not just maiden modesty - the descendant of a group of Satanic Carpathian mystics who worshipped the cat, and escaped the wrath of the Christian King John by hiding in the mountains, Irena is convinced that she is possessed of a dual nature, part human and part panther, and that any erotic contact with a human male will arouse the panther that sleeps within her, and she will metamorphose into one and kill him. Irena longs for a normal marriage, but cannot conquer her fear that a full sexual relationship will lead to annihilation of her partner.

Needless to say, Oliver gives her fears no credence and assumes that Irena has a sexual complex. He is willing to be patient for awhile, but insists that she see a pyschiatrist to deal with her "fantasies". Tom Conway plays Dr. Judd, the psychiatrist who begins to treat Irena, but he makes little headway, as he 1) is strongly attracted to Irena himself, and 2) refuses to acknowledge the extent and strength of Irena's terror of her own nature.

Complicating matters is Oliver's colleague at his office, Alice (Jane Randolph). Alice, pretty but not in the charismatic way Irena is with her soft, accented voice and almond-shaped eyes, is meant to serve as the whole, uncomplicated American counterweight to the divided, tortured, but beautiful Other. Alice is in love with Oliver herself, but gamely hides her disappointment over his infatuation with and eventual marriage to Irena.

But as the marriage deteriorates over Irena's ongoing refusal of consummation, Alice's emotional support becomes more and more important to Oliver, arousing Irena's anger. Irena's suspicions call up subtle, but ever more catlike changes in her behavior, and a rising sense of foreboding in the atmosphere. Oliver, at last, realizes that Alice is the more suitable partner, and that he must part with Irena, which precipitates the film's most riveting sequences and its tragic climax in the Central Park Zoo.

The film concludes with lines from one of John Donne's "Holy Sonnets":

"But black sin hath betray'd to endless night
My worlds, both parts, and, O, both parts must die."

This is NOT your ordinary horror flick. It is, besides, intensely atmospheric, well-performed, and genuinely touching.

CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE takes place four years after Irina's death. While it references some of the psycho-sexual, magical themes from the original film, it is more focused on the potent imaginary world of lonely children. It is interesting and nicely made, but it lacks the "gestalt" of the original, and doesn't exert quite the same magical fascination.

Both are recommended, at least for contrast, but it is the original film, CAT PEOPLE, that carries off the laurels here as the truly memorable effort.