Cat People (1942)

[akiratubo]

I really struggled with whether I should put this in "Good Movies" or "Bad Movies".  Ultimately, I had to go with "Bad Movies".

A Serbian immigrant in 1940s New York named Irena has a meet-cute with a man named Oliver Reed while sketching panthers at the zoo.  A few minutes of movie-time later, they get married.  Unfortunately, Irena is burdened by a superstitious fear that she will turn into a were-panther and murder the man she loves if they try to consummate their relationship.  After a month or so of not getting any, Oliver sends Irena to an especially sleazy psychiatrist who would obviously love to jump her bones right there on his therapy couch.  Irena leaves the psychiatrist slightly creeped out but hopeful that he can help her overcome the problem that's destroying her marriage.  When she gets home, she finds that Oliver has been gossiping with a female coworker named Alice about Irena's visit to the shrink.  Naturally, Irena is pretty p**sed that her husband would share such a thing with another woman.  She refuses to go back to the psychiatrist and becomes even more withdrawn from Oliver, who in turn starts spending more time with Alice, which makes Irena even more withdrawn, etc., etc.  Finally, Irena takes to stalking Alice when she walks home from work at night.  This leads to the one scene in the movie that really is as good as 70 years of reputation would have it.  Alice is taking a swim in her apartment building's pool when the lights suddenly go out and something that sounds very much like a large panther (it's too dark to actually see it) walks the perimeter of the pool, waiting for the right time to attack.  After Alice screams her head off for a little while, the lights come back on, revealing that it was only Irena, who claims she was just wanting to talk and didn't mean to scare poor Alice while she was walking around, looking for the light switch.  Things only get worse from there.  Irena spends a lot of time staring at that black panther at the zoo and eventually steals the key to its cage from a careless zookeeper.  Shortly thereafter, a black panther shows up at work to attack Oliver and Alice (but is driven off by some extremely ham-handed pseudo-religious imagery).  The psychiatrist shows back up after deciding that Irena needs to be institutionalized ... but he really seems more interested in getting another chance to jump her bones.  The confrontation between him and Irena in her apartment is seriously one of the sleaziest and most disturbing things I've seen in a movie from the '40s.  You can't help but think ...


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... the creepy bastard deserves it when Irena really does turn into a were-panther (or at least a stuffed panther doll) and mauls him to death.  Mortally wounded by the doctor's sword cane, Irena staggers back to the zoo, where she opens the panther's cage and allows it to, er, kill her in some fashion.  It jumps in her general direction and she dies.  The panther jumps over the zoo's main gate and  -- GIMME A FREAKIN' BREAK! -- immediately gets run over by a taxi cab.  Oliver and Alice find Irena's dead body at the zoo, look at it for a few seconds, and walk off into the fog.  The End.

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Like I said, it was a hard choice where to put this movie.  I chose "Bad Movies" because, while I think this movie is a tremendous effort, it ultimately doesn't work.  This movie fails mostly because of the guy playing Oliver.  He sucks, and doesn't come anywhere near selling his role.  Oliver is supposed to be a nice guy driven into the arms of another woman by his wife's coldness and rejection of intimacy.  Unfortunately, the guy playing him may as well be a block of wood, so Oliver never really has any sort of character or personality at all.  There's never a sense that Oliver loves Irena and struggles with guilt over his growing relationship with Alice because the actor isn't capable of conveying any sort of emotion.  This is a shame because the other actors, especially Simone Simon as Irena, are perfectly cast and do their parts justice.  To director Jacques Torneur's credit, he seems to realize the problem and frames the story as a series of injustices done against an emotionally fragile woman, which eventually push her over the edge.  When the ending title card comes up, talking about how sin reaps its own rewards, you can tell it's not talking about any sin Irena committed, but the sins committed against her by Oliver, Alice, and that creepy-ass psychiatrist.

If Oliver had been played by another actor, I probably would have put Cat People in "Good Movies".  Alas, it wasn't to be.  The guy playing him really is that bad.

I can see why somebody would think Cat People was prime material for a remake.  It's a great story that just needed a little bit more time, a little bit more money, and a better actor in a key role to really work.  Well, forty years later, someone finally did get around to remaking it.  But that is another story ...

[ChaosTheory]

I like this movie; I could probably edge it into a "good movie", for me the biggest problem was the ending seemed too abrupt - and to be honest, kind of felt like a cheat.  It's carried largely by Simone's performance and the atmosphere.
I  agree with your points about Oliver; I'm not even sure if another actor would have made him more likeable though. 

[Silverlady]

I like this one, too.  But I would put in in the 75% "good movies" column instead. I also didn't like the ending or the actor who played "Oliver", but I love the overall feel of this film. 

[RCMerchant]

I think its a f**king CLASSIC.
Reasons:
While Universal is exploiting the older films-kinda like the Jason and Freddy s**t with more class-this coes out.
It is just like watching a spirit materilizing-it unfolds in slow motion.
There would be no ROSEMARYS BABY if there wasnt the CAT PEOPLE.
I dont usually get too emotional-wait-yeh-this is a CALSSIC.
Then he did CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE-which as AllHallows sez-is better!
Then BODY SNATCHERS<ISLE OF THE DEAD<THE LEOPARD MAN_I WALED WITH A ZOMBIE<BEDLAM_,
dam.
Im drunk and there is no way Im going to go back and fix all that s**t.
I like the CAT PEOPLE

[JaseSF]

Agree with RC's sentiment. This is a classic. Another atmospheric slow-building horror film from producer Val Lewton and directed by Jacques Tourneur (Night of the Demon, Out of the Past). This one has a dreamlike quality to it and sometimes feels very surreal. Classic horror was often a lot slower going about its business and atmosphere, darkness, light and shadows were of huge importance in terms of building and establishing mood. These movies can sometimes be a bit more challenging as they often expect the audience to work their brains and use their imagination.

[InformationGeek]

This is a very slow film, but a great atmospheric horror type film.  The pool scene and the walk in the park are just perfect horror scenes.

[Raffine]

Agreed with RC and others this is a true classic. I think Oliver is supposed to come across as something of a jerk, but he does find himself in a very unusual situation for a hero in a 40's Hollywood film: he has a wife who won't 'put out'!

One of my favorite scenes and a truly daring one for the time is when Oliver is on one side of their bedroom door practically begging Irena for sex, while she, obviously in heat, writhes around on the floor on the other side. She even claws and scratches at the door in frustration.

Another great brief scene has Irena encountering another 'cat woman' (the great Elizabeth Russell!) in the restaurant, who greets Irena and recognizes her as "moya sestra" (my sister).



Opinions are really divided on Lewton's sequel CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE. Oliver is a no bones about it jerk in this one. I love it, perhaps even better than CAT PEOPLE. It's got a great performance by little Ann Carter, a larger role for Russell, the ghost of Irena, Sir Lancelot, a wonderful Old Dark House, and a spooky version of The Headless Horseman told by an insane old woman.