Cat People (1942)

     1942’s Cat People is another one of those films that I’ve known about my entire life, but just never got around to seeing.  Now that I’ve seen it, I do have some thoughts.  The film begins with a “meet cute” between Oliver Reed and a young Serbian woman, Irena, at the zoo as she is sketching a black panther.  They begin to date and fall in love.  Irena, however, will not kiss or be intimate with Oliver for fear that she will turn into a big cat and kill him.  At least that is the belief of people of the village where she grew up.  Even without having ever kissed her, Oliver and Irena are married.  Over time Oliver and his best friend from work, Alice, as suspected by Irena, fall in love.  Is Irena out to kill Alice?  Oliver, Alice, and Irena’s Psychiatrist, and friend of Oliver’s, suspect that she is.

    What struck me most about this film, aside from the hair, costumes, and some of the period dialogue, is how very modern it feels.  Cat People was made during the time of the Hayes Code but feels sexy and suspenseful without being graphic.  French actress Simone Simon, who plays Irene, is adorable.  She’s cute and sexy without even trying so you just accept that Oliver could fall for her so quickly.  Jane Randolph, who plays Alice, is also very beautiful while having a “one of the guys” feel to her as well.  So, you just accept that Oliver could fall for her too.  There are a few scenes with the psychiatrist (Tom Conway, probably best known for starring in “The Falcon” film series around the same time) that get a bit creepy, and not in a good way, between he and Irene.  Especially in their final exchange where he basically forces a kiss on her.  It does not end well.  There is a scene that takes place at a swimming pool involving Alice.  She’s alone in the pool and hears snarling and growling sounds but can’t figure out where it’s coming from.  It’s shot from several angles, cutting back and forth between a freaking out Alice and big cat-like shadows passing across the walls.  It’s a really effective scene.  In the end nothing happens but the suspense is amped up to a point where you think Alice is surely done for.  This is also the first scene, at least in my mind, where Irene, this beautiful, innocent looking, little woman, actually seems threatening.  Another great moment comes from the sound of a bus’s air breaks being used to create a jump scare that is very effective.   

     Having always heard what a horror classic Cat People was I guess I expected something akin to the Universal Horror films of the time.  What I got was not that.  It’s starts off a bit like a rom-com, then slowly becomes a suspense thriller.  We’re never sure if the suspected supernatural element is actually true or not, until the end.  The lighting changes as the film gets darker and more suspenseful until were in a world of noirish shadows and stark differences between what is lit and what is in darkness.  The violence is, more or less, off camera.  When the psychiatrist is fighting off the, possibly, cat-Irene it’s mostly their shadows that we see.  Though there is a shot that looks like someone tosses a panther at the doc behind a chair.  It’s cut together a bit like the pool scene only with a lot of implied violence.  Director, Jacques Tourneur, seems to be in total control of the film.  He also directed a couple of other well-known films—I Walked with a Zombie and the Robert Mitchum Noir detective movie Out of the Past.  The only other Tourneur film I’ve seen is the latter, but I’m going to seek out some others.  He did not return for the sequel- The Curse of the Cat People two years later, which I’d also like to see when I get the chance.    

    The Studio, RKO, really wanted to challenge the very successful Universal horror films but also didn’t want to put a lot of money into the film either, so there was some conflict between the producers and director Tourneur.  One way they saved cash was by reusing some of the sets from Orson Welles’ The Magnificent Ambersons and a few left over from The Devil and Miss Jones, but Tourneur still went over budget.  It was the producer’s idea of casting Simone Simon, who had the reputation of being difficult.  One story goes that after being scolded for upstaging her costar in a scene, she poured coffee on her costume to halt production.  Tourneur also had to put up with the studio’s insistence on “more panther!” in the film.  All and all I believe he did a great job with the film, and I think Simon was perfect in her role and if she was difficult, it didn’t come across in the movie.   The film was a hit with audiences and played in theaters so long that some critics who originally wrote poor reviews took a second look and changed their minds. 

     I watched Cat People on the Max streaming service. It is available on DVD and Blu-ray one release being from Criterion. The list price of that release is currently $29.95 & $39.95 respectively.