Cat People

  After two months with Michael Myers and Jason Vorhees, let’s travel back to 1942 and spend some time with a different kind of killer. If I’m being honest this movie wasn’t what I was expecting, but it was an excellent slow-burn suspense thriller. 

Cat People was written by DeWitt Dodeen (The Seventh Victim), directed by Jacques Tourneur (I Walked With a Zombie), and was released on December 25th, 1942. Cat People was made on a budget of roughly $135,000 (about $2 million in 2020) and though official Box Office returns are disputed, it did very well financially. Contemporary reviews were mixed, but modern reviews of the film have been extremely positive.

Cat People follows Irena Dubrovna (Simone Simon, Women Without Names), a Serbian fashion illustrator who marries a man named Oliver Reed (Kent Smith, Peyton Place). She tells him that she is a descendent of a group of witches and cat people, and that if she ever kisses a man she will transform into a cat creature. As Oliver’s affections begin to stray, Irena’s psyche begins to unravel.

I’ll get my one complaint about this film out here at the top, the ending is extremely anti-climactic. After the very thrilling scene in which Irena finally transforms and kills Dr. Judd (Tom Conway, The Falcon’s Brother), Irena goes to the zoo and releases the panther which kills her quickly. Her transformed body is discovered by Oliver and Alice (Jane Randolph, A Sporting Chance) whose reactions are muted to say the least.

Until this rather lackluster ending, however, this film is great. As mentioned, the film saves Irena’s actual transformation for the end of the film, and prefers to focus on her failing mental state and the suspense created by her stalking of Alice. Simon plays the role with a softness not often seen in this type of femme fatale role, making her an extremely sympathetic character. 

I’d easily recommend this film. While I’d love a little more Panther-Irena action at the end, rather than the abrupt end we get, the film is a master class of Hitchcockian suspense before he’d become famous for that style. Highly recommended. 

Other Observations:

• Does the Dog Die? Irena kills a bird in her possession (or maybe the bird dies while she’s near, the film is unclear). She feeds said bird to a panther.

• Harrison’s Favorite Scare: The bus scare is great because it feels organic to the scene even though it’s ultimately inconsequential. 

• Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island has cat creatures named Simone (presumably named after Simone Simon) and Jacques (presumably named after Jacques Tourneur). The third is named Lena Dupree who has no counterpart in this film, but it does rhyme with Irena. 

• I love Irena’s black coat after her face-heel turn. Love it.

• Next Week: Considered by many to be the original slasher, let’s visit Peeping Tom.