Published via Ecency

(source: tmdb.org)

The history of cinema is full of classics which deserve such status less because of their inherent quality and more because they were the first to feature an innovative technique or some other important detail that would be copied by numerous films afterwards. One such classic is Cat People, the 1942 horror film directed by Jacques Tourneur, best known for being the first to feature a “jump scare”.

The plot is set in New York City. It begins in Central Park Zoo where Irena Dubrovna (played by Simone Simon), a Serbian immigrant fashion designer, spends most of her time fascinated by a black panther. She meets Oliver Reed (played by Kent Smith), a marine engineer who finds her attractive and starts a romantic relationship with her. Irena is, however, afraid that the romance might not end well and tells Oliver about legends from her native country of witches and devil worshippers who are able to change their shape into huge, murderous cats. They nevertheless marry, but Irena is still reluctant to kiss or show physical affection to Oliver, explaining that she might be one of the “cat people” and that passion might trigger such a transformation.

Oliver convinces her to start seeing psychiatrist Dr. Louis Judd (played by Tom Conway), who is sceptical of her story but nevertheless enjoys her visits to his office. In the meantime, Oliver has started confiding in his attractive female co-worker and friend, Alice Moore (played by Jane Randolph), who is actually in love with him. When Irena learns about this, she begins stalking Alice, whose frightening experiences gradually convince her that the stories about “cat people” aren’t completely a product of someone’s imagination.

Cat People was made by the B-movie unit of RKO under the guidance of the famous producer Val Lewton, with a low budget and in a short amount of time. The latter might explain why the script by DeWitt Bodeen is rather shoddy, at least to those slightly familiar with actual Serbian history and folk traditions (which actually revolve around vampires and, among other things, inspired Leptirica, the 1973 cult horror film known as one of the most memorable products of Yugoslav television). On the other hand, Lewton had much better luck with his collaborator, the French director Jacques Tourneur, who put his limited resources to good use.

Made almost entirely in the studio, Cat People uses black-and-white cinematography by Nicholas Musuraca to play with shadows and create an atmosphere of both dread and melancholy. As with many classic horror films, there is hardly anything explicit, and all the actual horror is created by the imagination, both the characters’ and the audience’s. Probably the best example is the stalking scene in which Alice walks through the streets, increasingly agitated about the possibility of being followed by a monster. The scene ends with a cat-like sound which is revealed to be that of an arriving bus. This scene, which represented the first major “jump scare” in the history of the genre and was later immortalised by the phrase “Lewton bus”, is followed by another scene which takes place in a pool, where an even more agitated Alice swims alone before seeing and hearing what she believes is the monster.

Those two brilliant scenes are, however, connected to a less impressive plot and characters. Some in the cast are bland, like Kent Smith, and some are disappointing, like Simone Simon, who, despite her seemingly “exotic” look and the mystique of a French film star working in Hollywood, fails to establish proper chemistry with both Smith and Tom Conway, the latter being much more effective and memorable as the suave psychiatrist. Jane Randolph is much better and more effective as the stereotypical “good girl”, and both the script and direction fail to explain what Oliver actually saw in Irena with the more available, sensible, and attractive Alice nearby. Some of the film’s flaws stem from problems with the rigid censorship of the Hays Code and the need to make any allusions to sexuality as implicit as possible.

The 1982 remake, which didn’t have such problems, is traditionally described as worse than the 1942 original, although it was definitely superior in that area (and many others). Despite initially mixed reviews, Cat People was a major success that brought immense profit to RKO, leading the studio to produce a number of similar low-budget but stylish horror films in subsequent years. One of those was the 1943 semi-sequel The Seventh Victim, and in 1944 Cat People had a proper sequel titled Curse of the Cat People.

RATING: 6/10 (++)