Film Review: Cat People (1942)
History of cinema is full of classics which deserved such status less because of their inherent quality and more because they were 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, 1942 horror film directed by Jacques Tourneur, film best known for being the first to feature “jump scare”.
The plot is set in New York City. It begins in Central Park Zoo where Irena Dubrovna (played by Simone Simon), Serbian immigrant fashion designer, spends most of the time being fascinated with black panther. She meets Oliver Reed (played by Kent Smith), marine engineer who finds her attractive and starts romantic relationship with her. Irena is, however, afraid that romance might not end well and tells Oliver about legends from her native country about witches and devil worshippers that are able to change their shape into huge murderous cats. They nevertheless marry, but Irena is still reluctant to kiss or show affection to Oliver in physical way and explains that she might be one of “cat people” and that the passion might be trigger for such transformation. Oliver convinces her to start seeing psychiatrist Dr. Louis Judd (played by Tom Conway) who is sceptical towards her story, but nevertheless enjoys her having her visit his office. In the meantime, Oliver has started confiding into his attractive female co-worker and friend Alice Moore (played by Jane Randolph) who is actually in love with him. When Irena learns about it, she begins stalking Alice, whose frightening experiences would gradually convince her that stories about “cat people” aren’t completely product of someone’s imagination.
Cat People was made by B-film unit of RKO, under guidance of famous producer Val Lewton, with low budget and in a short amount the time. The latter might explain why script by DeWitt Bodeen is shoddy, at least to those slightly familiar with actual Serbian history and Serbian folk traditions (that actually revolve around vampires, which, among other things, inspired Leptirica, 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 collaborator, French director Jacques Tourneur who has put his limited resources to good use. Made almost entirely in studio, Cat People uses black-and-white cinematography by Nicholas Musuraca to play with shadows and create atmosphere of both dread and melancholy. Like with many classic horror films, there is hardly anything explicit, and all the actual horror is created by imagination, both characters’ and audience’s. Probably the best example is stalking scene in which Alice walks through the streets increasingly agitated about possibility of being followed by monster. Scene ends with cat-like sound which is revealed to be sound of arriving bus. This scene, which represented first major “jump scare” in the history of the genre and later immortalised with the phrase “Lewton bus”, is followed by another scene, which takes place in pool where even more agitated Alice swims alone before seeing and hearing what she believes is monster.
Those two brilliant scenes are, however, connected with not so impressive plot and characters. Some in the cast are bland, like Kent Smith, and some are disappointing, like Simone Simon, who, despite seemingly “exotic” look and mystique of French film star working in Hollywood, fails to get proper chemistry both with Smith and Tom Conway, who is much more effective and memorable as suave psychiatrist. Jane Randolph is much better and much more effective as stereotypical “good girl” and both script and direction fails to explain what Oliver actually saw in Irena with more available, more sensible and more attractive Alice nearby. Some of the film’s flaws stem from problems with rigid censorship of Hays Code and need to make any allusions to sexuality as implicit and possible. 1982 remake, which didn’t have such problems, is traditionally described as worse than 1942 original, although it was definitely more superior in that area (and many other). Despite originally mixed reviews, Cat People was major hit that brought immense profit to RKO, leading studio to produce number of similar low budget but stylish horror films in subsequent years. One of those was 1943 semi-sequel The Seventh Victim, and in 1944 Cat People had proper sequel under title Curse of the Cat People.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
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