Cat Girl

This film is a 1950s updating of Val Lewton's CAT PEOPLE. In this adaptation, Barbary Shelley's character of Lenora inherits the family curse of turning into a wild animal at night and controlling the killing nature of a leopard on the loose. While this is not in the same league CAT PEOPLE, it is nonetheless a nice low budget effort with great atmosphere, good suspense and a decent leading performance from Shelley in the werewolf-like role. I was slightly disappointed however by Robert Ayres rather stiff performance as Dr. Brain Marlowe.

Val Lewton's "Cat People", and its immediate sequel "Curse of the Cat People", are two of the greatest horror tales ever told; - period. That statement isn't even debatable. The 1982 cult-remake, directed by Paul Schrader and starring Nastassja Kinski, may be tremendously popular among a loyal group of fans, but personally I never felt too much affection for it. What few people know, however, is that there exists another obscure and modest, but very worthwhile version of the same story. A British version, moreover!

"Cat Girl" may not be the best film ever (if not, it would be as famous as the other ones) but many, many aspects are truly terrific. It was Barbara Shelley's first horror film, and she would later become Hammer Studios strongest leading lady. Her character, Leonora, has severe personal issues even long before she finds out she has an ancestral curse placed upon her. Leonora is a cynical, introvert and sexually repressed woman by nature. Her husband unsubtly cheats, but she doesn't love him anyways. She still loves her crush from her teenage years, but he's happily married and only has a medical interest in her. When Leonora's uncle then persuades her that she turns into a murderous feline creature at night, she loses complete mental and physical control.

Tedious in place, unfortunately, but also beneficing from a couple of powerful and unforgettable moments. The most notable, according to yours truly, is the tense and long-anticipated verbal confrontation between Leonora and Dorothy; - the wife. "What have you got against me?". "Isn't it obvious? I'm in love with your husband". "But he's married to me". "Yes, ... but only till death do you part". What a fantastic piece of dialogue, perfectioned by the genuinely cattish intrigue between the two.

Obviously inspired by Jacques Tourneur's classic Cat People, this British horror stars Barbara Shelley as Leonora, who is summoned to the home of her uncle, where she is told that she is to inherit the family curse: at night, her spirit will enter the body of a leopard and kill. At first she is convinced that her uncle is mad, but after he is killed by the escaped leopard he once kept in his home, she begins to feel uncontrollable animalistic urges, and commands the big cat to fatally attack her unfaithful husband Richard (Jack May).

Convinced that Leonora is losing her grip on reality, psychiatrist Brian (Robert Ayres), an old flame, takes the woman to London for treatment in a sanitarium. After a few days, he checks her into a hotel and arranges for her to spend the day with his wife Dorothy (Kay Callard); however, Leonora is still in love with Brian, and plans to get rid of Dorothy the same way she dealt with Richard.

Much of this film is told in an ambiguous manner, director Alfred Shaughnessy showing the viewer the prowling beast but at the same time suggesting the distinct possibility that the leopard is all in Leonora's mind, a product of her worsening mental state. Of course, this is a horror film, so come the ending, it is made abundantly clear that the curse is very real and that Leonora is indeed supernaturally connected to the killer cat. The final act, in which Dorothy is stalked down dark London streets by Leonora and the leopard is suitably tense, but owes a lot to Cat People: if you're a fan of Tourneur's film, then this one will definitely be worth your time, if only to contrast and compare.

The 1942 Val Lewton film, CAT PEOPLE, is considered by man to be a classic. Without really showing but implying, the film tells a compelling story of a strange lady who swears she is afflicted with a curse that turns her into a killing cat. When she is jealous, in particular, she is becomes this cat and kills. Even though she has a loving and caring husband, when she thinks he's being unfaithful, she strikes.

In most ways, THE CAT GIRL is CAT PEOPLE with the plot rearranged just a bit. In THE CAT GIRL, a lady becomes a leopard AND controls a killing leopard--whenever she wills it or becomes jealous. In this film, she really does have LOTS of reason to doubt her husband's faithfulness and he's one of the first to be torn apart by the leopard. Like CAT PEOPLE, the deaths might just be the result of a runaway big cat and the viewer isn't sure if the leading lady really is cursed or just crazy! And, because of this strange conviction, both ladies are treated by well-meaning therapists bent on ridding her of this obsession.

As I pointed out, the plots have a lot of similarity. The biggest differences are that THE CAT GIRL is less subtle. Its showing her as she sees her hands turn to silly paws and the fuzzy image of her as a cat is pretty silly and would have been better had these scenes not been used. That is the big strength of CAT PEOPLE--such silly gimmicks and costuming isn't used--the idea is that more is less and that is definitely true. Also, CAT PEOPLE is a better film because its main character, Simon Simone, was likable and hated her curse--whereas in this film, the lady was a selfish and nasty piece of work--making it harder to connect or care about her. On top of all this, THE CAT GIRL certainly lacks the originality and freshness of CAT PEOPLE.

Despite its shortcomings, is this film worth seeing? Robert Ayres' character, Dr. Marlow, certainly isn't great. He lacks conviction and believability--being rather controlled and who would believe that a psychiatrist would treat an old flame--particularly after she tells him she loves him and wants him. Only an idiot would continue treating such a person themselves. This is a big problem with the plot. On the other hand, the film generally does a good job of setting the mood and is eerie. So, overall I'd say that this is just a mediocre copy of the original with nothing over the first film. However, if you just couldn't get enough of CAT PEOPLE and insist on seeing this sort of thing again, they by all means it's worth watching.

Cat Girl (1957)

** (out of 4)

AIP remake of Val Lewton's CAT PEOPLE has Leonora Johnson (Barbara Shelley) returning to her home place with two friends and her new husband. At the house her uncle informs her that the family is cursed by having the power of turning into a leopard and that she's next in line to get it. If you see the AIP icon pop up at the start of the movie and expect nothing more than dumbness with a bad monster outfit then you'd be partially right. This isn't a good movie but I tip my hat to the producer's for at least trying to do a psychological horror film instead of just a monster running around in a bad mask type of film. The first forty-minutes of the film are pretty dark as our main character battles her family and her unfaithful husband as she slowly starts to lose her mind thinking that she does have the power to turn into a killing machine. After the forty-minute mark we turn into some cheap AIP stuff, which includes a couple transformation sequences were we get to see the title character. The outfit is pretty un-scary but I must admit that I liked the look of it and found it rather cute, which was strange considering I don't like cats. The outfit and its small hands looking so cute is obviously one reason why I didn't find the thing scary. The biggest problem with the film is that they do try for the psychological stuff but fail pretty badly. There's really nothing creepy about the film and there's never really any scene that even makes you tense up. That's not good when you're watching a film like this but director Shaughnessy at least knows how to build some mild atmosphere by keeping the lights off and everything dark and moody. Shelley, who had yet to make a big name for herself in the genre, turns in a decent performance but the screenplay really doesn't do her much good. Robert Ayres, Kay Callard and Ernest Milton round out the cast but none of them exactly jump off the screen. The film, thanks to the title, is a reworking of CAT PEOPLE but I think it actually has a lot more in common with Lewton's THE LEOPARD MAN. There are even moments towards the end where the character is having a mental breakdown, which will make people think of the Larry Talbot character from Universal's THE WOLF MAN. Either way, this film isn't in any of their league so it's only recommended to those who must watch every horror film from this period.