Cat Girl

Out of Insignia Films, Cat Girl is a cheap British variant on Jacques Tourneur's Cat People from 15 years earlier. Plot basically finds Barbara Shelley as Leonora Brandt, a woman seemingly the victim of a family curse that turns her into a killer Leopard when disturbed emotionally. Naturally her psychiatrist Dr. Brian Marlowe (Robert Ayres) is positive that she's suffering mental illness, this in spite of the evidence suggesting otherwise. As the bodies begin to pile up and Dr. Marlowe takes Leonora under his wing, something is going to give come the finale.

Directed by Alfred Shaughnessy and photographed by Peter Hennessy, it's a picture that doesn't lack for moody atmosphere. The Brandt family home is a creepy looking place, a sort of rectory type establishment, this forms the backdrop for the first half of the piece as it dallies in old dark house conventions. With barmy uncle and pessimistic housekeeper thrown in for good measure. Then it's a switch to a sanitarium in preparation for the tense finale that takes place out on the dank and dimly lighted streets.

Some decision making by the doctor is hard to swallow, as is his approach to mental illness come to think of it, while there's some poor acting away from future Hammer Horror darling Shelley, but it does well with its minimal budget funding. Yes it makes you appreciate even more the brilliance of Tourneur and Musuraca back in 1942, yet there's a fun time to be had with this one if accepting it on its own modest eerie terms. 6/10

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.

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.

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.

Leonora (Barbara Shelley) travels to the home of her uncle with her jackass of a husband, Richard (Jack May) and another couple named Allan and Cathy (John Lee and Paddy Webster). As the evening wears on, it becomes clear that this will be no ordinary visit.

Leonora has been summoned in order to receive her inheritance, but it's not in the form of money or property. What her uncle bestows on her is in actuality a curse.

CAT GIRL is a different take on the classic movie CAT PEOPLE. While some of the same sexual tension is on display, especially between Richard and Cathy, it's more overt. Being the 1950's, the story is more of an obvious monster movie, whereas the original was more subtle, and left more to be pondered. Proof of this comes during the obligatory "transformation sequences", when the word "werecat" jumps to mind! Still, it isn't a bad movie, as long as one isn't expecting Jacques Tourneur...