The Curse of the Cat People

Today I complete my trilogy of Cat People reviews - after the brilliant original and the atrocious remake - with a look at the 1942 sequel The Curse of the Cat People, notable as the first film directed by then-editor Robert Wise (later of West Side Story, The Sound of Music and The Sand Pebbles, among many other noteworthy titles), co-directed with Gunther Von Fritsch. This isn't really a horror film at all, but a psychodrama and meditation on childhood fantasy. (I only provide the Horror label to this post in order to connect it to the other films.) As such, it's very well-done, although there are a few elements of the film that are almost bafflingly out-of-place.

The plot picks up a few years after the events of the first Cat People. Oliver Reed (Kent Smith) and Alice (Jane Randolph) are now happily married, having moved on from their tramatic experiences with Irena (Simone Simon) but not forgotten them. Oliver's paternal anxiety and memories of are stirred by his daughter Amy (Ann Carter), a marked introvert who finds day-dreaming and fantasy much more interesting than having friends at school. When Amy starts seeing a "special friend" - who happens to be Irena - Oliver grows doubly worried, thinking that his daughter is falling into the same dementia that possessed Irena. Amy's dalliances with an eccentric old actress (Julia Dean) - and the actress's resentful daughter Barbara (Elizabeth Russell, the "Cat Lady" from the original) - provide more cause for concern.

The story abandons any pretense of horror pretty quickly, as the film becomes a character drama very quickly. The film's biggest strength is that, as in the original, the characters are real people who we like and can perhaps even relate to, rather than plot devices or walking, talking symbols. As Oliver, Kent Smith surpasses his somewhat stiff turn in the original; he's very convincing as the concerned but loving Father. Jane Randolph's Alice isn't quite as interesting as the first time around, but she's still a likeable enough character even if one misses her vivacious chuminess from the first film. Amy especially is a very believable, even (for me at least) relatable character, a child who allows her fantasies to take hold of her and thus isolating her from eithers. I can certainly relate to that, and Ann Carter gives a very strong performance, very convincing as a six year old girl.

One thing I have a hard time understanding why Irena of all people is chosen to be Amy's friend. It provides an interesting link to the first film, but Irena is such a happy and benign presence that she doesn't square at all with the tormented character we saw in the first film. Perhaps one can read it as Irena as being at peace now that she's dead, and comforting a child going through the same things she did - but since she never speaks of her experiences in the first film, what can we make of it? Simon gives a wonderfully warm performance (and is absolutely ravishing in her ghostly fantasy outfits) so the viewer doesn't really mind, but it still seems out of place given the last film.

The whole subplot with the Ferrens - eccentric mother Julia and rejected to the point of insanity Barbara - also seems rather odd. Amy's relationship with Julia is interesting if rather underdeveloped, but Barbara seems like a refugee from a Hitchcock film, lurking in the background but doing little, and the denouement of her character arc is just a head-scratcher. I'm not entirely sure what the film was trying to get at with the inclusion of these two, to be honest; they don't seriously detract from the film but neither do they contribute much.

Its flaws aside, Curse of the Cat People is an interesting character driven drama and works for the most part. It helps to know what one's getting into, though.

Rating: 7/10 - Recommended