Cat People (1942)

October Challenge – Day 8

Tonight’s Horror Movie is the classic Horror Cat People from 1942. This is my first viewing this October of anything older than the 1980’s so it may take some adjusting to, though it’s not like I’m new to old movies. This classic stars Simone Simon as “Irena” a Serbian immigrant haunted by her belief she is cursed and Kent Smith as Oliver Reed, her suitor and eventual husband with support from Tom Conway as a Dr. Louis Judd, a psychiatrist trying to treat Irena (But also falling for her) and Jane Randolph as Alice, a rival for Oliver’s affection. The movie is directed by Jacques Tourneur and written by DeWitt Bodeen.

Oliver first meets Irena at the zoo, where she is sketching a panther, something she does regularly. They strike up a conversation that leads to a friendship and then fall in love (It all moves pretty fast because it’s a short film and these things were usually portrayed as pretty easy in the 40’s). Irena is quite superstitious though and eventually she explains to him her belief that she is descended from the cursed “Cat People” of her village in Serbia. These were devil worshipping witches that escaped from King John’s purging of the evil in those lands. Irena believes that if she allows her passions to get the better of her she will transform into a cat (the big dangerous type, not a kitty) and potentially kill the target of her affections.

Despite this revelation, Oliver asks her to marry him. Obviously he doesn’t quite buy the curse idea and assumes Irena will come around. But she does not and so Oliver seeks help from a psychiatrist friend Dr. Judd to treat her condition. The treatment doesn’t solve the issue and a frustrated Oliver starts spending time with Alice. Not as an affair at least not to begin with, just as someone he can talk to about his frustration. This was Hays code days so they likely couldn’t portray adultery, which makes it hard to determine how far they were meant to have gone. Irena though assumes the worst and becomes jealous. At this point Irene starts showing her darker nature.

As we roll into the final third of this short film it appears as if the curse is indeed real. Irena struggles with her dark side, but eventually loses control when Oliver seeks an annulment of their marriage so he can marry Alice. Between her emotions at that and the romantic overtures of Dr. Judd she unleashes her inner beast.

This is effectively a werewolf movie, but turning into a panther instead of a wolf. With the limitations of the day and the film code in place there. On occasion the use of sound is very good in this movie, both music and effects. At one point when Alice is being stalked by Irene a bus suddenly pulls up making a noise very much like an enraged cat. The music meanwhile, while mostly typical for the era occasionally employs a more playful tone and takes on a jazzier feel. Effectively it becomes a bit more cat like (think of the music that would accompany a cat stalking it’s prey). There are also blasts of Noir like visuals and use of shadows. It’s notable these are all used very sparingly. A good portion of the movie is just standard 40’s in look and sound, but that makes those few sections more impactful.

Simone Serena, who is actually French suffers a bit in her performance due to her heavy accent, this was a problem for her throughout her career, but in an age where most people spoke with a Trans-Atlantic accent it stands out and with it still being fairly early for movies would sound, the audio quality isn’t always great at clarity with her. It’s a shame because otherwise her performance is good and she portrays her confusion and inner conflict well with her facial expressions. One scene when she is trying to grab a bird from it’s cage her face becomes very playful, but also predatory (I mean cat’s and birds, it’s exactly what you’d expect). When the bird dies though she is distraught and disgusted with herself (all done without words), but then goes and feeds it almost aggressively to the panther at the zoo. These scenes are when Simone is at her best.

By todays standards this isn’t a scary film and it is very short at only one hour and twelve minutes. But it manages to move the story on at a reasonable pace that doesn’t feel rushed. The only problem is many of the characters don’t really get enough development time for the audience to empathise with them. The film excels though in the few key moments where Irene’s darker sides comes out. It’s very well done. A lot of modern werewolf films could learn some this.

Overall though, the movie has suffered a bit for the 80 years between it’s release and my viewing. Many of the techniques employed in this film would develop through the 40’s and beyond, so this is a lot of it in it’s rawest form. It is an interesting watch still and well worth checking out for any Horror buffs that has an interest in the roots of the genre and wants to look beyond the Universal monster movies. Overall I’m going to give this a 6/10. A low 6/10 by todays standard, but in it’s day this would have been at least a 7, perhaps an 8.