Cat People
Encyclopedia
Cat People is a 1942 horror film
produced by Val Lewton
and directed by Jacques Tourneur
. DeWitt Bodeen
wrote the original screenplay which was based on Val Lewton's short story The Bagheeta published in 1930. The film stars Simone Simon
, Kent Smith
, Jane Randolph
and Tom Conway
.
Cat People was followed by a sequel, The Curse of the Cat People
, in 1944. A remake of the same name
directed by Paul Schrader
and starring Nastassja Kinski
, Malcolm McDowell
, and John Heard was released in 1982.
At the Central Park Zoo in Manhattan, New York City, Serbia
n-born fashion designer Irena Dubrovna
(Simone Simon
) makes sketches of a black panther
. She catches the attention of marine engineer Oliver Reed (Kent Smith
), who strikes up a conversation. Irena invites him to her apartment for tea. As they walk away, one of Irena's discarded sketches is revealed as a panther impaled by a sword.
At her apartment, Oliver is intrigued by a statue of a medieval warrior on horseback impaling a large cat with his sword. Irena informs Oliver that the figure is the [partly fictional] King John of Serbia
and that the cat represents evil. According to legend, long ago the Christian residents of her home village gradually turned to witchcraft
and devil worship
after being enslaved by the Mameluks
. When King John drove the Mameluks out and saw what the villagers had become, he had them killed. However, "the wisest and the most wicked" escaped into the mountains. Oliver buys her a kitten, but upon meeting her it hisses. They go to the pet shop to exchange it as they enter the animals go wild in her presence. The shopkeeper say that animals can sense things about people.
It gradually becomes clear that Irena believes she is descended from them, and that she fears that she will transform into a panther if aroused to passion. While she was growing up, the other children had called her mother a cat person and her father had died mysteriously.
Despite her odd beliefs, Oliver persuades her to marry him. However, during the dinner after their wedding at a Serbian restaurant, a woman walks over and asks Irena if she is "мојa сестрa" (moya sestra, "my sister"). Fearing something evil within her and dreading what could happen, Irena avoids sleeping with her husband. He persuades her to see a psychiatrist, Dr. Louis Judd (Tom Conway
), who tries to convince her that her fears are of a more mundane nature. When she discovers that Oliver has confided their marital problems to his attractive assistant, Alice Moore (Jane Randolph
), she feels betrayed. At work, Alice confesses to Oliver that she loves him.
One night, Irena sees Oliver and Alice seated together at a restaurant. She follows Alice as she walks home alone through one of the Central Park transverses (a very recognizable stone wall that is typical of the crosstown routes along the park). Alice becomes increasingly uneasy, sensing an unseen someone or something behind her. Just as she hears a menacing sound, a bus pulls up, and she hastily boards it. Soon after, several sheep are killed. The bloodied pawprints leading away turn into imprints of a woman's shoes.
Later, when Alice decides to take a dip in the basement swimming pool of her apartment building, she is stalked by an animal shown only by its shadow. She jumps into the pool, using the water to keep the creature at bay. When Alice screams for help, Irena turns on the lights and claims to be looking for Oliver. Alice emerges, wondering if she had imagined the whole thing, until she finds her robe torn to shreds.
After a talk with Dr. Judd, Irena tells Oliver she is no longer afraid, but it is too late; Oliver has realized that he loves Alice and is getting a divorce. Later, at work, he and Alice are cornered by a ferocious animal. Thinking quickly, he grabs his T-square
(which is in the shape of a cross) and tells Irena to go away.
After it leaves, Alice calls Dr. Judd to warn him to stay away from Irena, but he hangs up when the woman shows up. Attracted to her, he makes the fatal mistake of kissing her. She transforms into a panther and kills him, though he manages to wound her in the shoulder with the sword concealed in his cane. Oliver and Alice arrive a few minutes too late. Irena slips away, back in her human shape, and goes to the zoo. There, she opens the panther's cage and allows herself to be killed.
, who was a journalist, novelist and poet turned story editor for David O. Selznick
. RKO hired Lewton to make horror films on a budget of under $150,000 to titles provided by the studio.
The film was shot from 28 July to 21 August 1942 at RKO's "Gower Gulch
" studios in Hollywood. Sets left over from previous, higher-budgeted RKO productions—notably the staircase from The Magnificent Ambersons
—were utilized. Costing $141,659, it brought in almost $4 million in its first two years and saved the studio from financial disaster.
Near the end of the filming of Cat People, two crews were working to finish the picture on time, one at night, filming the animals, and one during the day with the cast.
Lewton and his production are credited for inventing or popularising the horror film technique called the "Lewton Bus". The term derives from the scene in which Irena is following Alice. The audience expects Irena to turn into a panther at any moment and attack. At the most tense point, when the camera focuses on Alice's confused and terrified face, the silence is shattered by what sounds like a hissing panther—but is just a bus pulling up. This technique has been used many times since. Any scene in which tension is dissipated by a mere moment of startlement, a boo!, is a "Lewton Bus".
Cat People showed the first teaming of director Tourneur and cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca. Their later collaboration on RKO's Out of the Past (1947) would again be regarded as seminal for its genre, in this case the Film noir
.
called Cat People a "weird drama of thrill-chill caliber" while Bosley Crowther
writing for The New York Times commented that "The Cat People is a labored and obvious attempt to induce shock."
In retrospect critics agreed on Cat People being a landmark in the horror genre. William K. Everson dedicated a whole chapter to the film and its successor The Curse of the Cat People in his book Classics of the Horror Film. Paul Taylor in Time Out magazine remarked Lewton's "principle of horrors imagined rather than seen", its "chilling set pieces directed to perfection by Tourneur" and Simon's "superbly judged performance". TV Guide
s review of the film praised the film's cast:
In 1993, Cat People was selected for preservation in the United States
National Film Registry
by the Library of Congress
as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Also, the New York Museum of Modern Art
holds a copy of the film in its collection. Critic Roger Ebert
has included it in his list of "Great Movies". As of February 6, 2008, the film holds a 94% Fresh rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes
.
DVD, the 2009 re-release added a documentary Val Lewton - The Man in the Shadows presented by director Martin Scorsese
.
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
produced by Val Lewton
Val Lewton
Val Lewton was an American film producer and screenwriter, best known for a string of low-budget horror films he produced for RKO Pictures in the 1940s.-Early life:...
and directed by Jacques Tourneur
Jacques Tourneur
Jacques Tourneur was a French-American film director.-Life:Born in Paris, France, he was the son of film director Maurice Tourneur. At age 10, Jacques moved to the United States with his father. He started a career in cinema while still attending high school as an extra and later as a script clerk...
. DeWitt Bodeen
DeWitt Bodeen
DeWitt Bodeen was a film screenwriter who today is probably best remembered for writing Cat People .-Life:...
wrote the original screenplay which was based on Val Lewton's short story The Bagheeta published in 1930. The film stars Simone Simon
Simone Simon
Simone Thérèse Fernande Simon was a French film actress who began her film career in 1931.-Early life:Born in Béthune, Pas-de-Calais France, she was the daughter of Henri Louis Firmin Champmoynat, a French engineer, airplane pilot in World War II, who died in a concentration camp, and Erma Maria...
, Kent Smith
Kent Smith
Kent Smith was an American actor who had a lengthy career in film, theater, and television.Born Frank Kent Smith in New York, New York, Smith made his acting debut on Broadway in 1932 in and, after spending a few years there, moved to Hollywood, California, where he made his film debut in The...
, Jane Randolph
Jane Randolph
Jane Randolph, born Jane Roemer , was an American film actress. She was born in Youngstown, Ohio and died in Gstaad, Switzerland....
and Tom Conway
Tom Conway
Tom Conway was a British film and radio actor, and elder brother of actor George Sanders.-Early life:...
.
Cat People was followed by a sequel, The Curse of the Cat People
The Curse of the Cat People
The Curse of the Cat People is a 1944 film directed by Gunther von Fritsch and Robert Wise, and produced by Val Lewton. This film, which was then-film editor Robert Wise's first directing credit, is the sequel to Cat People and has many of the same characters...
, in 1944. A remake of the same name
Cat People (1982 film)
Cat People is a 1982 American erotic horror film directed by Paul Schrader and starring Nastassja Kinski, Malcolm McDowell and John Heard. The film co-stars Annette O'Toole, Ruby Dee, Ed Begley, Jr. and John Larroquette. Jerry Bruckheimer served as executive producer...
directed by Paul Schrader
Paul Schrader
Paul Joseph Schrader is an American screenwriter, film director, and former film critic. Apart from his credentials as a director, Schrader is most notably known for his screenplays for Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and Raging Bull....
and starring Nastassja Kinski
Nastassja Kinski
Nastassja Kinski is a German-born American-based actress who has appeared in more than 60 films. Her starring roles include her Golden Globe Award-winning portrayal of the title character in Tess and her roles in two erotic films , as well as parts in Wim Wenders' films The Wrong Move; Paris,...
, Malcolm McDowell
Malcolm McDowell
Malcolm McDowell is an English actor with a career spanning over forty years.McDowell is principally known for his roles in the controversial films If...., O Lucky Man!, A Clockwork Orange and Caligula...
, and John Heard was released in 1982.
Plot
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
n-born fashion designer Irena Dubrovna
Irena Dubrovna
Irena Dubrovna is the name of Simone Simon's character in the movie Cat People .-Plot:When naval construction designer Oliver Reed meets the Serbian Irena Dubrovna in the zoo, he flirts with her and they soon fall in love and marry each other...
(Simone Simon
Simone Simon
Simone Thérèse Fernande Simon was a French film actress who began her film career in 1931.-Early life:Born in Béthune, Pas-de-Calais France, she was the daughter of Henri Louis Firmin Champmoynat, a French engineer, airplane pilot in World War II, who died in a concentration camp, and Erma Maria...
) makes sketches of a black panther
Black panther
A black panther is typically a melanistic color variant of any of several species of larger cat. Wild black panthers in Latin America are black jaguars , in Asia and Africa they are black leopards , and in North America they may be black jaguars or possibly black cougars A black panther is...
. She catches the attention of marine engineer Oliver Reed (Kent Smith
Kent Smith
Kent Smith was an American actor who had a lengthy career in film, theater, and television.Born Frank Kent Smith in New York, New York, Smith made his acting debut on Broadway in 1932 in and, after spending a few years there, moved to Hollywood, California, where he made his film debut in The...
), who strikes up a conversation. Irena invites him to her apartment for tea. As they walk away, one of Irena's discarded sketches is revealed as a panther impaled by a sword.
At her apartment, Oliver is intrigued by a statue of a medieval warrior on horseback impaling a large cat with his sword. Irena informs Oliver that the figure is the [partly fictional] King John of Serbia
Emperor Jovan Nenad
Jovan Nenad was a 16th-century military commander of Serb mercenaries in the Kingdom of Hungary who took advantage of a Hungarian military defeat in the Battle of Mohács and subsequent struggle over the Hungarian throne to carve out his own state and styled himself emperor , ruling over a...
and that the cat represents evil. According to legend, long ago the Christian residents of her home village gradually turned to witchcraft
Witchcraft
Witchcraft, in historical, anthropological, religious, and mythological contexts, is the alleged use of supernatural or magical powers. A witch is a practitioner of witchcraft...
and devil worship
Theistic Satanism
Theistic Satanism, sometimes referred to as Traditional Satanism, Spiritual Satanism or Devil Worship, is a form of Satanism with the primary belief that Satan is an actual deity or force to revere or worship. Other characteristics of Theistic Satanism may include a belief in magic, which is...
after being enslaved by the Mameluks
Mamluk
A Mamluk was a soldier of slave origin, who were predominantly Cumans/Kipchaks The "mamluk phenomenon", as David Ayalon dubbed the creation of the specific warrior...
. When King John drove the Mameluks out and saw what the villagers had become, he had them killed. However, "the wisest and the most wicked" escaped into the mountains. Oliver buys her a kitten, but upon meeting her it hisses. They go to the pet shop to exchange it as they enter the animals go wild in her presence. The shopkeeper say that animals can sense things about people.
It gradually becomes clear that Irena believes she is descended from them, and that she fears that she will transform into a panther if aroused to passion. While she was growing up, the other children had called her mother a cat person and her father had died mysteriously.
Despite her odd beliefs, Oliver persuades her to marry him. However, during the dinner after their wedding at a Serbian restaurant, a woman walks over and asks Irena if she is "мојa сестрa" (moya sestra, "my sister"). Fearing something evil within her and dreading what could happen, Irena avoids sleeping with her husband. He persuades her to see a psychiatrist, Dr. Louis Judd (Tom Conway
Tom Conway
Tom Conway was a British film and radio actor, and elder brother of actor George Sanders.-Early life:...
), who tries to convince her that her fears are of a more mundane nature. When she discovers that Oliver has confided their marital problems to his attractive assistant, Alice Moore (Jane Randolph
Jane Randolph
Jane Randolph, born Jane Roemer , was an American film actress. She was born in Youngstown, Ohio and died in Gstaad, Switzerland....
), she feels betrayed. At work, Alice confesses to Oliver that she loves him.
One night, Irena sees Oliver and Alice seated together at a restaurant. She follows Alice as she walks home alone through one of the Central Park transverses (a very recognizable stone wall that is typical of the crosstown routes along the park). Alice becomes increasingly uneasy, sensing an unseen someone or something behind her. Just as she hears a menacing sound, a bus pulls up, and she hastily boards it. Soon after, several sheep are killed. The bloodied pawprints leading away turn into imprints of a woman's shoes.
Later, when Alice decides to take a dip in the basement swimming pool of her apartment building, she is stalked by an animal shown only by its shadow. She jumps into the pool, using the water to keep the creature at bay. When Alice screams for help, Irena turns on the lights and claims to be looking for Oliver. Alice emerges, wondering if she had imagined the whole thing, until she finds her robe torn to shreds.
After a talk with Dr. Judd, Irena tells Oliver she is no longer afraid, but it is too late; Oliver has realized that he loves Alice and is getting a divorce. Later, at work, he and Alice are cornered by a ferocious animal. Thinking quickly, he grabs his T-square
T-square
A T-square is a technical drawing instrument used by draftsmen primarily as a guide for drawing horizontal lines on a drafting table. It may also guide a triangle to draw vertical or diagonal lines. Its name comes from the general shape of the instrument where the horizontal member of the T slides...
(which is in the shape of a cross) and tells Irena to go away.
After it leaves, Alice calls Dr. Judd to warn him to stay away from Irena, but he hangs up when the woman shows up. Attracted to her, he makes the fatal mistake of kissing her. She transforms into a panther and kills him, though he manages to wound her in the shoulder with the sword concealed in his cane. Oliver and Alice arrive a few minutes too late. Irena slips away, back in her human shape, and goes to the zoo. There, she opens the panther's cage and allows herself to be killed.
Cast
- Simone SimonSimone SimonSimone Thérèse Fernande Simon was a French film actress who began her film career in 1931.-Early life:Born in Béthune, Pas-de-Calais France, she was the daughter of Henri Louis Firmin Champmoynat, a French engineer, airplane pilot in World War II, who died in a concentration camp, and Erma Maria...
as Irena Dubrovna Reed - Kent SmithKent SmithKent Smith was an American actor who had a lengthy career in film, theater, and television.Born Frank Kent Smith in New York, New York, Smith made his acting debut on Broadway in 1932 in and, after spending a few years there, moved to Hollywood, California, where he made his film debut in The...
as Oliver Reed - Tom ConwayTom ConwayTom Conway was a British film and radio actor, and elder brother of actor George Sanders.-Early life:...
as Dr. Louis Judd - Jane RandolphJane RandolphJane Randolph, born Jane Roemer , was an American film actress. She was born in Youngstown, Ohio and died in Gstaad, Switzerland....
as Alice Moore - Jack HoltJack Holt (actor)Jack Holt was an American motion picture actor. He was a leading man of silent and sound films, and was known for his many roles in Westerns.-Early life:...
as The Commodore - Elizabeth Russell as Serbian woman at restaurant (uncredited)
- Alan NapierAlan NapierAlan William Napier-Clavering was an English actor, best known for portraying Alfred Pennyworth in the 1960s live-action Batman television series.-Early life and career:...
as Doc Carver (uncredited) - Theresa HarrisTheresa HarrisTheresa Harris was an American television and film actress.-Early life and career:Harris was born on New Year's Eve, 1906 in Houston, Texas to Isaiah and Mable Harris, both of whom were former sharecroppers from Louisiana.In 1929, she came out to Hollywood and lent her singing voice to the...
as Minnie, waitress at Sally Lunds café (uncredited) - Elizabeth Dunn as Miss Plunkett, pet shop owner (uncredited)
- Mary Halsey as Blondie, apartment house desk clerk (uncredited)
Production
Cat People was the first production for producer Val LewtonVal Lewton
Val Lewton was an American film producer and screenwriter, best known for a string of low-budget horror films he produced for RKO Pictures in the 1940s.-Early life:...
, who was a journalist, novelist and poet turned story editor for David O. Selznick
David O. Selznick
David O. Selznick was an American film producer. He is best known for having produced Gone with the Wind and Rebecca , both of which earned him an Oscar for Best Picture.-Early years:...
. RKO hired Lewton to make horror films on a budget of under $150,000 to titles provided by the studio.
The film was shot from 28 July to 21 August 1942 at RKO's "Gower Gulch
Gower Gulch
Gower Gulch is a nickname for the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street in Hollywood, California. Since the days of silent film, the surrounding area had contained several movie studios, including the Christie Studios during the 1920s, then later, Columbia and Republic Studios to the...
" studios in Hollywood. Sets left over from previous, higher-budgeted RKO productions—notably the staircase from The Magnificent Ambersons
The Magnificent Ambersons (film)
The Magnificent Ambersons is a 1942 American drama film written and directed by Orson Welles. His second feature film, it is based on the 1918 novel of the same name by Booth Tarkington and stars Joseph Cotten, Dolores Costello, Anne Baxter, Tim Holt, Agnes Moorehead and Ray Collins...
—were utilized. Costing $141,659, it brought in almost $4 million in its first two years and saved the studio from financial disaster.
Near the end of the filming of Cat People, two crews were working to finish the picture on time, one at night, filming the animals, and one during the day with the cast.
Lewton and his production are credited for inventing or popularising the horror film technique called the "
Cat People showed the first teaming of director Tourneur and cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca. Their later collaboration on RKO's Out of the Past (1947) would again be regarded as seminal for its genre, in this case the Film noir
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
.
Reception
Reviews of the film were mixed when the film was first released. VarietyVariety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
called Cat People a "weird drama of thrill-chill caliber" while Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther was a journalist and author who was film critic for The New York Times for 27 years. His reviews and articles helped shape the careers of actors, directors and screenwriters, though his reviews, at times, were unnecessarily mean...
writing for The New York Times commented that "The Cat People is a labored and obvious attempt to induce shock."
In retrospect critics agreed on Cat People being a landmark in the horror genre. William K. Everson dedicated a whole chapter to the film and its successor The Curse of the Cat People in his book Classics of the Horror Film. Paul Taylor in Time Out magazine remarked Lewton's "principle of horrors imagined rather than seen", its "chilling set pieces directed to perfection by Tourneur" and Simon's "superbly judged performance". TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
s review of the film praised the film's cast:
In 1993, Cat People was selected for preservation in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
by the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Also, the New York Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
holds a copy of the film in its collection. Critic Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
has included it in his list of "Great Movies". As of February 6, 2008, the film holds a 94% Fresh rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
.
DVD releases
Cat People and The Curse of the Cat People are available as a double feature DVD or as part of the Val Lewton Horror Collection DVD box from Warner Home Video. The 2005 edition of the box featured a documentary Shadows in the Dark included on the The Seventh VictimThe Seventh Victim
The Seventh Victim is a 1943 horror and film noir starring Tom Conway, Jean Brooks, Isabel Jewell, Kim Hunter , and Hugh Beaumont, directed by Mark Robson, and produced by Val Lewton for RKO Radio Pictures...
DVD, the 2009 re-release added a documentary Val Lewton - The Man in the Shadows presented by director Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
.