Cat People (1942)

United States of America

Mystery, Horror, Romance

RKO Radio Pictures

Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Tom Conway, Jane Randolph, Jack Holt, Henrietta Burnside

Jacques Tourneur

DeWitt Bodeen

Taglines: She knew strange, fierce pleasures that no other woman could ever feel!

jealousy, love triangle, cat, zoo, transformation, canary, swimming pool, film noir, curse, black and white, val lewton, folklore, fear of intimacy, unconsummated marriage, turned into animal, animal transformation, cats, sex transformation

A Serbian émigré in Manhattan believes that, because of an ancient curse, any physical intimacy with the man she loves will turn her into a feline predator.

Reviews:

Author: Geronimo1967
Simone Simon ("Irina Dubrovna") comes to work in New York where she falls in love with Kent Smith ("Oliver Reed"). Their relationship soon becomes strained after she struggles with intimacy - you see she believes that should she ever even kiss someone she loved, she would turn into a violent feline and claw him to death. She confides in her now husband and somewhat sceptical, he sends her to a psychiatrist, the debonaire Tom Conway ("Dr. Judd"). Our story tracks her determination to get past this obsession in the face of her growing suspicion that "Oliver" is seeking solace elsewhere - and that they are planning on having her committed - in a tense and eerie way. The dialogue is quite stilted and the theatricality of the performances rob the film of much of it's pace - but it is still a good horror thriller.