Cat People (1942)

November 20, 2024 11:00 AM

Irena Dubrovna (Simone Simon), a Serbian-born NYC fashion designer, begins a romance with marine engineer Oliver Reed (Kent Smith). Oliver becomes concerned about Irena's notion that she is cursed and may transform into a large cat in the heat of passion.

Also starring Tom Conway, Jane Randolph, Jack Holt.

Directed by Jacques Tourneur. Written by DeWitt Bodeen. Produced by Val Lewton for RKO Pictures. Cinematography by Nicholas Musuraca. Edited by Mark Robson. Music by Roy Webb.

92% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

JustWatch listing. The trailers online are very low quality, but there are excellent clips on the listing for the Criterion edition.

posted by DirtyOldTown (3 comments total)

I really just can't enough of Val Lewton. As is the case of all of the RKO "horror" films he produced, this is actually an artistically-minded low budget psychological thriller with sneakily deep themes, high contrast B&W cinematography to rival the best in American film noir, homosexual undertones, and ceaselessly clever use of ominousness, unease, and suggestion in place of cheesy low budget FX.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:00 AM on November 20 [3 favorites]

This scene, with Alice walking home and sensing that someone (in this case, Irena, her beloved's wife) is stalking her is terrific, from the hard light and dark shadows, to the intense rhythms created by the clicking heels and alternating patches of dark and light, to the fakeout/relief of the famous bus popping up at the end. It's just brilliant.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:07 AM on November 20 [3 favorites]

Finally saw this on TCM this week and it is so good, though I must admit I missed the homosexual undertones. Chiming in to point out leaves TCM's website in five days so catch it will while you can. An interesting bit about this film is that it was RKO's highest grossing film of the year and saved the studio from possible bankruptcy due to losses related to Citizen Kane.
posted by pasici at 3:09 PM on November 20 [1 favorite]