Review: Cat People (1942)

My junior-year English teacher once assigned me to write a short story using 250 words or less. With my lousy handwriting, that came out to one page of notebook paper, front and back. I don't recall what the story was about--something sappy and sentimental about a kid whose brother died in Vietnam, I think--but it got an "A." I was challenged by the restrictions placed upon me and found myself rising to the challenge.

I mention this memory because I think of it whenever I think of Val Lewton.

Lewton was a producer at RKO who was given the task of creating a string of B horror movies, but with numerous creative and budgetary restrictions: The studio provided the often-sensational titles (Cat People, Ghost Ship, Body Snatcher, etc.), but provided little cash. Lewton worked with what he was given with. The result? Some of the most intelligent, elegant and suggestive horror films ever made.

Cat People is the first--and, many reasonably argue, the best--of this string of B pictures (nine in all) and stars Simone Simon as Irena, a beautiful young fashion artist from a small European village who meets, falls in love with and marries an architect (Kent Smith). But Irena has a superstitious fear that, if emotionally (i.e., sexually) aroused, she'll turn into a black panther and kill her mate. Hell of a hang-up, that. This, as you'd imagine, causes all sorts of problems, so she winds up seeing a psychiatrist, Dr. Judd (Tom Conway), who tries to convince her that it's all in her head. But when one of her husband's co-workers (Jane Randolph) seems to be more than casually interested in the architect, Irena stalks her.

It's in these scenes of stalking that Cat People really takes hold. Nothing is really shown--we never see Irena turn into a panther, and there's only one scene in which we see a panther that's even assumed to be Irena--but plenty is suggested by screenwriter DeWitt Bodeen and director Jacques Tourneur. Randolph walks down a dark, deserted street seemingly pursued by the clicking of Simon's heels...until the clicking stops. Why? Did she just change into a panther? Is Randolph about to become a meal? And what about the scene in which Randolph swims in a hotel pool, only to see shadows and hear noises that would suggest a large cat is about to pounce. Is this Irena? Has her jealousy transformed her into a killer? A non-human killer at that? And is the "transformation" sexual in nature? If so, is there an element of lesbianism involved? Could you even do that in a '40s monster movie?

Cat People is a great film to look at (and no, not just because of the exquisite Simon), thanks to the sure-handed direction of Jacques Tournier, who would handle other horror films for Lewton and RKO (I walked with a Zombie and The Leopard Man) and make further contributions to the genre in later decades (Night of the Demon in the '50s and The Comedy of Terrors in the '60s). And, as with all of the other Lewton-produced horror flicks, the quiet moments are the creepiest. Characters aren't comfortable being alone. Empty streets are more menacing. Even an empty room can fill one with dread. Where other filmmakers might have shown a complete transformation scene (as in Universal's Wolf Man pictures), Lewton has neither the interest nor, bluntly put, the budget for such gimmicks. The horror, for the most part, is off-screen...and is all the more effective for it.

Cat People started a great winning streak for Lewton and RKO. And horror film fans were the beneficiaries.