Jacques Tourneur's low-budget horror B-movie about a young woman of Slavic ascent haunted by what may or may not be a folkloric curse seems pretty tame by today's standards, but was in fact a revelation at the time of its release thanks to its reliance on mood and atmosphere, having been the first film to avoid depicting its "monster" and work exclusively within the realm of suggestion. All-American boy Kent Smith meets the lovely Simone Simon in the zoo, where she is seen sketching a panther; soon they're madly in love with each other, but she is haunted by the folk tale of her village, whose descendents are cursed to turn into cats and kill the man they love. The plot seems downright naïf these days but the subtext, playing with repressed love and sexuality, and even toying with the then-emerging field of psychiatry, is as potent as ever, especially when stylishly, languidly enveloped by Tourneur and cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca in a high-contrast, textured black and white photography. The acting is generally dismal, but other than that "Cat People" pretty much explains why the low-budget limitations of B-movies have been so influential in the development of modern genre cinema: it's a modern classic, although contemporary filmgoers may attach more importance to its historical value than to its entertaining qualities.
Review of Cat People
