The Curse of the Cat People poster & wallpaper

Ann Carter, Elizabeth Russell, Eve March

This mostly unrelated sequel to Cat People (1942) involves Amy, a very imaginative child who has trouble differentiating fantasy from reality, and has no friends her own age as a result. She makes an ...( read more  read more... )imaginary friend though, her father's dead first wife Irena. At about the same time, she befriends Julia Farren, an aging reclusive actress who is alienated from her own daughter Barbara.

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21 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 14 min.

Directed by: Gunther von Fritsch, Robert Wise

Release Date: January 1, 1944

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Flixster Reviews (137)

  • SirPant
    October 1, 2009
    SirPant
    You can ignore the title which is very misleading. It is the sequel to Cat People but it?s a totally different kind of film. This time round its directed by Robert Wise but still produced by Lewton. It?s a wonderful fantasy film that I recommend viewing around Christmas time. It ...( read more)will make you feel all warm inside and will make a change from watching The Great Escape & It?s a wonderful life :o)
  • hobster1
    September 17, 2008
    hobster1
    Inaccurately titled sequel to Cat People is not a horror film and more importantly, doesn't even feature any cat people. However, this gorgeous fantasy film is just as potent in creating mood as its predecessor and deserves to be treated as a classic in its own right. A...( read more)tmospheric film is enchanting look into the mind of a child. It's amazing the six-year-old protagonist, Ann Carter, didn't become a bigger star. She is memorable.
  • FangsFirst
    July 28, 2008
    FangsFirst
    Luckily (I think?) I was warned long ago that this sequel had essentially nothing to do with the original Val Lewton Production Cat People. I was also warned it was not even remotely a horror picture--also good to know going in when RKO couldn't resist the idiotic billing ...( read more)of it as such. I was pleased to find that Lewton and company were clever enough to end up making it a true continuation of the story of the characters in Cat People even though it had nothing to do with it plot wise, seeming neither carelessly contrived from the original (being as it apparently didn't come from the original, I guess this isn't that surprising) nor like Irena, Oliver and Alice had been shoehorned into an otherwise pre-existing story.

    Years after the events of Cat People, Oliver and Alice Reed (again Kent Smith and Jane Randolph respectively) are proud parents of Amy (Ann Carter) a little six-year-old-ish girl with curly golden locks--but first seen daydreaming while out with other children and slapping a boy for accidentally crushing a butterfly in his excitable desire to catch it for her. Reed, continuing his role as clueless schmuck from the first film, takes on parenting like he took on marriage--rushing in as a man who thinks he knows everything but in fact mistreats and neglects his theoretical loved ones. Alice redeems herself from husband-stealing jerk to become an admirable mother to Amy, trying consistently to hold back Oliver from his clumsy and stupid fathering. He's trapped in the fear that Amy's imagination is a sign that she is on the same path as Irena, his deceased first wife (see: Cat People), and will continue on until she, too, reaches superstition-induced madness and harms herself and/or others. In this, at least, we do know why he is making all these imbecilic decisions, but we still can't fathom how he can be so self-centered and brainless. Amy's teacher, Miss Callahan (Eve March) and her met-by-chance elderly friend Mrs. Farren (Julia Dean) are the more positive influences, as well as housekeeper Edward (...Sir Lancelot? Really? That's his name? Ah! Stage name...*), who spins tales of his youth in Jamaica. After a confusion over birthday invitations, Amy makes a wish for a friend, who she eventually identifies as, yes, gasp, Irena. Conflicting over Irena's existence, Oliver makes more stupid parenting decisions (leading to the one terrible and now slightly horrific line of dialogue where Miss Callahan stops Alice from interfering with Oliver's first spanking of Amy, calling it "too important an event"--brr!) and eventually leaves Amy distraught as to how to reconcile her jerk of a father and her friend.

    Apparently used in some psychology classes, once again Lewton "fails" to make a horror movie on purpose. "Amy and her friend...I like the sound of that!" young Miss Carter says at one point, and I thought, "That sounds like it would be a good title for this." Apparently I was not silly to think this--it's the title Lewton originally intended, until the studio put their inept fingers into his work AGAIN and tried to ride the success of Cat People and gave it this title, though once again Lewton twisted within those constraints and put a brilliant little film together. Much like Cat People, I obviously have some issues with some of the characters. That is moot though, as the focus of the film is on Amy, and the young Ann Carter is definitely up to the task, perfectly exemplifying that early child actor method that is signified by constant head movement (typically nodding or shaking gently and subtly, usually not with any meaning related to the words spoken) and a way of holding the head that pulls the chin in and forces them to look up through their eyelashes. It at least maintains a more childlike presence even when the child is inordinately precocious or intelligent--unlike the perfectly exact replica of an adult used for *normal* children in modern film that doesn't ever come across correctly. Yes, children are and can be that smart, but on average they do not behave that way even when they are. Just because it actually happens doesn't mean it's believable in film.

    Anyway, the only element remotely resembling horror hear is Mrs. Farren's rendition of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow (they happen to live near the infamous bridge) and the supernatural element of Irena's spirit. Or is it? Thankfully the studio did not interfere here and let Lewton leave this a mystery this time, no real definitive proof that this was or was not supernatural, leaving it either a fun and positive ghost story or an examination of the imagination of children and how they deal with loneliness. A smart little film, but, that's what we expect with Lewton behind it, don't we?


    *I knew he looked familiar though, he apparently was a calypso musician, and I recall him being the soul who sang the song of exposition in I Walked with a Zombie, facts which fit together.
  • harrycaul
    January 21, 2008
    harrycaul
    In its own quiet way this is even better than the original "Cat People". Though it does use some of the tricks of the horror genre in the last 10 or so minutes, this is not a horror movie but rather the sweetest and most magical tribute to childhood imagination ever made. The fil...( read more)m reunites four of the cast members from the earlier film: Simone Simon (Irena), Kent Smith (Ollie), Jane Randolph (Alice) and Elizabeth Russell (Barbara Farren; formerly the Cat Woman in "Cat People"). A lonely little girl wishes for a friend, who materialises in the form of her father's dead first wife, whom only the girl can see. Meanwhile, the girl's loneliness is contrasted with that of a woman living nearby, whose eccentric mother refuses to accept her as her own daughter, believing her to have died at the age of six. An amazing film which owes much of its potency to Ann Carter's terrific and touching performance as Amy, the little girl.
  • daakmore
    May 6, 2009
    daakmore
    Effective sequel, though the tension and drama doesn't really involve cat people. The ending is particularly well done.
  • nitanp
    May 6, 2009
    nitanp
    Goodday My Dear Friend.
    I am Mrs Nita Negranza. A citizen of Philippines.i have something important i want you to handle, pleuse get back for more Details. thru my private email is negranzaa@yahoo.com.ph
    Thanks God bless
    Mrs Nita.
  • julito32
    March 31, 2009
    julito32
    wow- crazy little movie this is. The characters are back but in a total 180 about face type story that really didn't deserve this billing of a 'sequel'. Irena looked absolutly stunning and the movie weaves this fairy-tale like story about this girl that you just don't expect. ...( read more)I enjoy it when movies throw a curveball at me when I'm not expecting it.
    And yes, there are no cat people in this at all.
    P.S. the 'plot' described below is WAYYYY off.
  • bjaccobs
    March 20, 2009
    bjaccobs
    Follow up to Cat People has two of the character's married with a six year old daughter whose friends are of the imaginary sort.
    Not really a horror movie. More of a fable or a fantasy film. It's a good movie on it's own although there are no cat people in this one.
  • holmennnguy
    July 14, 2008
    holmennnguy
    Pretty much the same cast in an entirely different movie. The plot revolves around Amy, a lonely girl who makes a friend who turns out to be her dad's late wife. It's a fantasy movie with a horror climax and a couple horror elements mixed throughout. But I'd still recommend this ...( read more)underrated gem! Robert Wise's first film.

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