The Curse of the Cat People

Kent Smith and Simone Simon

After the death of his wife Irena (Simone Simon), Oliver Reed (Kent Smith) has married former co-worker Alice Moore (Jane Randolph), and they now have a six-year-old introverted daughter, Amy (Ann Carter). Amy has trouble at school because she spends too much time daydreaming, no matter how much Oliver tries to encourage her to make friends and cope with reality. After Amy finds a photo of the deceased Irena, whose name is never mentioned in the house, Irena appears to her and the two strike up a friendship. At the same time, Amy befriends Julia Farren (Julia Dean), an aging actress who is alienated from her own daughter Barbara (Elizabeth Russell), whom she suspects to be a "spy" only pretending to be her relative as she claims the real Barbara died when she was six years old. Oliver, angry at Amy for repeatedly speaking of her new imaginary friend, punishes her. When Irena announces to Amy that she must leave her, Amy runs out of the house. A snow storm comes up, and Amy seeks shelter in the Farrens' house who had earlier argued over Julia showing more love for Amy than Barbara, with Barbara swearing to kill Amy if she returned. Fearing this, Julia tries to hide Amy in a room upstairs but struggles to ascend the stairs and suddenly dies. Barbara, angry and jealous about her mother's preference for Amy and blaming the girl for Julia's death, intends to strangle the girl. At this moment, Amy sees Irena's features in Barbara and embraces her. Barbara, perplexed by this gesture of affection, spares her life. Oliver arrives at the house and takes Amy home, promising to accept her fantasies.

Simone Simon as Irena Dubrovna Reed

• Ann Carter as Amy Reed, a child whose only friends appear to be imaginary
• Kent Smith as Oliver Reed, Amy's father
• Jane Randolph as Alice Reed, Amy's mother
  

  Elizabeth Russell in The Curse of the Cat People
• Simone Simon as Irena Reed, Oliver's dead wife who appears as either a ghost or an imaginary friend of Amy
• Eve March as Miss Callahan, Amy's teacher
• Julia Dean as Mrs. Julia Farren, a retired and reclusive actress whom Amy befriends
• Elizabeth Russell as Barbara Farren, who also played a cameo role in Cat People of women implied to be a Cat person. Whether the two characters are intended to be the same is unclear but Barbara's attack on Amy is very similar to those of Irena in the previous film suggesting Barbara is afflicted with the same curse as Irena although it is never explicitly stated
• Erford Gage as Police Captain
• Sir Lancelot as Edward, Reed's butler/cook

• Val Lewton - producer
• Roy Webb - composer
• Nicholas Musuraca - director of photography
• J.R Whittredge - editor
• Albert S. D'Agostino - art director
• Walter E. Keller - art director
• Darrell Silvera - set decoration
• William Stevens - set direction
• Edward Stevenson - costume designer
• Mel Berns - makeup artist
• Harry D'Arcy - assistant director
• Francis M. Sarver - recordist
• James G. Stewart - re-recordist
• Frank Redman - assistant camera
• C. Bakaleinikoff - music director

[3]

The Curse of the Cat People, which began production at the RKO Gower Street studios in Hollywood on August 26, 1943 and stopped on October 4 of that year, with additional shooting in the week of November 21,[1] marked two directorial debuts. Gunther von Fritsch had only directed short subjects to that time, so the film marked his feature debut, but when he fell behind schedule, having gotten only halfway through the screenplay in the 18 days of filming that had been allocated,[4] the studio assigned film editor Robert Wise to take over, which earned him his first directorial credit.[1] When it wrapped, the film, which had done some location shooting at Malibou Lake, California, was nine days behind schedule, and had cost so much that its budget was raised from $147,000 to $212,000.[1] As was usual with Lewton's films, the tight budget demanded the re-use of sets, here from Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), as had already been done with the predecessor Cat People.

Although sharing some of the same cast and characters and marketed as a sequel to 1942's Cat People, the film has little relationship to the earlier one. RKO studio executives wanted to cash in on the success of the first film, and insisted on keeping the title, despite producer Val Lewton's desire to change it to Amy and Her Friend.[1] Lewton had incorporated elements of his own life into the film, integrating autobiographical details from his childhood, such as the party invitations that are "mailed" by putting them into a hollow tree. Lewton also grew up not far from Tarrytown, where the story is set, and was fond of ghost stories such as "The Headless Horseman" (Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow") which is cited in The Curse of the Cat People.[4]

Studio executives were disappointed when Lewton screened his final cut for them, and insisted on some additional scenes, such as the one of the boys chasing a black cat, being filmed and inserted into the picture. At the same time, some details which were crucial to the plot were lost in the re-editing necessary to accommodate the new scenes.[4]

Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zúñiga by Goya, 1787–88

• List of American films of 1944

• Pitts, Michael R. (2015). RKO Radio Pictures Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy Films, 1929–1956. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-786-46047-2.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

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