Like
I Walked with a Zombie, Suspiria,
and many more, you need to acceptCat People on its own terms. Not everyone, especially younger
people, will find it scary. I myself have never found it
heavy on scares but it has an originality and a vision which is
unique.
Even the opening is original. Oliver is
a naïve, but trusting, good-hearted American man. Someone
who has always believed in “things working out okay.” On a
bright Sunday afternoon, in the midst of everyday life, he meets a
lady by chance in Central Park Zoo. She is sketching a black
panther. Her name is Irena and she is from an
older, superstitious culture, from the mountains of Serbia.
.
Bright sunlight, an ordinary New York
Sunday; Oliver and Irena meet by chance
They are attracted to each other right way.
Their differences bring them together at first. Irena
loves Oliver’s kind heart and trust; he loves her mysterious
background. Both have faith (especially Oliver) that their
love, and living in twentieth century America can destroy any past
superstitions, past supernatural beliefs.
Because from the beginning, Irena has told
Oliver about her dark past, and he has never pulled away.
Centuries ago, Serbia was conquered by the Mamelukes, who
introduced worship of Satan before they were driven out by King
John. King John killed most of the Satan-worshippers but a
few escaped, fleeing into the mountains. Irena believes
she is a descendant of those few.
Oliver hears Irena’s history
Those survivors have carried a curse ever
since; sexual desire or any intense emotions will turn them into
panthers .
Oliver listens patiently, respectfully.
Again and again you see his good heart. When he tells
his friend Alice that he is getting married, Alice asks if
she knows the woman. Oliver says she doesn’t, but “I know
you’ll like her.”
But in these unique circumstances, his
goodness is almost a flaw. He is finding out that true love
does not guarantee “…and they lived happily ever after…”
And he does not know where to go with that contradiction.
At their wedding dinner, Irena is radiant, all smiles,
completely at ease among Oliver’s friends. (No one Irena
knows is there.) Then a strange woman leaving the restaurant
suddenly stops, seems to recognize Irena, stares at her, calls her
“my sister” in Serbian.
Everyone does their best to reassure Irena but
she is never the same. When she and Oliver get out of the
cab later, snow falls hard, a sign of things to come. Irena
begs Oliver for time. The dialogue is not explicit, but you
know exactly what she means. The next scene makes it
painfully clear. The newly-married couple in two different
rooms, pressing against the same closed door, from opposite
directions.
Weeks pass. Life is both ironic and sad.
Oliver and Irena live in New York, arguably the most modern
city on Earth. But their life together has been sealed off
from this century, as though they exist on an isolated island in
the Dark Ages.
Oliver believes his faith and good heart can
make anything right. There is no questioning Irena’s love. But
without a doubt she believes she is cursed. That the moment
she and Oliver become intimate she will become a panther, and do
what a panther instinctively does…kill anyone violating its space.
She looks for outside signs of hope, but finds none.
They decide to buy a canary. When the
couple enters the pet shop, every bird in the store reacts
violently. The lady in the store is one of those folksy,
eccentric, big-city characters. But if you slice away her earthy
mannerisms and listen closely to her words, her message is clear:
Animals can pick up on certain people–those having something wrong
with them.
Oliver and Irena finally try something rare at
the time—psychiatry. Oliver gets the name of a man with a
good reputation, Dr. Judd.
Dr. Judd has so many contradictions that
someone could write a term paper about him. Personally I
feel his character is not written well; it may be the weakest part
of the screenplay.
At first he is professional and hopeful.
He hypnotizes Irena; you see a strange shot of her, the
center of her face in glaring light, while everything else is
darkness. Abruptly he opens the curtains; all is bright.
He seems professional, but sympathetic enough.
Irena returns home, encouraged and cheerful.
But she finds Alice, Oliver’s co-worker, with him.
Oliver reveals that it was Alice who recommended Dr. Judd.
Unwisely, he tells Irena that Alice has heard “everything”
from him (Oliver).
Irena understands what he means; she is hurt,
angry; feeling betrayed. She returns to the zoo, to the
panther’s cage. (She has never stopped visiting the same
panther.)
Irena returns home, full of regret. She
tells Oliver she never wants to be angry with him. Then
subtly, she intimates that he would be in danger if she ever got
really angry. But Oliver misses most of what she means.
Things are changing too fast for Irena.
Clearly Alice has become a threat. Oliver is Irena’s
only path out of a reality overshadowed by her curse.
Without him, she is totally alone.
You can look at Alice in many different ways.
To me, she is just about what she seems—a truly good-hearted
individual who wants the best for everyone, even if she must save
the marriage of the man she loves. She is one of only a few
women who can survive in a male environment. Everyone
respects her, with good reason.
Many people (perhaps more than we think) have
suffered through a relationship where self-doubt eventually
overwhelms them. The one they love begins to feel those same
doubts about them. It is downhill from there. Before
long, they may actually turn into a stalker; no one can reason
with them; they are in emotional free-fall. If
something doesn’t bring them to their senses they may do
something they regret.
Irena is headed straight down that path.
Her jealousy, unfounded or not, is beginning to push Oliver
toward Alice, who reveals that she has always loved him.
Irena is feeling that her only choice is violence.
Gradually, subtly, you can feel
Cat People changing into a horror movie.
Twice, Alice is followed, stalked by something she never
sees, once in a Central Park transverse, once in a swimming
pool.
This is a memorable scene: Alice alone and
vulnerable in the water, the ripples of the pool casting eerie
reflections on the walls. She treads water in the darkness,
waiting for something…Then suddenly bright light, and Irena
standing by the door, asking Alice if something is the matter.
Alice
The scene could easily have been camp-y…unintentionally funny if
Irena had played it “cute.” But there’s no trace of irony
in her voice. Irena leaves, and Alice finds her
bathrobe ripped to shreds.
Many critics have tried to find the symbolism in
Irena’s fear; is she “frigid,” is she a repressed lesbian, is
everything she has told Oliver literally true…
But from one point of view, it is almost
irrelevant. Like Leon the title character in
Curse of the Werewolf, you see crystal-clear the
baggage someone is carrying, baggage almost sure to doom
their search for love. They may find someone gentle, someone
forgiving, to love and to love them, but eventually, their lover
sees them as they are.
Then they become once again the beast they
were before. In tears perhaps, (like the werewolf in
Curse) but still, drawn to anger, perhaps
violence.
Oliver and Alice turn away from Irena in
terror; they need to, to save themselves. Irena reaches out
for help where she can. It feels as though no one, nothing
will save her. The old cliche “Love conquers all” generally
proved true in 40’s movies but not here.
Cat People, like all of Val
Lewton’s RKO productions is much stronger on atmosphere and
suspense than on pure terror. Lewton had very little respect
for the Universal horror films of the 1930’s and early 1940’s (for
example, Werewolf of London,
The Wolf Man.) But the screenplays he got, and
often re-wrote, were usually high-quality.
DeWitt Bodeen’s script defines his characters
beautifully, their great hopes, disappointments, and sorrow.
I keep coming back to that first time Oliver describes Irena
to Alice, “I know you’ll like her,” in light of the way things
turn out.
Or so many lines Irena speaks. When Oliver
talks about finding a psychiatrist, the hopefulness in her
voice, on her face when she tells him, “Yes, the
best one…”
The 1940’s were beginning; the world was
changing fast. American soldiers were about to pour into
Europe to fight Hitler’s Nazi forces.
Like Oliver, they were about to learn some
hard lessons about life.