Cat Girl is a 1957 horror film about a young woman who returns to her ancestral home and is told there is a family curse: being possessed by the spirit of a leopard in spite of her disbelieving psychiatrist.
It was co-produced by British Anglo Amalgamated and American International Pictures (AIP). It is an unofficial remake of Cat People (1942).
Thanks to the Eady Levy introduced by the Labour government to bolster filmmaking in Britain, American International Pictures put up $25,000 of the budget and a script by their regular writer Lou Rusoff in exchange for Western hemisphere rights. The resulting film was directed by Alfred Shaughnessy (writer of Pete Walker’s Tiffany Jones and The Flesh and Blood Show) and stars Barbara Shelley (Blood of the Vampire), Robert Ayres (First Man into Space), Kay Callard and Ernest Milton.
The script was originally entitled Wolf Girl. Director Alfred Shaughnessy thought the script was “ludicrous”, and wanted to rewrite the script to make it more of a psychological thriller wherein the lead character Leonora Johnson (Barbara Shelley) becomes convinced that she is transforming into a monster, but it’s all really just in her mind. He wrote “Rusoff listened patiently to my arguments but it soon became clear that he could not care less what I did with his script. He had been paid for it, and was mainly interested in getting his ‘first day of principal photography’ money and enjoying his trip to London, away from Mrs Rusoff.”
When the AIP executives watched the film, they were furious. Samuel Z. Arkoff wanted to know “Where is the cat monster?”, so they hired special effects artist Paul Blaisdell to create a furry cat mask and claws (in less than three days) to splice into the film’s finale for its U.S. release.
The cameraman shot most of this extra footage slightly out of focus, making it look really shoddy in Blaisdell’s opinion. Blaisdell also was disappointed at how little footage of his cat mask actually wound up in the finished film (the added shots comprised only a matter of seconds). Blaisdell took the mask and claws home with him afterwards, and used them to make some home movies with his friend Bob Burns at Blaisdell’s Topanga Canyon home. The cat mask wound up being one of the “props” that got destroyed in the fiery climax of AIP’s 1958 film How to Make a Monster
Plot:
Leonora Johnson is a young woman who returns to her ancestral home and is told by her uncle Edmund Brandt of her legacy – she will inherit the large ancestral home and money, but also a family curse: she will be possessed by the spirit of a leopard, as members of her family have been for centuries.
Edmund is then killed by his pet leopard, fulfilling the curse, which states that its victims must die in their 70th year. A fruitless search is made for the leopard. Leonora’s husband Richard, who had insisted on accompanying her to the house, even though she had been instructed to come alone, has clearly married Leonora for the wealth that is to come to her. He had also insisted that their friends Allan and Cathy, another couple, come with them to the house, mainly to expedite his affair with Cathy. When Leonora sees Richard and Cathy making love in the woods, she looks up and sees the leopard in a tree. The leopard then attacks and kills Richard, while Cathy runs away.
Leonora tells the police that she is a were-cat and responsible for Richard’s death and that they must arrest her, but since Cathy saw Richard being attacked by the leopard, they believe Leonora is in need of medical help.
Leonora’s former boyfriend, Doctor Brian Marlowe is back visiting in the area. He is a psychiatrist and believes that Leonora is suffering from delusions. He asks her to admit herself to a medical facility, to which she agrees, but she senses that the leopard has followed her to London. Leonora becomes jealous of Brian’s wife Dorothy, whose life may now be in serious danger. Will Brian be able to help her in time to save his wife’s life?
Our review:
Cat Girl seems to be a critique of a very English sort of repression and hypocrisy – the early scenes of the four initial protagonists drip with barely concealed contempt and bitterness.
The film might be run through with a very 1950s fear of female sexuality – it is, after all, when Leonora becomes so emotionally aroused and frustrated that she makes the psychic connection to the leopard – but it’s essentially more about the grimness of British social mores of the time.
Cat Girl is certainly no classic, however, it does represent a psychological side of British horror that has been curiously ignored by many writers. And while a bit slow, it’s never dull. This movie might not have much appeal to a mass audience, but anyone interested in the fringes of British cult cinema will be very glad to see it.
David Flint, MOVIES & MANIA
Buy DVD: Amazon.co.uk
“Tedious in places, and with an obviously low budget, it’s still fascinating to witness the Ealing drawing-room tradition merge into that of an RKO-type horror film.” David Pirie, The Time Out Film Guide book
Cast and characters:
Barbara Shelley … Leonora Johnson – née Brandt
Robert Ayres … Doctor Brian Marlowe
Kay Callard … Dorothy Marlowe
Ernest Milton … Edmund Brandt
Lily Kann … Anna (Brandts’ Housekeeper)
Jack May … Richard Johnson
Paddy Webster … Cathy (as Patricia Webster)
John Lee … Allan
Edward Harvey … Doorman
Martin Boddey … Cafferty
John H. Watson … Roberts (as John Watson)
Technical specs:
76 minutes
Audio: Mono (RCA Sound Recording)
Black and white
Aspect ratio: 1.85: 1
Theatrical release:
In the US and UK, the film was promoted as The Cat Girl and paired with The Amazing Colossal Man. In Italy, it was released with the intriguing title Psycus.
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