THE CAT PEOPLE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 9, Issue 224, 8 October 1943, Page 13

THE CAT PEOPLE

(RKO Radio)

‘| HIS is not a film that I should like to recommend to my feminist friends. I think it might put their backs up. We men

have often enough got ourselves into trouble in the past for merely sug"gesting that certain women in certain circumstances have been known to behave in a manner that might, by some stretch of the imagination, be described as feline: but here are’ Messrs. RKO Radio boJdly telling the story of a girl who not only behaves like a cat, but "actually turns into one! Of course you won’t believe the tale; you aren’t really expected to; though I must say the producers do try their best to make it convincing with a fairly well sustained crescendo of uncanniness and suspense, building up to a climax which is, within the limits of the picture, a real climax-not, as so often happens in such cases, an anti-climax which attempts to explain the whole thing away in "scientific’ terms. After all, the best ghost stories are these which remain on the a

supernatural level throughout and don’t blame the wind in the chimney on the last page. The only trouble here is that Simone Simon, who plays Irene Dubrovna, the. cat-girl, does not strike one as being particularly feline or frightening, even if stroked the wrong way. Of course she’s supposed to be a Serbian immigrant in New York, and that’s a help because you know what these Slavs are like when it comes to being psychic and having trouble with their souls. Look at Dracula, for instance. Anyway, Miss Dubrovna’s soul is a happy hunting ground for the Powers of Evil in the form of cats because, you see, her medieval ancestors were all witches and warlocks who used to go out on the tiles every night. At first she does try very hard to shoo the cats out of her soul, because she’ has just married a nice young American and is afraid that if she even lets him kiss her she’ll revert to type and scratch his eyes out. This, as you can imagine, is rather hard on the husband, but he’s very. patient. However, he’s only human, and when he finally becomes interested in a_ girl at the office his wife turns really catty. Not just ordinary jeaiousy, you understand, but Black Magic. I must confess that as I’m fond of cats and like weird’ stories, I rather enjoyed this picture. But I shouldn’t care to have Simone Simon as a pet.