Cat Girl (1957)

Traveling to a family members' house, a woman finds that her family curse has passed onto her where she will transform and become a cat- like creature and tries to protect her friends there to help her from the now-murderous creature prowling the area.This one wasn't too terrible of a Gothic horror effort. What really works here is the fact that there's a solid amount of work delivered here from the curse which is pretty explicitly told and given plenty of reign across the film. Starting from the expository scene where he goes into detail about the concept of the legacy affecting the family and how it will become a part of her that works all the traditional Gothic tropes of the unsuspecting falling victim to the wrongs committed by the past, this one really gets quite a decent amount of mileage out of this setup which is what gives this some great points to work with. The additional configuration of the curse into a typical werewolf storyline but transplanting the creature in every other mindset into that of the titular leopard cat makes for a further great plot-point here telling this type of story while making for the great scenes of transformation occurring as she comes into the change through these rather fun scenes. As well, the film's biggest plus here is that it gets away from the grand Victorian mansion and into the city for the finale which is fun enough with the rather tense stalking scene in the city street as well as the big finish where the encounter with the turned animal hunting her in the darkened alleyways before the startling manner of finishing it off gives this a strong scene to close out on. For the most part these here are what really hold this one up over it's somewhat minor flaws. The biggest issue is the rather overt and obvious threadbare plot that simply generates nothing but the same scene over and over again of her being worried about what's going to happen to her and letting these fears onto others yet nothing else is ever done about them. That is repeated so frequently throughout here that it really manages to throw the film into a rather familiar pattern quite easily as once again playing up the influences of the werewolf genre by telling of the reluctant participant once again going for the majority of the film that really makes for quite a familiar route here that exposes this factor. As well, the other big issue with the film is that it's barely hour-long running length doesn't really leave it with a whole lot of time to get this going and it really just rushes by so quickly that it just enhances the overall cheapness of the film as a whole. Otherwise there's not a whole lot really wrong here.Today's Rating/PG: Violence.

Niece returns home at the insistence of her mad uncle who tells her that their family, the Brandts, are cursed with "leopardcy" It seems the Brandts are psychically linked to a leopard and when their emotions are sparked bad things happen, typically with those who cause the "change" being savagely attacked. Barbara Shelley is almost the exclusive reason I felt so highly for this film which as you might already have been informed is a relative to Val Lewton's Cat People (emotions flamed result in the animal emerging, ready to attack; the noirish B&W style; the lovely female lead unable to temper the jealousy for the woman between her and the man she desires; the streets of a city harboring a dangerous threat). The opening has a very elusive and cold Shelley in a pub of her childhood/teenage home, returning to meet her uncle and become reacquainted with the home she grew up in, a place of dark memories she left behind. But her greedy rotter of a husband (Jack May) is persistent in Shelley going back to that wretched house she wants no part of if just because she has an inheritance waiting. Her money is all he cares about, and May has been having a torrid affair with their friend (the delicious, fetching Paddy Webster) while her beau (John Lee) drinks himself into stupors. Uncle Brandt (Ernest Milton) stirs up the madness in Shelley who succumbs to his suggestion that she's linked to the family leopard and there's no escape a tragic fate. So Shelley flees into the woods of the mansion while Milton turns the leopard loose to attack him! Once she pets the leopard, with it listening to her when told to sit, that link, according to Milton, was sealed. The rest of the film has former boyfriend, and current psychiatrist, Robert Ayres, trying to cure Shelley, but he instead ends up putting his wife (Kay Callard) in danger. Ayres tries to convince Shelley that all this leopard business is in her head, but is it? Shelley has never been more alluring, ravishing, enigmatic, creepy, and malevolent. You could see immediately something inside her was brooding, a mania certain to surface, an obvious neuroses buried but not far enough for the uncle to not rattle out of hiding. Just a moment: those shoulders, though! Shelley shows just enough skin to entice naughty thoughts. She's always fascinating and compelling: you can't take your eyes off of her. Meanwhile, the direction gets the most out of foreboding night scenes, whether at the mansion or the city. The plot waffles back and forth on whether or not Shelley has ties to a leopard or not…she even "transforms" with hands turning furry until her face is of a feline form. However, this supposed transformation is often indicated as in her mind, although the leopard "on the loose" seems quite separate but "one with her". The conclusion answers that connection when Ayres drives about looking for his frightened wife. Look out for your canaries when Shelley is around! If I had a complaint it would be the title is just too close to Cat People, making the film's influence a bit too obvious. And the psychiatrist asking his scared wife to hang out with someone seriously troubled (and just letting Shelley out period despite plenty of signs something is clearly wrong with her mental state), knowing how the patient loves him, is a bit dubious and questionable. Presentation-wise, this looks fantastic, and Shelley commands the film...maybe not a winner to some, I personally thought it was a gem even with its warts and imperfections. Scene where the housemaid forlornly looks on at Shelley as she gets dressed, commenting about how beautiful she is, raises the eyebrows as does how it teases with us regarding how naked she is under the covers. Shelley has never been more of a femme fatale as she is here.

As if the title wasn't a dead giveaway, The Cat Girl is a fifties version of the 1942 Jacques Tourneur classic Cat People; although ironically it shares more in common with the 1982 remake as to how the idea of a woman turning into a cat blends with the plot line. The film was made in 1957 so by today's standards is still pretty tame, but much less is left to the imagine than was the case with the earlier 1942 film, and this one certainly is a brash take on the subject. However, in doing away with the subtlety of Tourneur's film, The Cat Girl also loses a lot in the way of intrigue. The plot focuses on a young woman named Leonora Brandt. Leonora is the unlucky recipient of a family curse, which means that she turns into a bloodthirsty leopard at night…or at least so she is told. leonora begins to believe that the curse is real and sees herself changing during times of high stress; but it's never really clear whether what is happening is real or just inside her head.As was the case with the Cat People, the film relies a lot on atmosphere and director Alfred Shaughnessy ensures that the film always feels very sinister feel about it and a few key scenes in particular are real highlights in that respect; although nothing in the film reaches the highs of the swimming pool scene in Jacques Tourneur's film. Barbara Shelley (who would go on to make a number of Hammer Horror films) takes the lead role and does rather well with it; she successfully manages to convey her character's emotions throughout the film. Her performance is not matched by the plot, however, as it moves rather sluggishly and the curse itself is never really explored. Of course, we didn't find out a great deal about the curse in Cat People; but that film kept all of its cards close to its chest so it didn't feel improper; which is not the case here. The film boils down to an interesting and well done ending and while it's slightly unfair to compare it to Cat People; that is the obvious film to compare it to...although The Cat Girl is a decent little film in its own right.

Though highly derivative of the 1942 Cat People, this British movie is quite dramatic and interesting in its own right. The opening sequence, with the sinister uncle preparing for the arrival of his lovely young niece, sets an effective mood of doom and dread for the rest of the film. The youthful Barbara Shelley is more sensuous and provocative here than in any other role, except the prim wife turned voluptuous vampire in Dracula, Prince of Darkness. She's very convincing as the nice young woman whose repressed anger and jealousy erupt in the form of a psychically controlled ghost-leopard. She successfully takes the character of Leonora from sad, resigned wife to vengeful betrayed spouse to menacing cat woman by the end of the film. The exact details of her relationship to the supernatural leopard are a bit vague, since she apparently doesn't transform physically, but is able to unleash the phantom leopard on victims by her mental power. It manages to work pretty well, in spite of some vague details. The unexpected aspect of the movie today, that could not have been foreseen when the film was made, is the remarkable resemblance of actress Kay Callard as the psychiatrist wife of psychiatrist husband Robert Ayres, to the real life popular psychiatrist Dr. Joyce Brothers. This risks causing a bit of unintentional humor, but also adds to the odd intrigue of the story. The night time scenes of the dreary old house in the country ,and the dangerous back alleys of dockside London,are nicely filmed, with a very good sense of literal atmosphere: wind, rain, wet streets, cold pavements. A very interesting little film worth seeing if only for the treat of seeing such a very young and heartbreakingly beautiful Barbara Shelley.