The Curse of the Cat People a gentle, but sinister sequel to Cat People

 

Review by Doug Gibson

In 1942 RKO released Cat People, directed by Jacques Tourneur and produced by Val Lewton. Universal's horror dominance was fading and RKO began to produce the best B horrors. Cat People, while a PG movie, has many adult themes, Cat People's plot went right over the heads of the Hays Commission pseudo moralistic "horny teenagers." It involves a young immigrant, Irena (below) (Simone Simon), a fashion designer, who meets, falls in love with and marries engineer Oliver Reed (Kent Smith). There's a problem unknown to Oliver though. Irena, from Serbia, is descended from a tribe of Cat People. When aroused or angered, she turns into a large homicidal cat. Irena, aware of this, asks Oliver to give her time to initiate lovemaking.

This leads to tension, and Oliver becomes attracted to a co-worker, Alice (Jane Randolph). Irena, angered, becomes withdrawn and stalks Alice. Irena's psychiatrist plans to commit her, but first tries to seduce her. He's killed. Irena eventually commits suicide by allowing a zoo panther to attack her. This is a genuinly frightening film and scored well at the box office.

RKO, eager to have a sequel, released The Curse of the Cat People in 1944. Executives were expecting another frightening film. But Lewton had other ideas. He produced a gentle drama of a young child -- Oliver and Alice's daughter Amy (Ann Carter) -- looking for someone to relieve her loneliness and become her friend. The family lives in Tarrytown, N.Y., away from the city. They're a happy family, but there is that undercurrent of tension. Oliver is very worried about Amy, and frustrated she is introverted and cannot easily make friends.

This is also a  Christmas movie, although it was released in March. Turner Classic Movies usually airs it a few times a year, including in December.

One day, Amy sees an old woman at a second-story window of a nearby house. Other children say a witch lives there. The woman throws Amy a "wishing ring." Later, Amy visits the old woman and she acts out the story of The Headless Horseman to Amy. The old woman, Julia, is a former actress. She is played by Julia Dean. She is kind to Amy but appears to have slight dementia. She lives with her sullen, unloved daughter, Barbara (played by Elizabeth Russell). Barbara begs Julia to acknowledge her but Julia calls her an imposter, claiming her daughter died in childbirth. Eventually, a bitter Barbara, after a visit from Amy, says she will kill the child the next time she sees her.

One night, Amy frightened in her bed remembering The Headless Horseman story, begs the wishing ring to bring her a friend. The spirit of Irena (from Cat People, Oliver's deceased first wife) comes to her. Irena offers her friendship and comforts the child. Simone Simon, as you see above, is pure beauty in the role. She is ethereal. One assumes her spirit has achieved peace and she is now capable of good works.

Tension soon develops, Amy finds pictures of Irena in the house, including one when she is with her dad. She tells Oliver that the woman in the pictures is her friend. No one can see Irena but Amy. Oliver, perhaps not over grief/guilt feelings over Irena's sad fate and worried about Amy's "fantasies," overreacts and lashes out at the child, bringing Amy to tears. 

Irena appears to Amy and tells her she'll need to leave her. She doesn't want to hurt Amy's relationship with her parents. On Christmas Eve, Amy runs out of the house, heartsick Irena has left. She seeks help from Julia. When she gets there, tragedy ensues and Amy faces a threatening Barbara. This occurs as her parents, the family's house servant (Sir Lancelot) and others are searching for her.

This is an extemely good movie. It has wonderful settings, strong slice-of-life scenes that involve school, kids playing, a teacher discussing Amy with her parents, then-popular singer/actor Sir Lancelot singing, home life, Christmas carolers and a Christmas party. There is excellent rapport between leads Smith and Randolph as they maneuver their way through a happy marriage that still has bumps due to Oliver's first marriage and their trauma from Irena's despair and wrath. They are loving parents, concerned for Amy. Ann Carter is an excellent child actor who conveys innocence, loneliness and longing for companionship. Both Dean and Russell provide strong supporting roles.

The film was less successful than Cat People. As mentioned, RKO wanted something more menacing. The suits tinkered some with producer Lewton's script but it still retains its gentle fable-like atmosphere. Lewton wanted to call the film, Amy and Her Friend, but RKO execs said no, wanting Cat People in the title. The film was mostly directed by Robert Wise. Gunter von Fritsch was the original director, but took the film over its planned budget, running more than a week over schedule. 

Contemporary reviews were mixed but The Curse of the Cat People has gained in esteem from critics the past 50 years. It's not uncommon to see it described as a classic. This reviewer agrees.

Enjoy Bela Lugosi's poverty-row gem The Corpse Vanishes

 

By Steve Stones

The Corpse Vanishes is my favorite Bela Lugosi Monogram film. It is also the first Monogram film I ever remember seeing on TV as a child sometime in the late 1970s. The scene of police opening a coffin in the back of Lugosi’s car is priceless. The look on Lugosi’s face as they open the coffin is unintentionally hilarious.

Speaking of coffins, the film also stars Tristram Coffin as Dr. Foster. Coffin starred in many serials of the 1940s and 50s. Angelo Rossitto, star of Freaks and countless other Monogram cheapies, plays Lugosi’s midget assistant Toby. He is billed in the opening credits as simply Angelo. It’s interesting to note that Rossitto would go on to star in the Mel Gibson film Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome some forty years later. He also starred in Al Adamson’s cult classic Dracula vs. Frankenstein.

Young brides are dying at the altar and Dr. Lorenz, played by Lugosi, is kidnapping their bodies for scientific experiments to rejuvenate his countess wife’s youth and beauty. She is played by Elizabeth Russell, best known in RKO's Cat People and Curse of the Cat People. Newspaper reporter Patricia Hunter, played by Luana Walters, discovers that all the kidnapped brides were wearing a rare wild orchid. Her investigation leads her to Dr. Lorenz, who raised the rare orchids. Apparently the smell of the orchid caused the brides to collapse at the altar.

On route to Dr. Lorenz’s home for an interview, Hunter meets Dr. Foster, who warns her of Lorenz’s eccentric and weird ways. Arriving at the Lorenz home, the Countess Lorenz expresses her unwelcoming nature to Hunter by slapping her in the face. Lorenz convinces Foster and Hunter to stay the night because of the pouring rain outside.

During the night, Hunter discovers a passage to an underground mausoleum and sees some of the kidnapped brides being held there. She also witnesses Lorenz and his wife sleeping in separate coffins. Lorenz explains to Hunter the next morning that sleeping in a coffin is much more comfortable than sleeping in a normal bed. Lorenz also suggests that Hunter was having a bad dream when she thought she witnessed seeing the kidnapped brides in the mausoleum.

Hunter decides to return to her newspaper headquarters and comes up with a plan to trap Lorenz in the act of kidnapping a bride by staging a fake wedding. The wedding day is set, and Lorenz does not fall for the trap, but instead kidnaps Hunter at the scene of the wedding. Foster and the local police catch up to Lorenz just as he is about to conduct an experiment on Hunter. The film ends with Hunter and Foster getting married. This time Lorenz cannot kidnap the bride.

It’s also interesting to note that Barney A. Sarecky was the associate producer of this film. Sarecky was one of the screenwriters for the Flash Gordon serials of the 1930s, starring Buster Crabbe as Flash.

Any fan of Bela Lugosi cannot afford to miss The Corpse Vanishes. All of Lugosi’s Monogram films are an absolute delight to watch. I particularly love this one because of the simple plot. Watch for the scene of Lugosi whipping his laboratory assistant named Angel. It’s a precursor to Lugosi’s famous scene of whipping Tor Johnson in Ed Wood’s classic The Bride of The Monster. Enjoy watching the film here.  Also, more photos from film and a newspaper ad.

An Inner Sanctum sampler. Three from Lon Chaney Jr.

By Doug Gibson

I have always wanted to sample Universal's "psychological mysteries" that called itself the Inner Sanctum films. When I was a youngster I watched "Calling Dr. Death" in the middle of the night but I recall nothing other than Lon Chaney Jr. seemed mentally tortured throughout. I finally grabbed the six-film DVD set from my co-blogger Steve Stones and watched three of the films, the aforementioned "Calling Dr. Death," "Weird Woman," and "The Frozen Ghost."

They're not bad mystery programmers (the three I saw timed in at 63, 63 and 62 minutes). What struck me in all three films is that one could take way the picture and the audio dialogue would work for radio, with minor shifts, such as reading newspaper headlines. By the way, a strange little man-head in a crystal ball introduces all the films. Although it must have been a given for viewers, 70 years ago Inner Sanctum was also a popular radio show.

Chaney is also miscast. He appears, respectively, as an academic, medical professional and suave rich man who dallies in mind-reading. He's also allegedly appealing to nearly all his pretty female co-stars. The truth is while Chaney was always a better actor than many have given him credit for, he was already starting to morph into the brutish, lumpish figure he would become for the last 20 years of his life. He doesn't pull off "suave," sophisticated" or the "ladies man persona." Of course, there is irony here -- if Chaney had not starred in this mystery series, the films would be largely ignore; there would be no recent Universal DVD release.

So, here are capsule reviews of the three films I viewed:

WEIRD WOMAN, 1944: This was my favorite of the three I viewed. Directed by Reginald LeBorg, Lon plays an academic who while on "safari," picks up an marries a cute woman (Anne Gwynne) who was raised by natives and believes in white magic. When the pair returns to university life, Lon's angry ex-girlfriend, played well by Evelyn Ankers, does a little bit of "gaslight" on Lon and his bride, pitting students, colleagues and colleagues wives against the pair. Among the supporting cast Elizabeth Russell, who was great as Lugosi's insane wife in "The Corpse Vanishes," plays the ambitious wife of a weak university colleague of Lon and Evelyn's. This is a good watch despite the fact that Lon best acting is when he is violent, rather than thoughtful or intellectual. The film never drags, and Ankers' acting is excellent at the climax. (Above is a strong scene with Gwynne and Russell from the film.)

THE FROZEN GHOST, 1945: In this entry, directed by Harold Young, Lon plays Alec Gregor, rich man who enjoys performing as conjurer "Gregor the Great." One night, his drunken plant in the audience annoys Lon so much that he wants him to die. While Lon is "hypnotizing" him, the plant falls dead. Despite evidence the death was natural, Lon goes semi crazy and ends his show as well as his relationship with his wife-to-be, played by Evelyn Ankers. Somewhat improbably, Lon is sent by his business agent, Millburn Stone, to live with Valerie Monet, played by Tala Birell, who runs a wax museum and carries a torch for Lon. She lives there with her pretty niece, Elena Verdugo, and creepy wax dummy creator, played by Martin Kosleck. Meanwhile, once-intended Ankers tries to see Lon again. Eventually, things get a little weird as Valerie Monet disappears, and apparently there's a plot to drive Lon into the loony bin and gain access to his money. The film gets convoluted near its end, but Kosleck is great in his role.

CALLING DR. DEATH, 1943: This is the worst of the trio I sampled. Lon plays a tortured neurologist who pines for his pretty nurse Patricia Morison. The problem is, he's married to a callous sociopathic gold-digger wife, Ramsey Ames, who blatantly advertises her infidelity to him. One weekend, when Ames is away, Lon follows her. He loses all memory of the weekend, waking up in his office. His wife is murdered that weekend. A persistent detective, J. Carrol Naish, continues to torment Lon, even as another man, David Bruce, is arrested, convicted and sentenced to die for the crime. Desperate to know if he killed his wife, Lon asks his nurse to hypnotize him and then interrogate him. Unfortunately, this film, directed by LeBorg, plods, and Naish's character is unprofessional and annoying. When the "twist" ending is announced, there's a hole in its logic that a viewer could drive a Hummer through.

'The Corpse Vanishes' is a delightfully bizarre cheapie from Monogram starring Bela Lugosi

By Doug Gibson

I have been watching "The Cult Vanishes" a lot recently. The 1942 thriller starring Bela Lugosi is no weirder than many of his other Monogram flicks, but it has -- as my colleague Steve D. Stones has pointed out -- some similarities to Lugosi's later Ed Wood flicks, particularly "Bride of the Monster." Lugosi whips one of his henchmen (Frank Moran), just as he does Tor Johnson in "Bride ...," and there is a very cheesy basement in both films, where the bizarre doings with young lovelies take place. Both "Corpse" and "Bride" have very very fake bricks painted on the studio walls.

Steve has done a great job summarizing "Corpse ...," so go to his review (here) to read it. I'll just say that Dr. Lorenz (Lugosi) lives with his wife in a remote area. She is kept young by Lugosi kidnapping brides who fall "dead" at the altar and taking fluid from their necks, which he gives to his wife (Elizabeth Russell). Lugosi sends the brides a rare orchid flower that renders them senseless and then with the help of his henchmen (Moran) and Angelo Rossitto, take them back to the remote home. A young reporter (Luana Walters) tries to get the story and solve the crime. (I also long ago wrote a review of "The Corpse Vanishes" for this site, (read) but I think I like the film better now.)

Luana Walters is a tragic figure. A rodeo star who was mainly in westerns, she was a beautiful woman and a good actress. She easily out-acts the male romantic lead, Tristam Coffin, who defines wooden. Unfortunately, Walters' career faltered while Coffin managed to do well in the business for 30-plus years. Her husband's death in 1945 further depressed Walters, and she suffered from alcoholism, a disease that would eventually destroy her liver and kill her in 1963 at the age of 50. In 1956, after being out of films for 7 years, she made her final two films, one of which was "She Creatures."

The very low budgets of Monogram are easily depicted in the cramped sets and amateur bit part players, such as the first groom of an afflicted bride (who is only capable of a goofy stare) and a police operator (who drips through some cool lines with the emotion of a fat lizard.) Supporting players (at Lugosi's home, including Moran, Rossitto and the cool Minerva Urecal (who had her best role in "The Ape Man," are better. A casting coup for "Corpse .." is Russell as Lugosi's insane wife. She was a favorite in Val Lewton's RKO thrillers, including "Bedlam,"and I recall her also in a Universal "Hidden Sanctum" film, "Weird Woman," with Lon Chaney Jr. Less impressive is Kenneth Harlan as Walters' Editor Keenan. He's gruff, but the lines he's forced to utter also make him appear stupid, and unable to sense a good story. Lou Grant he's not. Joan Barclay, who was Lugosi's co-star in the Monogram effort "Black Dragons," has a small part as an afflicted, kidnapped bride.

"Corpse" has a great twist ending, with Urecal's character letting out frustration on Lugosi's "Jeckyl/Hyde" Lorenz. I agree with Lugosi biographer Arthur Lennig, that "Corpse..." would have been much better if more action had focused on the strange relationships between Lugosi, Russell, Urecal, Moran and Rossetti than the plodding romance between boring Coffin and Walters, but it's still a fun film to watch, often and oftener. Watch it above!