Val Lewton & Cat People

In the imaginary hall of great Hollywood producers Val Lewton's picture would be right in between David O. Selznick and Roger Corman.

Born in Russia in 1904, Vladamir Leventon would move to the US in 1909, after his aunt Alla Nazimova found great success on the American stage, and later in silent film, often playing a vamp. Vladamir would adopt his family's new name Lewton. Young Val would prove to be extremely literate and would write obsessively. Anything from poetry, fiction, non-fiction, journalism, and often under various pen-names. His novel
No Bed Of Her Own would later be filmed as No Man of Her Own, and star Carol Lombard and Clark Gable. Val would follow his families footsteps and make his way into the film industry. He would become Davis O. Selznick's assistant and story editor, working on such literary projects as A Tale of Two Cities -where he would first work with future collaborator Jacques Tourneur, and Gone with the Wind.
Like most people, Lewton grew tired of working with the relentless Selznick, and resigned. Lewton would soon be hired by the often troubled RKO studio, to lead (as Producer) a low budget Horror film unit, to help bring in revenue after the brilliant but terribly expensive films that Orson Welles had just made at the studio (Citizen Kane, and The Magnificent Ambersons) brought RKO to it's knees. Lewton would be left relatively alone with the films he made, but there were a couple requisites. First, each film needed to be about 75 minutes, to be one part of a double bill, and second, the titles of the films were already chosen by the studio, and had been tested with audiences. Sensational titles like Cat People, Curse of the Cat People, The 7th Victim and I Walked With a Zombie, were presented to Lewton, and it was his job to create horror films to fit the titles. Lewton would take those pulpy titles, and create high cinematic literature.

The first film would be Cat People. This would also be the first of three films Lewton would make with the brilliant director, Jacques Tourneur. Cat People would become one of the most unusual and effective Horror films ever made. One of the most important decisions made in the early stages of production was to ground the story, and each of the following films, in reality and common fears. Also, to suggest rather than show Irena's transformation into a Panther, would prove to be both believable and an inexpensive way to utilize the low budget the film needed to work with.
RKO, expecting a run of the mill horror picture was quite nervous about the finished film that was presented to them. Cat People is the story of a young Serbian woman named Irena (Simone Simon), who has recently moved to New York, and meets a young all American engineer named Oliver Reed (Kent Smith) at the Zoo. They soon fall in love and then marry. But Irena has a little problem, she fears that she the victim of an ancient Serbian curse, that will cause her to turn into a cat if she is aroused sexually or emotionally, leaving her husband Oliver on the other side of the door on their wedding night. The film also suggests quite cleverly, that Irena's nervousness is caused by her lesbianism. In one of the films most famous scenes, a strange woman who looks like a cat, approaches Irena at her wedding reception, and says something to her in a foreign language, and disrupts the entire table which falls silent. Irena's reaction is one of terror, as she later explains to the other guest that the woman asked Irena if they were sisters.
Oliver's reaction is one of disbelief. Through out the film we are shown the obvious differences in the characters of Irena and Oliver. Irena is foreign, superstitious, moody and possibly even lesbian. While Oliver is very American (he always orders apple pie), he doesn't believe in anything he can't see (accept God) and claims to have never been unhappy, and does not know how to deal with the fears and complexities of Irena's character, and often tries to comfort her by telling her that her fears are based on childhood stories that she can later tell their grand-children.

There is plenty more to discuss about this film including the brilliant fear inducing set pieces that have made this film a classic, but they are best experienced and not described here, besides I don't have time. I'll be back to discuss the other film soon.