The Curse of the Cat People Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.5

The Curse of the Cat People Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson August 8, 2018

Then six-year-old actress Ann Carter is so perceptive and wonderful in RKO's 1944 film The Curse of the Cat People that one wonders why she didn't garner more leading roles and have a longer career. Carter's first credited role was a small part in Lewis Milestone's propaganda film The North Star (1943) (also for RKO) but in this sequel to Jacques Tourneur's Cat People (1942), she's given the main role ahead of Kent Smith and Jane Randolph, who play her parents in the film. Smith, who played one of the leads in 1943's Hitler's Children, reprises his character of Oliver Reed from the original as does Jane Randolph, who portrays Smith's wife. According to The Miami Daily News RKO wanted Smith "right away" for the sequel although when the actor read DeWitt Bodeen's script, he "shuddered."

The Curse of the Cat People was the sixth in RKO Radio's series of horror films. It had a troubled production, with Robert Wise replacing Gunther von Fritsch mid-shoot as director, and fell behind schedule and went over budget. The luscious Simone Simon returns as Irena but this time as an apparition. While Simon enjoyed a great working relationship with famed producer Val Lewton, she complained about not given enough to do on set and afforded the ample amount of screen time. Carter carries the film as Amy Reed and the story is really about the relationship she forges with Simon's ghost, which is her imaginary friend. Julia Dean also steals some scenes as Mrs. Julia Farren, the old rich woman who lives in a large haunted house down the street. The beautiful but unhappy Elizabeth Russell plays Dean's daughter. Russell is jealous and regretful of her mother's fawning over the young girl. Russell mostly glowers and never smiles throughout the film.

The Curse of the Cat People was a very poor title given by RKO that gave audiences misleading impressions. I hadn't seen it before and judging by the title thought Bodeen would take Russell's Barbara Farren in much the same direction that he took Simon's Irena in the original. The commentaries on this disc address some of the scenes between Dean and Russell that were omitted in the final script and film. Curse is not really a traditional horror picture of the period (much more ensconced in fantasy) but this is an aspect that was appreciated by some critics (including myself). The New York Times's longtime critic Bosley Crowther appreciated this diversion "[Curse] makes a rare departure from the ordinary run of horror films and emerges as an oddly touching study of the working of a sensitive child's mind." Kate Cameron of the Daily News(NY) compared it directly to its predecessor but was disappointed: "RKO has tried to make The Curse of the Cat People...into a potent a box office attraction as the original horror story about strange humans who turn into wild animals under certain circumstances. The new film...has missed the eerie effects that made The Cat People a successful horror story." Curse is both dopey and charming with enough superficial pleasures to keep the average viewer interested for its seventy minutes.

The Curse of the Cat People Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Curse of the Cat People makes its Blu-ray debut courtesy of Shout! Factory on this MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-25. Presented in the old Hollywood's Academy Ratio, Curse looks absolutely splendid with near-perfect grayscale and excellent contrast. Cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca's black-and-white photography has been restored to its full glory. Some of the sun-dappled and atmospheric lighting seen in these screenshots looks luminescent (such as in #8). Detail on faces is clear. I flirted with giving this transfer a 5/5 rating but there was smidgens of dirt from time to time. Shout! likely didn't want to remove little piece of debris as that also may have erased the natural grain. My video score is 4.75/5. The main video transfer has been encoded at an average bitrate of 29998 kbps while the disc sports a total bitrate of 34.19 Mbps.

The Curse of the Cat People Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Shout! has supplied a DTS-HD Master Audio Dual Mono (1914 kbps, 24-bit) as the default track. This is overall very solid with pretty clear and clean dialogue. Compser Roy Webb's score alternates between creepy and fear-inducing tones with a kind of nostalgic tune for the scenes between Alice and Irena. This is a very consistent track with no dropouts, although hiss is somewhat noticeable in spots.

Shout! has provided yellow English SDH for the feature.

The Curse of the Cat People Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• NEW Audio Commentary with Author/Historian Steve Haberman - Haberman spends the first third of his track going through the filmographies and providing mini-bios of the main players and crew members. The last two-thirds is by far the strongest with production facts and anecdotes interlaced with Haberman's thoughts on the film. In English, not subtitled.

• Audio Commentary with Historian Greg Mank, with Audio Interview Excerpts with Actress Simone Simon - a holdover from Warner's 2005 DVD, this is the drier of the two commentaries, with Mank often narrating what's happening on screen. An interview with Simone Simon ca. 1994 is intercut when he discusses the actress and her scenes in the film. In English, not subtitled.

• NEW Lewton's Muse: The Dark Eyes of Simone Simon – A Video Essay by Filmmaker Constantine Nasr (Shadows in the Dark: The Val Lewton Legacy) (31:19, 1080p) - an outstanding visual essay by Nasr, who delivers a cogent biography of Simone Simon over a half hour. The piece is accompanied by many vintage pictures of the screen beauty. Spoken in English, not subtitled.

• NEW Audio Interview with Ann Carter, Moderated by Tom Weaver (19:06) - this interview with Carter was conducted by film journalist Tom Weaver in 2007. Carter reminisces about how she got the role of Amy Reed, the relationship with her mother and how it shaped her career, and her roles as a mom and teacher after retiring from the movies. In English, not subtitled or captioned.

• Cat People Theatrical Trailer (1:05, upconverted to 1080p) - this is the same trailer that appears on Criterion's 2016 release of the eponymous film.

• The Curse of Cat People Theatrical Trailer (1:38, upconverted to 1080p) - an unrestored trailer to the sequel that's lifted from Warner's various Val Lewton DVD packages.

• NEW Still Gallery (4:30, 1080p) - the first thirteen images display color posters and lobby cards, which contain some noteworthy concept art from the film's publicity campaign. The next thirty-nine stills are high-res photographs from the production (including a couple with camera crew).

The Curse of the Cat People Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The story events of The Curse of the Cat People pick up about a half-dozen years after the first film ended and even though this film contains some of the characters, I wouldn't call it a direct sequel as it should be considered a fine standalone and thematic departure from Tourneur's 1942 classic. Shout! Factory has done a superb job of restoring the image and I commend the label for recording a new commentary and producing a Criterion-esque video essay on Simone Simon. Even if you owned the movie on any of Warner's single or multi-disc SD packages, you should pick up this disc. A SOLID RECOMMENDATION for Ann Carter's performance and the new accoutrements that Shout! offers.