User reviews

In "Curse of the Cat People," the beautiful child, Ann Carter, who looked so much like Veronica Lake, plays Amy, the daughter of the now-married Oliver (Kent Smith) and Alice (Jane Randolph) from the film's predecessor, "The Cat People." This is a sweet film about a lonely young girl's fantasy life, showing her to be a highly imaginative and creative child. Unfortunately for Amy, she's the child of two complete duds. Her father, former husband of Irena, sees in his daughter an eerie mental and emotional resemblance to his late wife, and it makes him nervous. He gets even more nervous when Amy sees a photo of Irena and claims Irena is her "friend" who has been meeting her. He has burned all the photos of Irena except for one photo that shows him and Irena together, looking happy, though one wonders a) why he kept it since he told Irena he was in love with Alice and was thinking of having her, Irena, committed; and b) when exactly were they happy? They couldn't even consummate the marriage because she was afraid of turning into a vicious cat.

Irena's appearances are interesting but to my mind, it's left open as to whether Irena was actually talking to the child or not. We probably are supposed to think it's Amy's imagination, but I like to keep an open mind. After all, Amy gives her a pin and Irena puts it on her cloak - anyone ever find said pin? It is strange, though, that now she's singing in French instead of Serbian, and there is no sign of the cat stuff.

If you remember "The Cat People," there was a scene at the wedding celebration where the exotic, cat-eyed actress Elizabeth Russell greets Irena in Serbian as "sister." (Actually, Simone Simon dubbed the Serbian.) In "Curse of the Cat People," Russell plays Barbara, the daughter of an old actress whom Amy visits. It doesn't seem like Russell is playing the same character because her mother is not Serbian. Nice to see her, though, and at least in this film, she receives a credit.

"Curse of the Cat People" is a good film, but you'll be disappointed if you go in expecting another "Cat People." Take this lovely movie on its own merits, and feel sorry for Amy - with Oliver and Jane as parents, she's going to need all the help she can get.

The title is very misleading for this is a film about a little girl's isolation and her need for an imaginary friend. The original "Cat People" picture provides just the backdrop for this moving story about lonely people, both young and old. There is a certain innocence and pathos that works very well alongside competent direction and acting. Definitely not a horror film, this is a gentle fantasy and a very good one at that.

Curse of the Cat People is an intriguing tale, beautifully filmed in a style that bears more resemblance to a Grimms fairytale than horror, with a mesmerizing performance from Ann Carter. This is her film and she is strong and convincing in the role. The exploration of the insecurity of the child coupled with a troubled relationship with her father is fascinating. I have not seen Cat People and, possibly, aspects of the history of the demise of Irena would be clearer having seen the original. The expectation of a "horror" film with the suggestive title is also misleading. If you are looking for horror you will need to look elswhere. This is ultimately a surprisingly sensitive and uniquely haunting film that would appeal on many levels.

Robert Wise directed this sequel to "Cat People", set several years later. Oliver Reed(played by Kent Smith) and Alice(played by Jane Randolph) are now married with a six-year old daughter named Amy(played by Ann Carter). Amy is a lonely child who has a hard time making friends, and seems to prefer living in her fantasy world, visited by the ghost of Irina(played by Simone Simon) Irina looks after Amy, but Oliver wants nothing to do with this, insisting that Amy must be socialized. Amy does befriend an elderly woman in her "haunted" house, though her daughter(played by Elizabeth Russell, though not as her cat lady character from the first) is resentful. Amy will later run away from home, becoming lost, though she is far from being alone... Unique and thoughtful sequel builds on the story from Part I, rather than repeating it, and result is most satisfying. (No third film was made however!)

Lewton's sequel to the almighty "Cat People" is a mesmerizing and elegant fantasy, but it is by no means a horror film. It's a touching drama and a perceptive social portrait that makes a great study on loneliness and creating an alternate dreamworld. In this case: a young girl that hasn't got much contact with her classmates because of her constant daydreaming and often alarms her parents due to her isolated position. Amy eventually finds true friendship in the supernatural form of Irena, the deceased first wife of her father. Although entirely different in purpose and message, "Curse of the Cat People" actually has a lot more in common with its predecessor than it looks. Three essential characters return and their personalities haven't changed. Irena (played by the goddess Simone Simon) is still a warm-hearted but frigid woman and Ollie is still a loving man incapable of handling the supernatural events around him. Basically, this sequel is quite a unique achievement in cinema as it forms a solid wholesome with the first, despite implementing an entirely different tone. There are some genuine moments of fear, but these are the result of a terrific sub-plot in which an elderly Mrs. Farren (Amy's neighbor) accuses her daughter Barbara of being an impostor and a replacement for her real daughter who died in an accident. The film is beautiful to look at, with a stunning photography and excellent sets. The end-sequence (involving an imaginary metamorphosis) is breath-taking and one of the most enchanting moments in cinema history. The acting performances are flawless and the crush I had on Simone Simon only got intenser! Robert Wise does a terrific directing job (his debut) along with the unknown Gunther Von Fritsch. Wise continued working for Val Lewton one year later with the effectively creepy "The Body Snatcher". I will probably always prefer the original "Cat People" – simply because that is one of the most impressive and intelligent stories ever – but this imaginative sequel is almost as brilliant. Highly recommended.

...this one is thoroughly commendable.Jacques Tourneur's "cat people " was more psychological Freudian fantasy and horror whereas Robert Wise 's sequel mostly deals with Gothic horror.This Gothic horror he would take to its absolute peak with "the haunting" ,twenty years after.

For a relatively short movie (about 70 min),there are SIX almost equally important female characters:the girlie,her mother,her teacher,her "friend" ,the old (laughing)lady and her daughter.This is the continuing story of Oliver Reed (not the actor)and the Alice whom he married after first wife Irena's death.The three characters -you read well even Irena) appear in the sequel.There's a lot of Gothic elements :the old house where an old lady tells terrifying tales about "sleepy hollow" (precisely Tim Burton's "spleepy hollow"),the strange borders of dream and reality,of the living and the dead,a subject which will be used a lot of times ;even if we can see the '"friend" ,she recalls sometimes Victor's part in Amenabar's masterful "the others".

But like in Tourneur's version,there may be also a Freudian side :the father/daughter does not seem to be very satisfying at the beginning of the film.Would the child be Irena's psychic daughter?

Possibly the most irrelevantly (and misleadingly) titled movie ever. People are going to expect an old horror movie, spend the whole time waiting for a panther attack, and be disappointed. I'd say if you're going to show this to a friend, fast forward past the title and pretend it's called something else. Actually, don't bother with a friend. This is a film that you can only really enjoy alone. It brings back half-remembered feelings of early childhood, things you can't even put into grown-up words or ways of thinking. Viewing it with another cynical adult might break the film's fragile little spell.

This film is so much more than it appears to be at first viewing. It is essentially an adult's view of a lonely child's fantasies and how those fantasies affect her relationships with the adults around her. The performances are uniformly excellent with Ann Carter as Amy, the lonely girl, a standout. Her angelic look is perfect for her character. Also excellent are Julia Dean as Mrs. Farren, the ex-stage actress living in her own fantasy world, and Elizabeth Russell as her daughter, Barbara. And to justify the title reference to "Cat People", Simone Simon appears as Amy's imaginary friend. This is a small film that deserves a much larger audience. Excellent in all respects.

Obviously the original movie "The Cat People" must have had enough commercial success to warrant a sequel (I've reviewed the original movie at this site). If you are expecting "more of the same" you will be bitterly disappointed. However, this continuation of the original is, in its own way, just as interesting.

To recap, in the original, strange immigrant Irena Dubrovna (played by Simone Simon) married all-American Oliver Reed (played by Kent Smith). Irena, raised in a country where superstition was rife, believed herself to be capable of turning into a big cat and devouring any man who showed affection towards her. Well (look away if this news to you), she died at the end of the movie.

"Curse of the Cat People" starts a few years after Irena's death. Oliver has settled down and married his co-worker from the first movie, Alice Reed (played by Jane Randolph). Alice was more vivacious in the first movie though]. They have a six year old daughter, Amy Reed (played by Ann Carter).

Whereas the first movie very much toyed with your perceptions and used what I assume would be "classical" framing devices for characters, this sequel is a different beast. I would view it as a fairytale. In fact, even though I don't have kids, I think that this movie MAY appeal to children around Amy Reed's age, because of its themes of a child's loneliness, not fitting in, not being believed and fantasy vs truth. There's nothing REALLY disturbing in this movie for kids, by today's standards, at least.

The 'fairytale' aspect to this movie is that Amy has a very active imagination and her parents worry that she doesn't spend time with real people...children her own age. As a viewer, there is much weirdness in this film, such that you wonder where truth ends and fantasy begins. Irena does return for the sequel...but, is she real or imagined? Hmmm (arches eyebrows).

There is also an intriguing side-story concerning another mother daughter relationship.

Did I see a different movie from the other reviewers here at IMDb? Is there no one else out there (except for my wife, who watched this with me) who thinks this movie sucks? I can't imagine how anyone who has seen the first marvelously creepy "Cat People" can be anything but bored into a stupor by this crappy follow up.

The movie doesn't even make any sense. The screenwriters made absolutely no effort to craft a plot with any coherence, or really one that has anything to do with the first film. Oh sure, the same actors are in this one, playing the same people, but there's no consistency in the characterization between the two films. There also happens to be absolutely nothing to do with cat people, which given the title and its predecessor, would seem to be a bit of an oversight on the part of the filmmakers.

Absolutely the only thing that makes this film worth watching is the presence of Simone Simon, who gets far too little screen time -- she doesn't even make her first appearance until around the 35 minute mark, and this is only a 70 minute film! But I clung to every second of her appearance like a drowning man clinging to a life preserver. Unfortunately, my efforts didn't succeed in saving either me or this terribly dismal film.

Grade: D-

'The Curse Of The Cat People' isn't really a sequel to 'Cat People' despite several recurring characters. It also isn't strictly a horror movie, despite having some suspenseful moments. Like 'Cat People' the line between the real and the imaginary is blurred, and being a Val Lewton production it is extremely atmospheric. 'Cat People's director Jacques Tourneur is replaced by Gunther von Fritsch, who I confess to know absolutely nothing about, and Robert Wise, who among many other things, is beloved to genre fans for 'The Day The Earth Stood Still' and 'The Haunting'. I'm not as big a fan of the latter as most horror buffs, I actually think 'Curse Of The Cat People' is the better movie. Kent Smith and Jane Randolph reprise their 'Cat People' roles. They are now married and have a child (Amy, played by the talented child actor Ann Carter). Smith is still trying to get over the death of his first wife Irena (Simone Simon), a story we know from the earlier picture. Amy is a loner with a rich fantasy life and this increasingly troubles her father, who fears it's going to be Irena all over again, even though Amy isn't her child. Amy wishes for a friend and begins to see Irena. Like 'Cat People' this can be "read" in any way the viewer cares to. This movie is one of the best I've ever seen about childhood and fantasy. Ann Carter is just terrific, and I particularly enjoyed the subplot involving her eccentric neighbours played by Julia Dean and Elizabeth Russell. These scenes were creepy and very gothic reminding me of both 'Rebecca' and 'Great Expectations'. Russell also had a very memorable bit in 'Cat People'. Her scene towards the end of the movie with Amy is unforgettable. 'Curse Of The Cat People' is overshadowed by 'Cat People', but to me it is almost as great. I highly recommend both movies and other Lewton productions like 'I Walked With A Zombie' (directed by Tourneur) and 'The Body Snatcher' (directed by Wise). These are some of the most important and influential horror movies ever made.

This mostly unrelated sequel to "Cat People" (1942) has Amy, the young daughter of Oliver and Alice Reed. Amy is a very imaginative child who has trouble differentiating fantasy from reality, and has no friends her own age as a result.

The most notable thing about this film is that it was Robert Wise's directorial debut. This also happens to be produced by Val Lewton and the key cast members reprise their roles, so it is not exactly the "mostly unrelated" sequel the plot says above (though the film does go in a radically different direction than the original and the cat aspects are played down).

Also, I love the child slap! This girl may be lonely and in need of a friend, but she sure knows how to slap a kid hard in the face.

While I will not say this is in any way superior or even close to the brilliance shown in Cat People, The Curse of the Cat People is definitely a fine, different, almost magical film in its own right. It has virtually nothing to do with the original film other than have the same words in its title, the same characters - Kent Smith and Jane Randolph and Simone Simon as some kind of angelic ghost. The story concerns the child of Smith and Randolph - now married and moved to Tarry Town, Washington Irving's setting for The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Here we get to know and understand the troubles of their daughter Amy. She dreams and has no friends. Amy is played by Ann Carter to perfection for a girl of this young age. She creates a sense of melancholy for her character that resonates throughout as she is alone and soon befriended by the spirit of Irena - no longer a dark force but one of kindness and goodness(?). Well, beyond that the story isn't about much else but rather how the little girl acts and reacts to her childhood fears and loneliness and with her parents. No cat people here. No murder. No chases(in the classical sense at least). What about the suggestion employed so wonderfully in the original? It isn't here either, but is replaced by an almost fantastical, magical quality, turning ordinary scenes into visions of fantasy. The scenes in the woods with Amy playing with Irena are very effective as is the whole snow scene near the film's end. The acting is solid with Julia Dean as a weird elderly woman living with her daughter standing out. The Curse of the Cat People is said to be Val Lewton's creation in many ways. A retrospective of his childhood fears and memories. Lewton employs the usual Lewton standards, and directors Robert Wise and Gunther von Fritsch are very capable behind the camera lens. The absence of Jacques Tourneur; however, at least for me, is clearly evident. But this really was not meant to be his kind of film. This is definitely something unique and personal for Lewton and tells an emotional tale of one young girl's journey into finding out some things about life. Is it a horror movie? A fantasy? What is more horrifying than being alone and friendless and ridiculed by those around you at the tender age of six?

One of my all time favorite films which captures the innocence and free imagination of youth set against the pragmatism of adulthood(as portrayed by the young girl and her father respectively). Only the little girls schoolteacher is supportive of the girls rich imagination, as even the old woman she befriends is caught up in irrational personal demons that have none of the simple beauty and longing that the girl carries in her soul. The direction, by the great director Robert Wise and Gunther Von Fritsch is perfect, the musical score haunting and expressive of the girl's altering state of mind and the screenplay by Dewitt Bodeen, gentle, observed and haunting. Bodeen also wrote the screenplay for the film The Enchanted Cottage which has a similar feeling about it and also focuses on the power and healing of a rich imagination and love.Enchantment is the perfect word to describe the whole essence of Curse and the magical moments when Simone Simon(as the spirit of the little girls mother) appears to her. These two movies would actually make a perfect double feature. An absolutely captivating film that is enchanting and does indeed call to mind glimpses of the open minded acceptance and wonder of a childs mind.There is even one scene towards the end that IS frightening and shows how a childs accepting attitude can sometimes put them in harm's way. This scene, however, turns its attention to the enchantment that the rest of the movie shares. Simone Simon is also flawless and equally mysterious, alluring and sympathetic at the same time. Some of the images in this film will stay with you. A must see.

This is the only movie I have ever seen that deals honestly with the experience of childhood. Every other movie shows us a grown-up view, Curse of the Cat People lets us see directly through a child's eyes and think exactly what she is thinking; her experience becomes ours. Ann Carter is a brilliant actress. (I lent the tape to a kid that age and she watched it for weeks.) It is timeless, just as childhood is; nothing has changed over 60 years.

Repeated viewing has made me see that it IS related to Cat People in an important way: it shows that Irena is genuinely the kind and loving person she had always wanted to be – after she had killed herself believing herself to be a vicious evil monster. She befriends Amy at a time when the girl feels isolated, and later intervenes to save her life; but salvation cuts both ways, as this relationship gives Irena a real pleasure in life…I mean afterlife…or whatever it is. Amy saves Irena quite as much as vice-versa.And you get the impression that Amy is spiritually Irena's daughter, whatever the genetics might be. Simone Simon is so gorgeous, you wonder why she didn't become a major star and go in the history books.

Even the stupid title begins to make some sense- Alice got her husband through duplicity, and he always treated Irena like an unthinking clod. The result is that Oliver and Alice have a limited relationship without true intimacy, and this leaves them unable to understand and sympathize with their sensitive daughter. Perhaps this is the real "curse of the cat people".

Oliver Reed is just as dumb as a father as he was as a husband in Cat People; but the story depends on his insensitivity; it wouldn't work any other way. 'Sir Lancelot' plays the black servant with lively intelligence, an unusually dignified portrayal of black people by 1940's standards. Val Lewton's sympathies were always on the side of children, ethnic minorities, artists and such.

And he could pack so much into a 60 minute movie! The guy was a genius.

N.B. Lewton chose a rookie to direct this one: Robert Wise. This ghost-story is the first movie he ever made, and it is quite as good as Sound of Music, Star Trek 1 or his other pictures. And you can see where he learned the ideas that would go into The Haunting.

This film is all about Ann Carter, the twelve year-old actress who dominates the film with her dreamy, wide-eyed performance, as a girl so enmeshed in her own dreams and visions ('the curse') that she appears to be in a state of somnambulistic trance throughout the whole film. For any connoisseur of child acting, this is a classic, and ranks with the best of the Margaret O'Brien and Hayley Mills performances. Ostensibly, this film is meant to be a sequel to 'Cat People'. Ann plays the daughter of the 'cat woman's' former husband and his girl friend, now his wife. Played by Kent Smith and Jane Randolph as before, they have now moved on and are living happily in Tarrytown, New York, where the headless horseman of American myth once rode. Whether this is meant to be a subtle attack on David Rockefeller, the headless 'master of the universe' who lives there and rides just as invisibly into every important show in town with his head under his arm, is not clear. Kent Smith's character is as obtuse and thick as ever, showing even more insensitivity towards his own daughter than he did to his former wife. Simone Simon is degraded and humiliated, after her spectacularly brilliant performance in 'Cat People', by being dragged in, clad in a ridiculous costume resembling a dress from the mediaeval period, as a wan and smiling ghost. And to add further insult to injury, she tends to be seen only in distant long shots, presumably because ghosts don't photograph well close up. The film is so ridiculous in so many ways that it is a wonder we can watch it, but watch it we do, because we loved 'Cat People' (or we wouldn't be watching this) and we can't take our eyes off the amazing child actress in her hypnotized state as she openly dreams her way through this mediocre film, thereby raising its tone to something of importance. Elizabeth Russell, who sent the shivers down so many spines when she merely said her single line in 'Cat People' (in Serbian, no less): 'My sister?', is back in force here, as the perversely ignored daughter of a dotty old gal, who is slowly going mad through loneliness, and who is tempted to kill Ann Carter. Now, who would ever do a thing like that? She thinks better of it, but not before we get rather worried. This is a must-see for Val Lewton fans, to say the least. But poor Simone Simon!

A semi-sort of sequel to CAT PEOPLE, Val Lewton's THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE is slow and irrelevant even by his standards. It stars three of the actors from the original movie in a kind of twee children's fantasy that has little to nothing to do with the first film's plot.

The truth is that there's no curse in the film and no cat people either, the title was just added to cash in on the original. I suppose 'the little girl and her imaginary friend' wouldn't have sold as many tickets. The actual film is almost totally devoid of incident or, indeed, interest, remaining completely dull throughout.

The characters who return from the original just don't have the same allure of mystery as they did before, and the child actress just doesn't cut it I'm afraid. Some of the supporting actors give performances so dated that it feels like they're in a pantomime. Even so, such over-the-top acting is the only thing of interest in this lifeless production.

but then that should really be no surprise considering who's involved here..Val Lewton, Robert Wise and returning star Simone Simon here in a much different albeit the same role as in CAT PEOPLE. Ann Carter as Amy is absolutely phenomenal in this film as well.

This celebration of the strength of a child's imagination is a joy to watch as it is in essence her imagination which gives her strength and courage and in the end will even her tormented and worried father , still terribly haunted by the events in CAT PEOPLE, need it?

While this is in part a sequel to CAT PEOPLE, it's relation to that film is mild at best. No this is a journey into the fantastic through the eyes of one very imaginative yet very lonely child. Beautiful and moving.

Uggghhh!!! This might rank as one of the most inappropriate sequels in film history. The original CAT PEOPLE was a moody horror film that was exceptional and super-popular at the box office. This sequel, while retaining most of the original characters, completely re-wrote what had occurred in the first film AND created a very insipid and "inspiring" family film!! This is just wrong and another similar example is if you compare the original WILLARD to its horrid sequel, BEN--where the rats no longer ate people but befriended an annoying little boy who was lonely!! Ugggghhhh!!! In this film, you learn that Irena had NOT turned into a panther and killed people in the first film (even though that IS what happened). Instead, she was mentally ill and she THOUGHT she'd done this before taking her own life (I swear, it did NOT end this way)! To make things worse, while she DOES return, it's not to kill anyone or exact some sort of revenge, but to help a lonely little girl who is Irena's husband's daughter from a new marriage! How schmaltzy and dull! While the acting and production values are good, this is NOT a Val Lewton horror film--more like a "horrible" film in that it is so unlike the original and basically expects the fans of the first film to have amnesia and watch a family movie instead. YUCK!!!

UPDATE: I watched a documentary about Val Lewton (the producer of this film) and according to "Val Lewton: The Man in the Shadows(2007)" Lewton did NOT intend for this to be a sequel to "The Cat People". Instead, it was intended as a moody film featuring some of the same people...but not the same characters. As such, it's a MUCH better film....and I'd give it a 6.