morrison-dylan-fan Learning from a fellow IMDber on the Film Noir board that British DVD company Network were having a sale,I went on to order some Film Noir.Taking a look at their listings,I found out that they have unearthed the British "remake" of The Cat People (a title I own,but have yet to see!) Due to being a fan of Hammer Scream Queen Barbara Shelly and having found Jack May terrific in the TV series Adam Adamant Lives!, (and his distinctive vocal performance for the classic cartoon series Count Duckula)I decided that it was the perfect time to grab this kittie tale.The plot:Returning home, Leonora Johnson is told by uncle that she will soon inherit a large sum of money.Pleased with this news,Leonora is told that there is actually one other thing she will inherit.The curse states that whichever family member inherits cash is able to control (and become one) with a big cat that brutally murders people. Soon Leonora finds herself completely possessed by the cat,and ends up being put in an insane asylum.Working at the hospital, Dr. Brian Marlowe decides to get this black cat out of Leonora's mind.View on the film:Showing its whiskers,Network give the film a superb transfer,with the picture of this uncut edition making the Noir shadows shine,and the clean soundtrack being lapped up.Opening with pelts of rain hitting the Johnson's household,future Upstairs Downstairs creator Alfred Shaughnessy & cinematographer Peter Hennessy rub their paws on a Gothic Noir atmosphere,where the psychologically damaged state of Leonora leads to Shaughnessy covering the screen in burnt white lights and thick black shadows that give holes for Leonora's mind to fester. Dipping into some of the social class he would focus on later, Shaughnessy peels it away with swipes of Horror,which despite mostly involving off-screen killings,does lead to an unsettling Film Noir mood being cast,as Leonora reveals her fangs.Aiming for something more Film Noir than pure Horror flick,the screenplay by Lou Rusoff cleverly takes the traditional horror "curse" to send Leonora into Noir insanity,that pushes Leonora to having to prove that the horror is real in an insane asylum,so that she can break down the Noir walls. Keeping Leonora's calls to the cat limited, (keep that budget down!) Rusoff disappointingly de- fangs the tension,via the limited appearances of the "monster" taking away any feeling of an outside force taking control of Leonora.Joined by a cackling Jack May,the beautiful Barbara Shelley gives a purr-fect performance as Leonora. Given the challenge of linking Leonora to a cat,Shelley impressively pulls the horror engulfing Leonora with a whirlwind Femme Fatale desperation,as the Cat Girl appears.

Scarecrow-88 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.

Michael_Elliott Cat Girl (1957) ** (out of 4) AIP remake of Val Lewton's CAT PEOPLE has Leonora Johnson (Barbara Shelley) returning to her home place with two friends and her new husband. At the house her uncle informs her that the family is cursed by having the power of turning into a leopard and that she's next in line to get it. If you see the AIP icon pop up at the start of the movie and expect nothing more than dumbness with a bad monster outfit then you'd be partially right. This isn't a good movie but I tip my hat to the producer's for at least trying to do a psychological horror film instead of just a monster running around in a bad mask type of film. The first forty-minutes of the film are pretty dark as our main character battles her family and her unfaithful husband as she slowly starts to lose her mind thinking that she does have the power to turn into a killing machine. After the forty-minute mark we turn into some cheap AIP stuff, which includes a couple transformation sequences were we get to see the title character. The outfit is pretty un-scary but I must admit that I liked the look of it and found it rather cute, which was strange considering I don't like cats. The outfit and its small hands looking so cute is obviously one reason why I didn't find the thing scary. The biggest problem with the film is that they do try for the psychological stuff but fail pretty badly. There's really nothing creepy about the film and there's never really any scene that even makes you tense up. That's not good when you're watching a film like this but director Shaughnessy at least knows how to build some mild atmosphere by keeping the lights off and everything dark and moody. Shelley, who had yet to make a big name for herself in the genre, turns in a decent performance but the screenplay really doesn't do her much good. Robert Ayres, Kay Callard and Ernest Milton round out the cast but none of them exactly jump off the screen. The film, thanks to the title, is a reworking of CAT PEOPLE but I think it actually has a lot more in common with Lewton's THE LEOPARD MAN. There are even moments towards the end where the character is having a mental breakdown, which will make people think of the Larry Talbot character from Universal's THE WOLF MAN. Either way, this film isn't in any of their league so it's only recommended to those who must watch every horror film from this period.

mlraymond 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.