Cat People

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Paul Schrader, the director of American Gigolo, brought a similar kind of sexual chic to this explicit horror movie. A remake of the beautiful, haunting 1942 Cat People, this version takes off from the same idea: that a woman (Nastassja Kinski), a member of a race of feline humans, will revert to her animalistic self when she has sex. Arriving to meet her brother (Malcolm McDowell) in New Orleans, she finds herself disturbed by his sexual presence. A zoo curator (John Heard) becomes fascinated by her, but he will discover that her kittenish ways are just the tip of the claw. Schrader dresses the story up in a stylish, glossy production, keyed on Kinski's green-eyed, thick-lipped beauty; it's hard to think of another actress in 1982 who could so immediately suggest a cat walking on two legs. Luckily Kinski had a European attitude toward her body, because this film has plenty of poster-art nudity. There's also lots of gore and some wacky flashbacks to the ancient tribe of cat people, who hold rituals in an orange desert while Giorgio Moroder's music plays. Cat People doesn't really make all this come together, but it's always interesting to look at, and the dreadful mood lingers. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews:

Stylish Directing Saves A Flat Story.......2007-06-13

The plot: A beautiful 20 year old orphan Nastassja Kinski is reunited with her brother, Malcolm McDowell in New Orleans. Without explanation McDowell disappears and is sought for cannibalizing prostitutes.

Kinski ends up falling for zoologist John Heard whom handles large cats at the local zoo. Predictably the zoo's jaguar turns out to in fact be McDowell who escapes and reveals to Kinski how their family is cursed to turn into jaguars every time they make love. Only the act of murdering a human can return them to form. Hence the only safe sex is inbreeding. While McDowell kills without conscious the virgin Kinski despises her affliction.

This remake of the 1942 cult classic could should have come up with better title.

While the plot is bland the directing keeps it alive, similar to Michael Mann's `Manhunter' the New Orleans setting is used to its full effect as well as David Bowie's haunting score.

The opening sequence is noting short of awesome. In a haze of red we see an ancient civilization sacrificing children to jaguars by tying them to a grotesque tree without fruit or leaves. It is unclear if they are to be eaten by or mate with the jaguars. But this sacrifice creates the cat people.

I was astounded that this opening sequence of a mystical tree was in fact plagiarized by the film `The Exorcism of Emily Rose.'

A fair warning about `Cat People', everyone gets naked. Yes, everyone. While nudity is nothing new to McDowell and Kinski, John Heard and even Annette O'Toole's exposure is shocking. I wonder why O'Toole never used her assets to further her career.

If you're not a dog person you're a.............2007-06-12

CAT PEOPLE is basically a cross between a werewolf movie & a vampire movie. Like a werewolf movie, it involves people transforming into animals (in this case, black panthers). Like a vampire movie, it is heavy on eroticism and sensuality.

The film stars Nastassja Kinski as a young woman who goes to visit her brother (Malcom McDowell) for the first time in many years. She soon finds out that she carries the family "curse" of going into a metamorphosis and becoming a leapord.

Nastassja is PERFECT for this part as she has a slender, curvy, feline body. It matches up with her becoming a leapord very nicely. Annette O'Toole is quite attractive too, with more of a girl-next-door type of beauty. Best of all, both girls look absolutely fantastic topless!

If you like erotic thrillers / werewolf movies / vampire movies, my guess is that CAT PEOPLE will more than likely be to your liking. It is sultry, sexy and entertaining in a feline sort of way.

Erotic & Eerie***possible spoiler alert***.......2007-05-19

Immediately Giorgio Moroder's score captures you in the darkness with
its sensual rhythms, then Schrader entices us into a labyrinthine
journey of sex and death seen through the eyes of the dark & beautiful
Irena (Kinski). Her brother Paul, played by a Malcom McDowell welcomes
Irena to New Orleans ( a perfect location for this erotic & fetishistic
tale ) dressed as a priest, this is their first 'reunion' since infancy
& orphanage. Paul takes her home and introduces her to his housekeeper
Female (played by the great Ruby Dee). Their joy is short lived, as
Paul's incestuous overtures are rebuffed by an innocent Irena and his
disappearance coincides with a visit by the police to investigate
Paul's possible involvement in a 'ritualistic' murder involving a
panther. Female is arrested as a possible accomplice to Paul's crimes.
In jail, she advices Irena to 'not love' and 'pretend the world is what
men believe it to be'. Irena is quickly taken in by Oliver ( John Heard
), curator of the New Orleans Zoo, after he startles her sketching a
recently captured black panther. Irena settles into a life working at
the zoo and begins a relationship with Oliver, much to the dismay of
Alice ( Annette O'Toole ), ostensibly Oliver's love interest until
Irena's arrival. Paul resurfaces after a tragic attack by the panther
on a zoo keeper (played by Ed Begley, Jr.) in front of Irena, Alice &
Oliver. Paul's presence is now menacing and his previous advances are
now violent and threatening. He tells Irena that 'only she can save
him': by being with him as they are like their parents- brother &
sister and of an ancient and incestuous race, unable to mate with only
their own kind, lest they transform-returning to human form only after
killing. Schrader captures the dark, sensual and moody atmosphere of
the New Orleans night with this tale of occult, sex, blood &
lycanthropy.

Cat People Review.......2007-03-25

I love this movie. Great music, Nastassja Kinski is Hot. Very sexy and stylish.

Cat people or kitties in training?.......2007-03-14

This movie is interesting enough to watch, but in the end, I felt a need for more. First off, considering that technically it was a remake of the 1942 movie of the same title, it's much better than the original. I don't think that should do a sequel, unless it was in the format of a prequel (then they could have a younger guy for Malcolm MacDowell's role, cause he's definitely too old to play young now). I would like to know how MacDowell's character came to realize what he was and how he accepted to live the life that he did.

Cat People / The Curse of the Cat People

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Cat People/Curse of the Cat People
Intelligent Thrillers from the 1940's
a classic that shows more than its argument
Enchantment
Great Halloween Video

Cat People / The Curse of the Cat People
Starring: Simone Simon , Kent Smith , Jane Randolph , Ann Carter , and Eve March
Director: Robert Wise , Gunther von Fritsch , and Jacques Tourneur
Manufacturer: Turner Home Ent
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000A0GOF0
Release Date: 2005-10-04

Amazon.com

Val Lewton's name is synonymous with the subtlest, most mysterious brand of horror filmmaking in Hollywood's golden age, and the nine horror classics he produced at RKO between 1942 and 1946 constitute the most remarkable cycle of creativity in B-movie history. He and director Jacques Tourneur scored with both a popular hit and a masterpiece in 1942: Cat People. The story involves a pretty young Serbian woman in Manhattan (Simone Simon) convinced that her ancestors had practiced animal worship during the Middle Ages--and that she herself might shape-change into a lithe, ravening panther if her passions were aroused. The film is uncannily successful in keeping the viewer guessing whether this is a phobia borne of morbid obsession and sexual repression, or a genuine, horrific possibility. There are two sequences of matchless artistry and almost unbearable suspense--a lonely, echoing walk through pools of lamplight alongside Central Park, and a late-night swim in a deserted indoor pool--that build to throat-grabbing climaxes and remain milestones in the history of screen horror. The Curse of the Cat People (1944), a sequel that is not quite a sequel, is a pretend-horror movie that's really a contemplation of the fragility of childhood. --Richard Jameson

Description

The studio gave Val Lewton small budgets and lurid pre-tested film titles. Lewton, working with rising filmmakers and emphasizing fear of the unseen, turned meager resources into momentous works of psychological terror. Directed by Jacques Tourneur, Cat People is the trailblazing first of Lewton's nine horror classics. Simone Simon portrays a bride who fears an ancient hex will turn her into a deadly panther when she's in passion's grip. Simon returns in The Curse of the Cat People, a sequel in title and a landmark study of a troubled child in fact. Robert Wise makes his directing debut, co-helming a gothic-laced mix of fantasy and fright so astute it was used in college psychology classes.

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary: by Greg Mank with Simone Simon
Theatrical Trailer

Customer Reviews:

Cat People/Curse of the Cat People.......2007-06-21

Seen today, it's incredible that movies this handsome and well-constructed were made by Lewton on such lean budgets. "Cat People" is a bona-fide classic, dripping with forbidding atmosphere, and actress Simon is mesmerizing. Though "Curse" lags in story quality, the eerie mood of the original pervades this film too, as director Wise makes the most of what he's given. First feature's a must, though.

Intelligent Thrillers from the 1940's.......2007-06-18

Don't be fooled by the lurid monster movie titles of these two films. Both films are well made stories of psychological suspense in the vein of the best of Rod Serling's TWILIGHT ZONE.

CAT PEOPLE is the story of Irena, a beautiful young Serbian woman, living in Manhattan but obsessed with both the legends of her Eastern European hometown and the large cats that live in the zoo near her apartment. A nice young man falls in love with and marries her despite her strangeness and even more disturbing things start happening. The film is ambiguous as to whether Irena is a supernatural being or simply severely emotionally disturbed. There are some very suspenseful scenes in the movie created by the clever use of shadows and sounds.

THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE is quite a different movie even though it uses the three major actors from CAT PEOPLE playing the same roles. This film is set several years later and Irena's husband, Ollie, is now married to Alice his friend and co worker from the first film. Alice and Ollie are living in Tarrytown, New York with their six year old daughter, Amy, who is "different". Amy has difficulty making real friends and seems to live in a make believe world which frightens Ollie who is "cursed" by memories of his first wife's emotional problems. Irena makes an appearance in Amy's life as a beautiful, loving, fairy tale like friend and it is up to the viewer to decide if she is imaginary or truly someone from another world. There is added suspense from a subplot concerning an apparently delusional elderly actress living in a house rumored to be haunted with her resentful daughter. Another excellent thought provoking film and definitely not what you would expect from the title.

a classic that shows more than its argument.......2007-05-18

Really if you can see some things about early twenty century this is the perfect movie.

Enchantment.......2007-03-22

I remember these films from childhood, which is an endorsement in and of itself. So many 'scary' movies, then and now, are forgotten entirely within weeks/days/hours. Producer Val Lewton used psychology and suspense to create unforgettable images: the swimming pool scene in "Cat People," the final 'haunted' house moments in "Curse of the Cat People" - these are great visions in cinema. Call them 'B' movies if you will, but also call them Classics.

Great Halloween Video.......2007-03-14

I like to play this every halloween. Fun story that is spoky, but not too scare for the little ones.

The Val Lewton Horror Collection (Cat People / The Curse of the Cat People / I Walked with a Zombie / The Body Snatcher / Isle of the Dead / Bedlam / The Leopard Man / The Ghost Ship / The Seventh Victim / Shadows in the Dark)

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Val Lewton gives us a new genre: Endearing horror films
The Val Lewton Horror Collection
The Val Lewton Horror Collection
Quintessential Lewton...
Elegant horror

The Val Lewton Horror Collection (Cat People / The Curse of the Cat People / I Walked with a Zombie / The Body Snatcher / Isle of the Dead / Bedlam / The Leopard Man / The Ghost Ship / The Seventh Victim / Shadows in the Dark)
Starring: Simone Simon , Kent Smith , Tom Conway , Jane Randolph , and Jack Holt
Director: Jacques Tourneur , Robert Wise , and Gunther von Fritsch
Manufacturer: Turner Home Ent
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B000A0GOEQ
Release Date: 2005-10-04

Amazon.com

Before becoming a film producer, the Russian-born Lewton was a prolific writer of pulp fiction, nonfiction, and a couple of pornographic novels. He also worked for years as assistant to David O. Selznick, a legendary producer with a distinctive personal signature--and a flair for grandiosity Lewton himself never emulated. It's ever so revealing that, on Selznick's Gone With the Wind, it was Lewton who came up with the idea for the famous rising shot of the Atlanta railyard filled with Southern wounded, with the Confederate flag streaming above--only he idly proposed it as a joke, never imagining that anyone would actually film such a spectacularly ambitious scene.

In 1942 Lewton left Selznick to undertake a series of horror films for RKO Radio Pictures. The studio would give him a budget around $200,000 per picture and a title RKO deemed to be grabby; Lewton would have a free hand as long as he stayed on budget, used the title, and gave the studio a salable movie of second-feature length (around 70 minutes). Over time, Lewton would increasingly have trouble with studio supervisors, but RKO was the right place for him. Although low in the pecking order among Hollywood majors, the studio made up for its lack of MGM-style glamour and Warner Bros. grit-and-gusto by working in a finely filigreed, almost miniaturist style. The art department under Van Nest Polglase and Albert S. D'Agostino was capable of exquisite artisanry, and in Nicholas Musuraca, a master of low-key cinematography and supple camerawork, Lewton found an invaluable collaborator in creating moody shadow-worlds where what you couldn't see was more disquieting than what you could.

He was also fortunate in having Jacques Tourneur to direct his first three efforts (they had teamed years earlier on the Bastille-storming sequence for Selznick's A Tale of Two Cities). They scored first time out of the gate with both a popular hit and a masterpiece: Cat People (1942). The story involves a pretty young Serbian woman in Manhattan (Simone Simon) convinced that her ancestors had practiced animal worship during the Middle Ages--and that she herself might shape-change into a lithe, ravening panther if her passions were aroused. The film is uncannily successful in keeping the viewer guessing whether this is a phobia borne of morbid obsession and sexual repression, or a genuine, horrific possibility. There are two sequences of matchless artistry and almost unbearable suspense--a lonely, echoing walk through pools of lamplight alongside Central Park, and a late-night swim in a deserted indoor pool--that build to throat-grabbing climaxes and remain milestones in the history of screen horror.

Many critics feel that the second Lewton-Tourneur endeavor, I Walked With a Zombie (1943), is both men's finest work. The title is so lurid that the heroine-narrator (Frances Dee) must shrug it off with her very first words, yet the movie is an amazingly delicate and poetic piece of spellbinding--nothing less than a reworking of Jane Eyre on a voodoo island in the Caribbean. Other horror aficionados prefer the more mainline ferocity of The Leopard Man (1943), an adaptation of a Cornell Woolrich story about a serial killer strewing corpses along the U.S.-Mexican border. Although on one level this is the Lewton film that veers closest to conventional mystery-suspense, there's no end of unsettling ambiguity (another black panther on the loose!) and hints of occultism and religious mania.

RKO promoted Tourneur to A-movies after this; Lewton would never again have so masterly a directorial partner. Yet in a weird sense (which is only appropriate), this underscores how much Lewton--with his wealth of arcane historical lore and storytelling archetypes, his quiet, patient attention to detail, and his taste for oblique narrative--was the essential auteur of all his films. Promoting first Mark Robson and then Robert Wise from the editing table, Lewton went on to make the deeply mysterious The Seventh Victim (1943) and The Ghost Ship (1943), two films in which such grotesque elements as Satan worship and murderous psychopathology are folded away inside eerily drifty, almost becalmed sleepwalks into eternal night. The Seventh Victim--a movie populated with more walking dead than Lewton's out-and-out zombie picture--is one of the cinema's supreme meditations on the ways lives brush against one another in the spaces of a great, impersonal city. And The Ghost Ship (the rarest of Lewton's films, owing to a ruinous copyright suit) is like a fever dream from which the viewer never awakens.

That's enough for a legacy, surely. Yet there remain The Curse of the Cat People (1944), a sequel that is not quite a sequel, a pretend-horror movie that's really a contemplation of the fragility of childhood; Isle of the Dead (1945), a doomed reverie about travelers who escape the Goya-esque chaos of a 19th-century war only to be beset with plague on a miasma-shrouded island; The Body Snatcher (1945), an atmospheric Robert Louis Stevenson adaptation that invokes the grisly history of graverobbers Burke and Hare, and supplies a together-again-for-the-last-time occasion for Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi; and Bedlam (1946), the Hogarth painting come to life to portray the real-life horrors of an 18th-century insane asylum. Bedlam's critical and box-office failure ended Lewton's quasi-independent status at RKO; he would live to make only three other, unsuccessful films.

James Agee, the premier American film critic of the 1940s, reckoned that Val Lewton was one of the three foremost creative figures in Hollywood--an assessment yet more impressive when we consider that the other two were Charles Chaplin and Walt Disney. His greatest films--Cat People, I Walked with a Zombie, The Seventh Victim--are towering achievements, and even his half-realized projects are haunting experiences, the products of an utterly distinctive sensibility. This is an extraordinary collection. --Richard T. Jameson

Description

Val Lewton, a famous RKO Radio Pictures producer, redefined the horror genre with low-budget, high-box office films. Now available are nine of these horror classics on DVD in the all new Val Lewton Horror Collection. Exclusive to the collection are a new documentary on the producer and 3 of the 9 films.

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary:Greg Mank with Simone Simon on Cat People and Curse of the Cat People, Kim Newman and Steve Jones on I Walked With a Zombie, Steve Haberman with Robert Wise on The Body Snatcher, Tom Weaver on Bedlam, and Steve Haberman on The Seventh Victim.
Documentaries:Shadows In The Dark: The Val Lewton Legacy
Theatrical Trailer

Customer Reviews:

Val Lewton gives us a new genre: Endearing horror films.......2007-07-19

Val Lewton was that Hollywood anomaly: A creative producer, but whose talents never exceeded the B-movie environment in which he operated. The result was a series of horror films made fast and on the cheap but which, 60 years later, still have enough interest to qualify for their own genre: The endearing horror movie. Through the happenstance of Lewton's ability to attract and work with some talented (and inexpensive) directors and writers, we now have the opportunity to watch these nine movies. Some, notably Bedlam and The Body Snatchers, are very good. Some, like The Leopard Man, are eerily satisfying. Sit back and enjoy.

CAT PEOPLE:
Says psychiatrist Dr. Louis Judd to Irena Reed, his reluctant patient. He is describing the things they have just talked about. "...and the cat women of your village...women who in jealousy or anger or out of their own corrupt passions can change into great cats, like panthers. And if one of these women were to fall in love, and her lover was to kiss her and to take her into his embrace, she would be driven by her own evil to kill him." As we can tell, Irena may have a problem. Her husband may have an even worse one.

THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE:
Great potential within limited means, and then the slow leak of air from the balloon. The Curse of the Cat People pulls together Simone Simon, Kent Smith and Jane Randolph from Cat People. This time, however, despite great photography and some eerie situations, the pieces simply fall apart. There is some tension and suspense, but to no great purpose. We just wind up knowing more than we want to about the needs of lonely children.

I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE:
"Everything seems beautiful because you don't understand," says Paul Holland (Tom Conway) to nurse Betsy Connell (Frances Dee), on their voyage to Haiti where she will take care of his seriously ill wife. "Those flying fish, they're jumping in terror because bigger fish want to eat them. That luminous water...it takes its gleam from millions of tiny dead bodies, the glitter of putrescence..." If that attitude isn't enough to be off-putting, Betsy discovers that Holland's "ill" wife may well be a zombie. The movie veers into melodramatic silliness; still, there's plenty of eerie atmosphere.

THE BODY SNATCHER:
For a low-budget, B movie horror quickie, The Body Snatcher holds up remarkably well. The horror is in the situation, not the actors' make-up or the staggering around of corpses. Corpses there are, but they're freshly dug up, and their purpose is not to grasp and choke, but to be dissected by a complex and morally ambiguous surgeon. We're watching a duel, as director Robert Wise says, between the two lead characters. Henry Daniell, the surgeon, and Boris Karloff, who provides bodies, pull off the trick of combining distaste, arrogance and mutual need.

ISLE OF THE DEAD:
This programmer is a good example of why B movies are B movies. The story could be interesting: A small group of people in an isolated setting are forced to deal with a threat to their lives. In the course of the movie some will live and some will die, some will prove brave and some will go mad. "The vorvolaka still lives," whispers the crone of a housekeeper, "rose-cheeked and full of blood!" Even with ripe dialogue like this, the movie becomes predictable.

BEDLAM:
Bedlam was not successful at the box office yet was probably the best constructed of Lewton's films. Along with The Body Snatchers, it stands up as a compelling story with solid dialogue and better acting than we've come to expect from Lewton's films. Boris Karloff, in a performance of skill and complexity, plays Master George Sims, the ruler of St. Mary's of Bethlehem Asylum in London...a forbidding hulk of a stone building. Bedlam, for short. The time is 1761. Bedlam is the place where the insane are sent, as well as inconvenient or embarrassing relatives. Nell Bowen (Anna Lee), is the smart, privileged and arrogant protege of a fat English lord. When she meets Sims, her dislike is instant. Before long, Mistress Bowen finds herself committed to Bedlam and must find a way to expose Sims. Bedlam is a clever and well-made film.

THE LEOPARD MAN:
Sure, The Leopard Man is a cheap B movie, but I like it a lot. It only runs 66 minutes and it packs a lot of craftsmanship into that time. What seems unusual to me is that the film, made to be filled with dread, is also filled with regret. "What sort of man would kill like a leopard and leave traces of a leopard..." says one character. When we find out, we're a little saddened. This was no raving monster with steel claws taped to his hands, just a quiet guy who was the victim of his nature and his obsessions.

THE GHOST SHIP:
This quickie is the story of a mad sea captain who has become fixated on doing away with his young third officer. Most of the action takes place on ship as the young man tries to convince the crew that the captain is mad. There is no style to the movie and the acting is just passable.

THE SEVENTH VICTIM:
This programer is noteworthy for just three things. First, an atmosphere of creepy mystery. Second, some effective characterizations by actors who never escaped from B-movie purgatory. Third, and by far the most important, an excellent performance by Kim Hunter in her first movie role. The movie has to do with a coven whose members seem to believe in death...for others.
--------
All the movies look just fine on their two-to-a-disc DVDs.

The Val Lewton Horror Collection.......2007-06-25

-------------------------------------------------------------
"Cat People"
What you can't see "will" hurt you

A man marries a strange woman with a European accent. She seems shy, but she actually carries a secret. Seems she knows she came from a line of "Cat People" and passion can bring out her claws. This is reinforced in a scene at a restaurant where another one of her kind recognizes her. She also suspects her new hubby's female friend has designs on him. So we get a spooky scene at a swimming pool at night alone in the gym.

There was not enough money or sufficient technology to show scary cat people. They tried people in cat suits, but they just looked cutesy. So they decided to just show shadows and sounds. The rest was up to your imagination. It is a psychological movie with a touch of film noir. ---------------------------------------------
"The Curse of the Cat People"
In many ways superior to the original

The Curse of the Cat People (1944) is not really sequel to Cat People (1942) as much as a stand alone physiological thriller that just happens to be an extension of the original characters. We have seen the formula before but you may not have seen such a presentation; a lonely child Amy Reed (Ann Carter) seeks a playmate that understands her. Who best but the spirit of Oliver's dead wife, Irena (Simone Simon) one of the cat people. Naturally this upsets the parents. Toss in Amy's new relation to reclusive neighbor Julia Farren (Julia Dean). Julia has problems of her own relating to her daughter. The story just gets complex from there.

The question is, is it dangerous to fantasize that much and what will become of the characters in the end.
-------------------------------------------
"I Walked with a Zombie"
A classic Val Lewton production

We are treated to exotic titles and expectations with titles such as "I walked With a Zombie." My only encounters with Zombies are those that process in an UNIX operating system that can not be killed. I also watched "Weekend at Bernie's II."

As with other Lewton productions he got a way with a psychological thriller in the guise of a monster movie. In the days of sailing ships a nurse (Frances Dee) is employed to go to San Sebastian to look after a plantation owner's wife (Christine Gordon.) She fined that her charge is more than just a victim of a disease that heft her without will. Turns out if you cut the wife she does not bleed. We all know what that means.

The true story is the relationship to man and wife, man and nurse, nurse and wife, brother and brother, brother and wife, need I say more? Could it mean that there is nothing supernatural or is love moving in mysterious natural.

Can this all be straightened out or is Jessica Holland the wife destined to be zomiated for ever and the nurse must learn to love from afar?

Yeah Lord pity them who are dead and give peace and happiness to the living.
--------------------------------------
"The Body Snatcher"
Based on a short story by Robert Louis Stevenson

"It is through error that a man tries and rises. It is through tragedy he learns. All the roads of learning begin in darkness and go out into the light." Hippocrates of Gos

This film has the psychological complexity of a Val Lewton production but is a lot more graphic than most of his productions where he just implies violence. He even takes it out on innocent dogs. I feel that some one was pushing Lewton from behind to be more vicious with this film.

A young student (Russell Wade) wants to become a doctor like the great Dr. Wolfe 'Toddy' MacFarlane (Henry Daniell.) Little does he know what it will entail?

The DVD has a voiceover commentary from the late Director Robert Wise who directed "West Side Story" and "The Sound of Music." Surprisingly he said that the original basic script was written by Philip MacDonald.
--------------------------------------
"Isle of the Dead"
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,

than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE / Hamlet Act 1. Scene V abt. 1601

`Under conquest and oppression the people of Greece allowed their legends to degenerate into superstition; the Goddess Aphrodite giving way to the `Vorvolaka.' This nightmare figure was very much alive in the mines of the peasants when Greece fought the victorious war of 1912."

Gen. Nikolas Pherides (Boris Karloff) is an experienced watcher. That is he must watch over his troops to be sure the do what they are supposed to and survive to win the day.

Finding some time take a war correspondent (Marc Cramer) to visit the grave yard island where his wife is buried. There he meats a strange collection of people and an unseen enemy that is much deadlier than any bullet. Will he be able to fight it logically and scientifically? Or will his cultural fears lead him to see the truth?

Once again we see that Boris Karloff can act and that Val Lewton can take a scary title and turn it from a cheap horror movie into a classic Psychological Thriller.
---------------------------------------------------
"Bedlam"
Story suggested by The William Hogarth painting Bedlam plate 8 "The Rake's Progress

Once again Val Lewton takes what would have been a second rate horror story and turns it into a sit on the edge of your seat psychological thriller. The basic question of the story is the same as the one in his movie "Ghost Ship"; that is, is man fundamentally good and helpful of others or is he so self centered that he will act even to his own ultimate demise? An added element is that of not quite being granted all mental faculties.

The year is 1791 Lord Mortimer (Billy House) is just one of the upper class (Wiggs) that gets his kicks from watching the loonies of Bedlam loon. His protégé (Anna Lee) is discussed at the treatment of the "guests" by the head apothecary, Master George Sims (Boris Karloff who can actually act). She attempts to correct this to the detriment of Lord Mortimer. So Lord Mortimer and Sims invite her as a guest to Bedlam.

Will she ever get out or just go crazy. While there she applies a theory supplied by a Quaker (Richard Fraser), one of the Society of Friends if this works the tables may turn on Sims. What can Sims say in his defense?
------------------------------------
"The Leopard Man"
All or our lives are like the ball bouncing at the top of the fountain

Rival entertainers meet in a club in New Mexico Kiki Walker (Jean Brooks) brings in a leopard to upstage Clo-Clo (Margo). But Clo-Clo gets the last laugh when she chases the leopard off with her castanets.

All is fun rivalry until people start dying. Naturally the local authorities think it is the leopard. But Jerry Manning (Dennis O'Keefe) who rented the leopard has a theory that this is the work of a demented person. This theory is sort of supported by Dr. Galbraith (James Bell) the local museum curator. To make matters worse the leopard's owner, Charlie How-Come (Abner Biberman) does not remember where he was at the time.

As with the cat people it is what you don't see that can harm you. And the simile turning of a card can mark you for death.

You may recognize Dynamite the leopard that was also used in the movie "Cat People".

Produced by Val Lewton (7 May 1904, Yalta, Crimea, Russian Empire (now Ukraine) ) whose story telling device is unique in that this is more of a psychological film that does not focus on any one person as they are all pawns in a much larger story. Some time it verges on the surreal.

Now that you have seen the film read the book "Black Alibi" by Cornell Woolrich.
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"The Ghost Ship"
A new third mate on his first long sea voyage in introduced to captain and crew. Before he steps on bard he is warned by a blond man. He runs into a mute. And before they even leave port Jensen is found dead, just a heat attack. "With his death the waters of the sea are open to us. But there will be other deaths and the agony of dieing."

Don't go looking for anything supernatural as this is a Val Lewton movie. I would pay close attention to the characters. One of them may be a bit unhinged. The big question in this story is man's nature to help or ignore their fellow man.
--------------------------------------
"Shadows in the Dark"
This is more of a Val Lewton biography with more emphasis on his producer years.

The Val Lewton Horror Collection.......2007-06-25

While the plots alone are enough to distinguish Lewton's brand of horror from other practitioners--a mysterious Serbian beauty might or might not have the ability to transform herself into a panther in "Cat People," a death-haunted New York woman is pursued by a cabal of satanists in "The Seventh Victim"--these films are also masterpieces of noir atmospherics. Karloff, an intellectual bored by ghoulish makeup, emerged from semi-retirement to make three pictures with Lewton: "Bedlam," "The Body Snatcher," and "The Isle of the Dead," with Bela Lugosi. It was a fruitful relationship. And this omnibus collection amply demonstrates Lewton's pulpy, lurid genius.

Quintessential Lewton..........2006-10-31

I've read the other reviews, and agree with most. Still, my favorite is "Curse of the Cat People". I've always been fascinated by (good) films that see life through the eyes of a child.Next to "To Kill a Mockingbird", I can't think of another film that brought me back to those simple, sweet times that adults just didn't get! (Except for Atticus, of course). I was also annoyed that the collection was in a tall box that would never fit on my shelf; I hate to separate them to fit on my shelf, alphabetically. Lewton had that wonderful idea, realized by Tourneur, with the glorious black & white photography, crisp and clear as a bell, and much appreciated by those of us who love outstanding film-making. I enjoy this collection a lot, but wish I could put it on the shelf with my other "collections", in a nice box.

Elegant horror.......2006-10-30

Steven Spielberg and Brian DePalma should be locked in a closet with a projection screen and forced to watch these films repeatedly until they swear an oath to imitate them. Made on what Tom Cruises' cleaning bill for one day's shoot would be adjusted for 1940 dollars, and infinitely superior to anything they have done. "Curse of the Cat People" and "The Seventh Victim" are largely unknown but the best and most subtle of these works. Less is more, I only wish there were more of them.

Average customer rating:

hold out for blu ray
Nastassja Kinski and Malcolm McDowell don't pussyfoot around

Cat People [HD DVD]
Starring: Fausto Barajas , Jr. Ed Begley , Berry Berenson , David Blackwell , and JoAnn Dearing
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: HD DVD

General | Mystery & Suspense | Genres | DVD | Video

General | HD DVD | Formats | DVD | Video

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Horror | HD DVD | Formats | DVD | Video

Mystery & Suspense | HD DVD | Formats | DVD | Video

Science Fiction & Fantasy | HD DVD | Formats | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B000T5O4BC

Customer Reviews:

hold out for blu ray.......2007-08-16

univiversal is soon to be supporting blu ray as the format war has declared its winner so save your $ and expect a release in the near future until then it is available on regular dvd for less

Nastassja Kinski and Malcolm McDowell don't pussyfoot around.......2007-07-29

The thing that first strikes you as you see this for the first time is the Sound track [Cat People: Original Soundtrack] "Putting out the fire; Theme from Cat People" Music Written by Giorgio Moroder Lyrics Written and Performed by David Bowie.

Next in the midst of a great cast you notice Nastassja and wonder why you did not get the picture of her and the Python mounted over your fireplace. With her new eyes of green she almost overwhelms the story.
Malcolm is creepier than usual; the first time he hops up on all fours, you want to throw him a mouse. Among many other great performances he played H. G. Wells in [Time After Time (1979)]

The story plot follows the complicated lives of cat people as they cope with modern day Louisiana. Irena Gallier is coming of age and puberty hit her hard. She adds a new dimension to the term "running around."
You may want to watch the original movie; but do not waste you energy trying to compare them as they from two different eras and budgets.

You definitely want to see this film, as you may be a cat person and not know it.

Average customer rating:

Stylish Directing Saves A Flat Story
If you're not a dog person you're a......
Erotic & Eerie***possible spoiler alert***
Cat People Review
Cat people or kitties in training?

Cat People
Starring: Nastassja Kinski , Malcolm McDowell , John Heard , Annette O'Toole , and Ruby Dee
Director: Paul Schrader
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Horror | Genres | DVD | Video

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ASIN: 6305077495
Release Date: 1998-01-14

Amazon.com

Description

A young woman discovers that romantic love has tragic consequences, as her lust transforms her into one of the Cat People. Based on Val Lewton's 1942 classic film.

Customer Reviews:

Stylish Directing Saves A Flat Story.......2007-06-13

If you're not a dog person you're a.............2007-06-12

Erotic & Eerie***possible spoiler alert***.......2007-05-19

Cat People Review.......2007-03-25

I love this movie. Great music, Nastassja Kinski is Hot. Very sexy and stylish.

Cat people or kitties in training?.......2007-03-14

Richard Scarry's Best Busy People Video Ever!

Average customer rating:

Not enough time to enjoy it
Best DVD - period.
Great for kids with learning disabilities
just 24 minutes of video
Love this video!

Richard Scarry's Best Busy People Video Ever!
Starring: Lacey Chabert , Eliza Harris , Alison Hashmall , Agnes Herrmann , and Alexander C. Iwachiw
Director: Tony Eastman
Manufacturer: Sony Wonder (Video)
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Animation | Kids & Family | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Kids & Family | Genres | DVD | Video

3-6 Years | Kids & Family | Genres | DVD | Video

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( R ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

General | Children's Music | Styles | Music
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ASIN: B000069HY8
Release Date: 2002-08-13

Amazon.com

Huckle, Lowly Worm, and rest of the schoolchildren are inspired by their teacher's discussion about different kinds of occupations and what people in those fields do all day. The kids run to the schoolyard for some make-believe, playing at what they'd like to be when they grow up. Huckle becomes a grocer like his father, Freddie Fox a baker specializing in mud pies, and Rhonda Raccoon a truck driver delivering baked goods. Consistent with the usual excellence of the Richard Scarry video series, Best Busy People introduces the concept of how a complicated society functions, with everyone's job having an impact on everyone else's. The jokes are funny, the songs are sweet, and Scarry's popular book What Do People Do All Day? makes great supplementary reading. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews:

Not enough time to enjoy it.......2007-05-09

It's a nicely narrated Richard Scarry story, but it cuts too short, not allowing a child time to learn the main characters. For the price I paid I would have preferred 2 or 3 Scarry episodes.

Best DVD - period........2007-05-07

We are on our second copy of the DVD - grandson's absolute favorite. We link to the book for discussion.

Great for kids with learning disabilities.......2007-04-10

I've been trying to teach my autistic son occupations for over a year now. He loves to watch movies and brings it to me for him to watch on a regular basis. This video gets his attention and has given me a way to reintroduce his flashcards while watching the movie. He's starting to make a connection as to what that person actually does. Anyone with an autistic child with receptive language delays know this is not something you can just explain to them and expect them to understand you.

just 24 minutes of video.......2007-01-30

The video is nice and entertaining for children.
But it lasts only 24 minutes. The indications on the box on the running time are misleading.
I believe that for its price, 24 minutes of video are poor and disappointing. Other DVD for the same age range and price run for more than twice it (Thomas and friends, Barney, Dora, Elmo).
I would recommend parents to choose another DVD and to carefully look at the duration of the movie, since children might get bored soon of repeated programmes.

Love this video! .......2007-01-06

My son loved this video the first time he saw it. It is entertaining, wholesome and very sweet. Absolutely nothing questionable for a little 2 year old's brain to absorb. My husband and I both loved Richard Scarry books as children, so it's really fun to see our son loving the same characters we did as children.

Average customer rating:

Stylish Directing Saves A Flat Story
If you're not a dog person you're a......
Erotic & Eerie***possible spoiler alert***
Cat People Review
Cat people or kitties in training?

Cat People [Region 2]
Starring: Nastassja Kinski , Malcolm McDowell , John Heard , Annette O'Toole , and Ruby Dee
Director: Paul Schrader
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Genres | DVD | Video

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

ASIN: B00009QNYA

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

Stylish Directing Saves A Flat Story.......2007-06-13

If you're not a dog person you're a.............2007-06-12

Erotic & Eerie***possible spoiler alert***.......2007-05-19

Cat People Review.......2007-03-25

I love this movie. Great music, Nastassja Kinski is Hot. Very sexy and stylish.

Cat people or kitties in training?.......2007-03-14

Average customer rating:

Well dog my cats

American Werewolf in London/Cat People
Starring: Jenny Agutter , Sean Baker , Joe Belcher , Michele Brisigotti , and Anne-Marie Davies
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Horror | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Genres | DVD | Video

( A ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: B0002NRRXS
Release Date: 2004-10-05

Customer Reviews:

Well dog my cats.......2005-01-31

American Werewolf

"Dr. Pepper" guy gets nipped

David (David Naughton "Be a Pepper") and Jack are Americans visiting England. Evidently they are not aware of the many werewolf movies. Everyone knows to beware of the moors. Not these two. Yep one gets bit the other ripped. Of course no one believes David when he mentions his hairy dreams and his suspicion that he may be experiencing that change in life. Long before the movie "Six Sense". David also saw dead people.

While in hospital for his bite recovery, a nurse (Jenny Aggutter of "Logan's Run" fame) takes a special interest in him and takes him home like a stray. So is he a bit unbalanced or does he have a nocturnal apatite that includes a lot of dumb people?

There is lots of great and not so great music with a moon motif in the background.

The movie stretches the theme too far. The jokes are just enough off to not be jokes. The pacing is off enough to make your fangs grate. Many opportunities were missed. And the abrupt ending leaves you wondering why?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nastassja Kinski and Malcolm McDowell don't pussyfoot around

The thing that first strikes you as you see this for the first time is the Sound track [Cat People: Original Soundtrack] "Putting out the fire; Theme from Cat People" Music Written by Giorgio Moroder Lyrics Written and Performed by David Bowie.

Next in the midst of a great cast you notice Nastassja and wonder why you did not get the picture of her and the Python mounted over your fireplace. With her new eyes of green she almost overwhelms the story.
Malcolm is creepier than usual; the first time he hops up on all fours, you want to throw him a mouse. Among many other great performances he played H. G. Wells in [Time After Time (1979)]

The story plot follows the complicated lives of cat people as they cope with modern day Louisiana. Irena Gallier is coming of age and puberty hit her hard. She adds a new dimension to the term "running around."
You may want to watch the original movie; but do not waste you energy trying to compare them as they from two different eras and budgets.

You definitely want to see this film, as you may be a cat person and not know it.

Average customer rating:

Good only for the music and historical purposes
Interesting slice of 1930's black cinema...

Hi De Ho/The Duke is Tops
Starring: Cab Calloway and His Cotton Club Orchestra , Cab Calloway , Ralph Cooper , Lena Horne , and Laurence Criner
Director: Roy Mack , and William L. Nolte
Manufacturer: Whirlwind Media
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Music Video & Concerts | Genres | DVD | Video