Cat People

"She knew strange, fierce pleasures that no other woman could ever feel!"

1942 1h 13m EN

👍

6.9

SOLID

🔥

92%

CERTIFIED FRESH

💯

METACRITIC

⭐

7.2

IMDB

★6.9TMDB · 701🍅92%Rotten Tomatoes●85Metacritic★7.2IMDB · 29,019

MysteryHorrorRomance

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A Serbian émigré in Manhattan believes that, because of an ancient curse, any physical intimacy with the man she loves will turn her into a feline predator.

“She knew strange, fierce pleasures that no other woman could ever feel!”

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Cast

Simone Simon
Irena Dubrovna Reed
Kent Smith
Oliver Reed
Tom Conway
Dr. Louis Judd
Jane Randolph
Alice Moore
Jack Holt
The Commodore
Henrietta Burnside
Sue Ellen (uncredited)
Alec Craig
Zookeeper (uncredited)
Eddie Dew
Street Policeman (uncredited)

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Jacques Tourneur
Writers: DeWitt Bodeen
Languages: Serbian, English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

Tight 73-minute runtime — shorter than most television pilots.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $0.1M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $4M — a 29.9× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

ERA

Did you know

84 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: Serbian, English.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "Cat People Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Jacques Tourneur, shot by Nicholas Musuraca. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Roy Webb. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Jacques Tourneur directs. Nicholas Musuraca behind the camera. Roy Webb scores. Mark Robson cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in Serbian, English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Tight 73-minute runtime — shorter than most television pilots.
2Shot for just $0.1M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
3Grossed $4M — a 29.9× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
484 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
5Dialogue crosses 2 languages: Serbian, English.
6Part of the "Cat People Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
7Directed by Jacques Tourneur, shot by Nicholas Musuraca. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
8Original score by Roy Webb. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
9Editor Mark Robson shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
10Simone Simon and Kent Smith and Tom Conway carry the top of the cast.
11Marketing tagline: "She knew strange, fierce pleasures that no other woman could ever feel!".
12IMDB entry: tt0034587 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
13Classified under 45 themes, including "work", "jealousy", "love triangle", "isolation".

The technical file

Cinematography: Nicholas Musuraca
Original score: Roy Webb
Editing: Mark Robson
Costume design: Renié
Makeup / hair: Mel Berns
Runtime: 73 min · 1h 13m
Status: Released
Budget: $134,000
Box office: $4,000,000
Return: 2985% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): NR
IMDB: Cat People (1942)
Rotten Tomatoes: 92% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 85/100
IMDB rating: 7.2/10 · 29,019 votes
MPAA: Approved

Awards

2 wins & 3 nominations total

Part of

Cat People Collection

RKO B-movies from the early 1940's surrounding women's repression through ancient supernatural tribes and an underground cult of devil worshippers.

Also by

Jacques Tourneur

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2022-06-26
★ 6/10
Simone Simon ("Irina Dubrovna") comes to work in New York where she falls in love with Kent Smith ("Oliver Reed"). Their relationship soon becomes strained after she struggles with intimacy - you see she believes that should she ever even kiss someone she loved, she would turn into a violent feline and claw him to death. She confides in her now husband and somewhat sceptical, he sends her to a psychiatrist, the debonaire Tom Conway ("Dr. Judd"). Our story tracks her determination to get past this obsession in the face of her growing suspicion that "Oliver" is seeking solace elsewhere - and that they are planning on having her committed - in a tense and eerie way. The dialogue is quite stilted and the theatricality of the performances rob the film of much of it's pace - but it is still a good horror thriller.

Production companies