Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

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.

Spikeopath Out of Insignia Films, Cat Girl is a cheap British variant on Jacques Tourneur's Cat People from 15 years earlier. Plot basically finds Barbara Shelley as Leonora Brandt, a woman seemingly the victim of a family curse that turns her into a killer Leopard when disturbed emotionally. Naturally her psychiatrist Dr. Brian Marlowe (Robert Ayres) is positive that she's suffering mental illness, this in spite of the evidence suggesting otherwise. As the bodies begin to pile up and Dr. Marlowe takes Leonora under his wing, something is going to give come the finale.Directed by Alfred Shaughnessy and photographed by Peter Hennessy, it's a picture that doesn't lack for moody atmosphere. The Brandt family home is a creepy looking place, a sort of rectory type establishment, this forms the backdrop for the first half of the piece as it dallies in old dark house conventions. With barmy uncle and pessimistic housekeeper thrown in for good measure. Then it's a switch to a sanitarium in preparation for the tense finale that takes place out on the dank and dimly lighted streets.Some decision making by the doctor is hard to swallow, as is his approach to mental illness come to think of it, while there's some poor acting away from future Hammer Horror darling Shelley, but it does well with its minimal budget funding. Yes it makes you appreciate even more the brilliance of Tourneur and Musuraca back in 1942, yet there's a fun time to be had with this one if accepting it on its own modest eerie terms. 6/10

The_Void As if the title wasn't a dead giveaway, The Cat Girl is a fifties version of the 1942 Jacques Tourneur classic Cat People; although ironically it shares more in common with the 1982 remake as to how the idea of a woman turning into a cat blends with the plot line. The film was made in 1957 so by today's standards is still pretty tame, but much less is left to the imagine than was the case with the earlier 1942 film, and this one certainly is a brash take on the subject. However, in doing away with the subtlety of Tourneur's film, The Cat Girl also loses a lot in the way of intrigue. The plot focuses on a young woman named Leonora Brandt. Leonora is the unlucky recipient of a family curse, which means that she turns into a bloodthirsty leopard at night…or at least so she is told. leonora begins to believe that the curse is real and sees herself changing during times of high stress; but it's never really clear whether what is happening is real or just inside her head.As was the case with the Cat People, the film relies a lot on atmosphere and director Alfred Shaughnessy ensures that the film always feels very sinister feel about it and a few key scenes in particular are real highlights in that respect; although nothing in the film reaches the highs of the swimming pool scene in Jacques Tourneur's film. Barbara Shelley (who would go on to make a number of Hammer Horror films) takes the lead role and does rather well with it; she successfully manages to convey her character's emotions throughout the film. Her performance is not matched by the plot, however, as it moves rather sluggishly and the curse itself is never really explored. Of course, we didn't find out a great deal about the curse in Cat People; but that film kept all of its cards close to its chest so it didn't feel improper; which is not the case here. The film boils down to an interesting and well done ending and while it's slightly unfair to compare it to Cat People; that is the obvious film to compare it to...although The Cat Girl is a decent little film in its own right.