The Curse of the Cat People
Starring: Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Jane Randolph
Director: Robert Wise, Gunther von Fritsch
Writer: DeWitt Bodeen
Producer: Val Lewton
The Curse of the Cat People is a 1944 American psychological supernatural thriller film directed by Gunther von Fritsch and Robert Wise, produced by Val Lewton, and starring Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Jane Randolph, and Ann Carter. It tells a story about a young girl who befriends the ghost of her father's deceased first wife, a Serbian fashion designer who descended from a race of people who could transform into cats.
Trivia
- The film, which began production at the RKO Gower Street studios in Hollywood on August 26, 1943, and wrapped on October 4, with additional shooting the week of November 21, marked two directorial debuts.
- As was typical with Lewton's films, the tight budget demanded that sets be repurposed from other RKO productions, in this case those of Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), which had also provided sets for Cat People.
- RKO studio executives wanted to cash in on the success of the first film and insisted on the title, despite producer Val Lewton's desire to change it to Amy and Her Friend.
Filming Locations
- By the end of filming, the film, which had done some location shooting at Malibou Lake, California, was nine days behind schedule, and its budget had to be increased from $147,000 to $212,000.
Previous Showings
10 Runs • 8 Festivals
4,610 tickets sold
All runs on record (10):
- March 6 - 8, 1991 · 416 ticketsw/ Cat People
- November 29 - December 1, 2000 · 299 ticketsHorror 2000w/ Mademoiselle Fifi
- April 4 - 6, 2007 · 595 ticketsFilm Noir, Val Lewton, 1930s musicals and more!w/ The Woman in the Window
- May 5 - 6, 2007 · 294 ticketsw/ Cat People
- March 3 - 4, 2011 · 270 ticketsWinter 2011 Early Bette Davis, Val Lewton and morew/ The Seventh Victim
- August 21 - 23, 2013 · 360 ticketsSummer 2013w/ Cat People
- April 14 - 16, 2017 · 598 ticketsThe Films of Val Lewton, every Fri-Sat-Sunw/ The Ghost Ship
- August 21 - 23, 2019 · 696 ticketsSummer 2019w/ A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
- August 4 - 5, 2022 · 500 ticketsSummer 2022w/ A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
- October 24 - 25, 2024 · 582 ticketsFilm Noir plus Val Lewtonw/ Night of the Hunter