Many years ago, when someone suggested I watch this movie, I scoffed at the title, and prepared to be underwhelmed. This goes to show that even the Media Librarian can be mistaken. Cat People (DVD 1319) is scary! It was the first of nine horror classics produced by Val Lewton, who was hired by RKO Radio Pictures film studio and charged with making films that would compete with the Universal monster film series--Frankenstein, Dracula, etc. Lewton had to do this on a miniscule budget, with very limited time, and he had to work with whatever silly title the studio honchos suggested.
Within these restrictions, Lewton and film director Jacques Tourneur created a masterpiece of horror. It's the story of a Serbian artist, who is obsessed with cats and believes that if she becomes sexually active, she'll turn into a murderous cat woman. Thus, her marriage to a nautical engineer is in trouble from the start. When the husband turns to another woman, and Irena (artist/cat lady) starts seeing a psychiatrist, things go from bad to worse.
Check out the swimming pool scene, and the Central Park bus scene--
On the same DVD is the sequel, The Curse of the Cat People. It is also an excellent movie, but sad, not scary at all.
