''Cat Girl'' is a 1957 British-American
horror film
Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes.
Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...
, produced by
Herbert Smith
Herbert Smith LLP was a multinational law firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom. The firm was founded in the City of London in 1882 by Norman Herbert Smith and merged with the Australian law firm Freehills on 1 October 2012, forming Herber ...
and
Lou Rusoff
Lou Rusoff (August 3, 1911 – June 29, 1963) was a Canadian-born screenwriter and producer best known for his work with American International Pictures.
He was brother-in-law to Sam Arkoff and was the screenwriter for many of Roger Corman's f ...
, directed by
Alfred Shaughnessy
Alfred James Shaughnessy (19 May 1916 – 2 November 2005) was an English scriptwriter, film director and producer best known for being the script editor of '' Upstairs, Downstairs''.
Early life
Alfred Shaughnessy was born in London, his father, ...
, that stars
Barbara Shelley
Barbara Shelley (born Barbara Teresa Kowin; 13 February 1932 – 3 January 2021) was an English film and television actress. She appeared in more than a hundred films and television series. She was particularly known for her work in horror film ...
,
Robert Ayres, and
Kay Callard
Kay Callard (10 November 1923 – 7 March 2008) was a Canadian film and television actress who spent most of her career in Britain. She was married to the actor Jack McNaughton
Jack McNaughton (22 December 190522 February 1990) was a British ...
. It was an unofficial remake of
Val Lewton
Val Lewton (May 7, 1904 – March 14, 1951) was a Russian-American novelist, film producer and screenwriter best known for a string of low-budget horror films he produced for RKO Pictures in the 1940s. His son, also named Val Lewton, was a paint ...
's ''
Cat People'' (1942). AIP released ''Cat Girl'' on a double bill with their 1957 film ''
The Amazing Colossal Man
''The Amazing Colossal Man'' (also known as ''The Colossal Man'') is a 1957 American black-and-white science fiction film from American International Pictures. Produced and directed by Bert I. Gordon, it stars Glenn Langan, Cathy Downs, William ...
''.
This was the first of two cat-related films starring Barbara Shelley, the other being ''
The Shadow of the Cat
''The Shadow of the Cat'' is a 1961 British horror film directed by John Gilling for Hammer Film Productions. It stars André Morell and Barbara Shelley. It was photographed in black-and-white by Arthur Grant. It was released in May 1961 on a ...
'' (1961).
Interview with Barbara Shelley
accessed 26 March 2014
Plot
Leonora Johnson (Barbara Shelley
Barbara Shelley (born Barbara Teresa Kowin; 13 February 1932 – 3 January 2021) was an English film and television actress. She appeared in more than a hundred films and television series. She was particularly known for her work in horror film ...
) is a woman who returns to her ancestral home and is told she will inherit money, but also that there is a family curse
A curse (also called an imprecation, malediction, execration, malison, anathema, or commination) is any expressed wish that some form of adversity or misfortune will befall or attach to one or more persons, a place, or an object. In particular, ...
: being possessed by the spirit of a leopard in spite of her disbelieving psychiatrist Dr. Brian Marlowe ( Robert Ayres). After she wishes her husband dead, he is found clawed to death in a park by an animal. An escaped leopard appears to be the culprit, but Leonara is convinced she is transforming into a were-cat. When the leopard is struck and killed by a car, Leonora strangely dies simultaneously.
Cast
* Barbara Shelley
Barbara Shelley (born Barbara Teresa Kowin; 13 February 1932 – 3 January 2021) was an English film and television actress. She appeared in more than a hundred films and television series. She was particularly known for her work in horror film ...
as Leonora Johnson
* Robert Ayres as Dr. Brian Marlowe
* Kay Callard
Kay Callard (10 November 1923 – 7 March 2008) was a Canadian film and television actress who spent most of her career in Britain. She was married to the actor Jack McNaughton
Jack McNaughton (22 December 190522 February 1990) was a British ...
as Dorothy Marlowe
* Ernest Milton as Edmund Brandt
* Lilly Kann
Lily Hertha Kann 26th. October, 1893, Peitz – 2nd. November, 1978, Sussex, was a German-born, British actress.
(Though the BFI website claims that she was born in Berlin, and died in Horsham). She appeared in the West End in the play ''Backgr ...
as Anna
* Jack May
Jack Wynne May (23 April 1922 – 19 September 1997) was an English actor.
Early life and education
May was born in 1922 in Henley-on-Thames, and was educated at Forest School in Walthamstow. After war service with the Royal Indian Navy in Bri ...
as Richard Johnson
* Patricia Webster as Cathy
* John Lee John Lee may refer to:
Academia
* John Lee (astronomer) (1783–1866), president of the Royal Astronomical Society
* John Lee (university principal) (1779–1859), University of Edinburgh principal
* John Lee (pathologist) (born 1961), English
...
as Allan
* Edward Harvey as Doorman
* Martin Boddey
Albert Martin Boddey (16 April 1907 – 24 October 1975) was a British film and television actor.
He was a founder member of the Lord's Taverners charity. Boddey started acting when he was nearly 40, often portraying irritable authority fig ...
as Cafferty
* John Watson as Roberts
* Selma Vaz Dias
Selma Vaz Dias, also known as Selma Cohen-Vaz Dias (23 November 1911 — 30 August 1977), was a British actress, writer, and painter. Dias was born in Amsterdam to
Jacob Vaz Dias and Hana Hamburger. She had a brother, Salomon. She
moved to the ...
as Nurse
Production
The film was the first Anglo-U.S. co-production from American International Pictures
American International Pictures (AIP) is an American motion picture production label of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In its original operating period, AIP was an independent film production and distribution company known for producing and releasing fi ...
. They put up $25,000 of the budget and a script by their regular writer Lou Rusoff
Lou Rusoff (August 3, 1911 – June 29, 1963) was a Canadian-born screenwriter and producer best known for his work with American International Pictures.
He was brother-in-law to Sam Arkoff and was the screenwriter for many of Roger Corman's f ...
in exchange for Western Hemisphere rights.[Mark McGee, ''Faster and Furiouser: The Revised and Fattened Fable of American International Pictures'', McFarland 1996, p. 109]
The script was originally entitled ''Wolf Girl''.[Gary A. Smith, ''The American International Pictures Video Guide'', McFarland 2009, p. 37] British director Shaughnessy thought the script about a were-cat was silly, so he rewrote the script to make it more of a psychological thriller wherein the lead character becomes convinced that she is transforming into a monster, but it's all really just in her mind. When the AIP executives watched the film, they were furious. Sam Arkoff wanted to know "Where is the Cat Monster?", so they hired special effects artist Paul Blaisdell to create a furry cat mask and claws (in less than 3 days) to splice into the film's finale for its U.S. release.
Unfortunately, the cameraman shot most of this extra footage slightly out of focus, making it look really shoddy in Paul Blaisdell's opinion. Blaisdell also was disappointed at how little footage of his cat mask actually wound up in the finished film (the shots comprised only a matter of seconds). Blaisdell took the mask and claws home with him afterwards, and used them to make some home movies with his friend Bob Burns at Blaisdell's Topanga Canyon home.
References
External links
*
''Cat Girl''
at Turner Classic Movies
*
* {{AFI film, id=52128, title=Cat Girl
Complete movie
at AMCTV (certain territories only)
Review of film
at Cinemafantastiqueonline.com
1957 films
American supernatural horror films
British horror films
American International Pictures films
Films produced by Herbert Smith (producer)
Remakes of American films
Horror film remakes
1950s English-language films
1950s American films
1950s British films