by Everett Jensen

Created on: April 06, 2010

The Curse of the Cat People

directed by Gunter von Fritsch, Robert Wise

written by DeWitt Bodeen

starring Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Jane Randolph, Ann Carter, Eve March, Julia Dean, Elizabeth Russell,  Erford Gage, Sir Lancelot

Despite having very little to do with the original “Cat People” released two years prior, this film was billed as a sequel.  The story has no Cat People in it and isn’t really much of a horror film at all and instead possesses elements that are more entrenched in fantasy and whimsy.

Upon the death of his first wife Irena (Simone) at the end of the first film Oliver Reed (Smith) has married his co-worker Alice (Randolph) and the couple have produced a shy, socially awkward daughter named Amy (Carter) who is just turning six when the film opens.  Amy has gotten into trouble for daydreaming in class and has not been able to secure any friends.  She is assigned the task of mailing her birthday invitations but instead places them in a tree that her father told her when she was three was a magic mailbox.  Oliver is very short with Amy and attempts to shake her out of her reveries with little success.

Amy is an imaginative child and one fully understands just why she has such a time with boring, dull, generic reality.  She is given a ring by a mysterious woman in an old house and when she wishes on it a beautiful woman appears and they play together like good friends.  The woman is in fact the ghost of Irena and she helps Amy get through a difficult time in her young life.

The film focuses upon Amy and how her friend provides the love and understanding that she desperately craves.  Amy’s mother and father don’t quite know how to deal with their daughter who seems so much different than the other children that it frightens them a little.  They naturally want Amy to be normal but it becomes clear that this will never be and that they will most likely have to live with a child who can’t help but drift off into her own world whenever things get a bit too dusty for her to tolerate.

Amy is essentially an artist who grasps at strange and peculiar thoughts and transforms them into vivid landscapes that her parents have either forgotten about or have never known.  She is thwarted at every turn be it by her parents or teacher, Miss Callahan (March) who genuinely is concerned for Amy and truly wants what is best for her.  Best, in this case, is a child who

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