MovieChat Forums > The Curse of the Cat People Discussion > Husband and Father of the Year

Husband and Father of the Year

posted 17 years ago by Cardiff-Giant
28 replies | jump to latest

In the first film, Oliver Reed could legitimately be called a terrible husband. He rushes into marriage (within what, a week?) with a woman who won't even kiss him. He almost immediately starts seeing his coworker and telling her all of their personal secrets. He then takes them both on some sort of three-way date to the museum, when he already knows that his wife is jealous. Then he and Alice send the Irina away while at the museum. Finally, they resolve to put Irina in a mental institution, because the sleazy, sword-wielding psychiatrist thinks it's the right thing to do. NICE CATCH, IRINA.

In the second film, he berates his daughter for not having any friends. He builds her toys when she's trying to fit in, but when she doesn't do very well he yells at her. He doesn't even believe her when she says she went to another house in the neighborhood (hardly a far-fetched story). He eventually beats her for having an imaginary friend. NICE PARENTING, *beep*

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] hocfocprod 17 years ago

Don't forget the reason her friends are mad at her is essentially his fault. He told her about the "Magic Mailbox" in the tree.

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] PillowRock 16 years ago

> The time scheme at the beginning of "Cat People" is unclear,
> but I think a fair bit of time does go by between his first meeting
> with Irina and their marriage,
> and also between his marriage and his seeing Alice

Yes, there is enough time on both sides of the wedding for the seasons to change.

The clothing etc. in the zoo scenes, both at the beginning and toward the end, is in no way consistent with those scenes taking place in the middle of the winter. The driving snow storm during the wedding dinner, and the fact that nobody seems to think that's unusual weather, does place the wedding in the winter.

Therefore you've got *at least* a couple months between the couple meeting and getting married, probably more since the opening scene looks more like summer than autumn. You've also got *at least* a good couple months of unconsumated marriage before things really start deteriorating between Oliver and Irena.

Also, if I'm remembering correctly, Oliver's line about having run into the psychaitrist and learning that Irena had only gone to the first appointment was phrased in terms of having thought that Irena "had been going". That implies an ongoing group of would-be appointments ..... meaning that they're implying at least a few weeks having passed just between the first appointment and that chance meeting.

I would never claim that Oliver behaved ideally toward Irena. He didn't. However, charges against him that are based on an extremely compressed time line are unfair and don't stand up to close examination.

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] adamwarlock 7 years ago

In the first film, Irena is even ready to reconcile but he says it's too late, he loves Alice. But can you blame a guy who's waited for nooky for months and months? He did say he'd wait but one has limits.

All his actions in the second film are from the fear that Amy is under Irena's influence. Losing the invitations would be forgiven if Amy wasn't seen as weird by the other kids.

if man is 5
then the devil is 6
if the devil is 6
then God is 7
and if God is 7...

[–] twilightfun 17 years ago

Oh man, OP!

You know I thought some of the same thing about that cad of a dad in this film?

Note how when his little baby-girl acknowledged that she used the magical tree for the mail -- that HE TOLD HER was magical. I was like "wtf?" -- when he got on her for not faulting himself for why she put the darned mail in there in the first place (it's cause he never indicated it wasn't actually magic). Just listen to their conversations, and you can see why this poor kid was going through changes...trying to do right to the best of her good-hearted nature.

[–] elizabales 15 years ago

Yeah, I like that he tells his little girl not to pretend any more (because honestly, 6 is too old to pretend or be confused), and then almost in the same breath he tells her to make a wish and blow out all her candles so it will come true. I actually don't like that, but I do like that he gets called out on it.

[–] film_butcher 17 years ago

Kent Smith as Oliver Reed merely started Lewton's long line of unlikable so-called 'heroes'. Smith is as wooden and insensitive as they come, and if the early marriage timeframe is compressed in a way that makes him look uncaring (and fall into the arms of someone equally bovine) then he only has himself to blame. With Irena surrounded with stolid, unimaginative bores or rampant sex-maniacs, she was always going to seem 'odd'.
Lewton followed Reed up with Paul Holland in 'I Walked With A Zombie', supposedly a man in the Rochester/Byron mold, but in reality a self-absorbed grump who would have driven anyone away. Publicity man Jerry Manning in 'The Leopard Man' probably reigns supreme as the most unlikable Lewton hero. 'Hey, so I let a panther go! Waddya expect me to do about it?' He is a classic blend of know-all bluff and utter stupidity.
Another prime example is Anna Lee in 'Bedlam' - a self-righteous, arrogant snob, who the film delights in taking down a peg or two. And the entire cast (other than perhaps Fettes) are horrible in 'The Body Snatcher' - which saves time I suppose.

[–] chowbok 16 years ago

No doubt! And don't forget that he gave Irina a kitten the day after he met her. That has to be the worst gift ever. Who gives somebody they barely know a cat? That's like a 20-year commitment. The guy is just a clueless, insensitive clod.

[–] brendanchenowith 16 years ago

In his defense, he did say that unhappiness is something he had trouble dealing with because nothing in his life (before Irena) had ever gone wrong. He didn't know how to handle a child who was a loner when he "had a grand time as a kid".

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked.

[–] spamtar 15 years ago

The guy maybe a clueless insensitive clod but that what makes him such a great protagonist. A rare treat for a film of the 1940 where there were no antiheros only good/bad black and white. What is entertaining is that a person has to pay attention to the movie to get this otherwise it will fly by them because the tone of the movie and as acquiesced by the rest of the cast is that he is in the right. However for the audience who pays attention to the movie, they don' see this as right and then they even sympathies with the antagonist even more which gives this movie even more magic.
These are especially fitting horror movies for women not because of the outward fear of the Cat/ghost but the real threat of a husband/father who lacks sensitivity, observation and therefore responds in a manner lacking of any intuition.

This is the real horror which haunts the psyche

[–] thatsmydesire 15 years ago

Yes, when that one closest you you who is supposed to love you--turns into a "monster" who does not see or understand your goodness at all.

[–] poofta1970 15 years ago

I expected the git to invite the Carol singers in and explain to them how dangerous it was to believe in magical children born under moving stars,how the dead don't really come back to life and to offer a free model boat to the first person to give up having an imagination.

I half expected him to run off with the school teacher when his wife didn't agree with her and him that a first spanking was a special occation.

[–] PillowRock 15 years ago

film of the 1940 where there were no antiheros

You really need to check out the film noir genre. ;-)

[–] joeparkson 15 years ago

It would have been less of a movie had he been a fully actualized, understanding father. To me, he was doing his best. It's scary to think your own daughter may have the beginnings of mental illness when you've just been married to a woman who thinks she's a leopard.

Life is full of people who've had less than perfect parents. Just read the autobiographies of Kirk Douglas, Marlon Brando, etc.

In the father's defense, he was not neglectful, and he did manage to work through it in the end.

What was more tragic is the failed mother daughter relationship between old lady Farren and her adult daughter. That parent paid almost no attention to the daughter, never reached out to her, and there was no happy ending for the daughter.

[–] dementia13 12 years ago

- You really need to check out the film noir genre. ;-)

You need to check out history. ;-) There were few, if any, films noir at the time this was made.

To the original point, at least he comes around in the end. I was worried that the reverse would happen. His attitude was such a perfect embodiment of Hays Code values that I half-expected the film to justify his point of view.

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] skiop 13 years ago

Yeah. I was more like Amy. The kids wouldn't play with me, not because I wouldn't invite them to my birthday party; they wouldn't like it if I did invite them to my birthday party. I can't imagine having a "grand time as a kid"; the only good thing about it was getting to stay home, watching movies and playing video games. I didn't have an imaginary friend; I just talked to my stuffed animals.

[–] sforzando_films 11 years ago

That doesn't excuse him from being a child-abusing pr!ck!

Here's a slinky, go play.

[–] eek-a-mouse 14 years ago

The mother wasn't all that great either. Practically having the man-servant take care of her child. Taking the news that her six- year old daughter went alone to some stranger's house with hardly a thought. Not taking possession of the ring, hardly even looking at it even, and leaving it to her to go to the house to return it. Both parents left a lot to be desired.

[–] pierrotlunaire0 8 years ago

To be fair, letting the servants raise your children while you ignored them was practiced by the very rich and was probably admired as a 'proper' way to raise your children.

[–] ninjafish007 13 years ago

Cardiff, I could not agree with you more. Irina is the most fascinating, beautiful woman I've ever seen in film... and she's wasted on this lump of cardboard who couldn't comprehend her should he live to be a thousand.

He's a stiff.

And then of course, in "Curse of the Cat People," he's given the gift of a highly sensitive, wonderfully imaginative, kind, caring little girl as a daughter... and he fails miserably at being a father to her.

What a lunkhead.

I would have waited as long as I had to for Irina.