Val Lewton
Does anyone have an idea why Val Lewton made this movie. I know he must of been stuck with the title. I personally think it is a great film about childhood. It has an atmosphere all to its own.
Sorry it's taken two and a half years for someone to answer you but here goes. The story I heard was that the original CAT PEOPLE was so successful that the studio (RKO) rushed a sequel into production. The original director,Gunther von Fritsch, was drafted and editor Robert Wise began his long, great career as a director with this movie. By this time, RKO was a bargain basement studio with few resources. Having worked with Orson Welles, Wise learned in the "less is more" school of movie making. In fact, CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE is a fine example of how to make a great movie out of absolutely nothing, including stock shots and some of the actors' screen tests. Martin Scorsese also says this this is one of his favorite movies. But, like me, he says that about a lot of movies.
shareI say that about a lot of movies too. But hey, if you love movies what's wrong with having a hundred or even more favorites?
The commentary track discusses why he made the movie, as in, his own childhood was difficult, but I don't remember much else, I kept falling asleep during it. It's not the fault of the CT, I was very tired.
Marianne
I'm reading a biography on Lewton now and it seems he was admonished as a child for telling stories about scary cats and other things nobody else could see (because they were from his imagination). The basis for this movie may have come from that.
It's loose relationship to Cat People is a studio manuever to sell tickets, but overall, if you look at the movie on its own it has atmosphere and story and moments of suspense.
I once interviewed Val Lewton's son for a magazine article (alas, has never seen print). Lewton was basically handed a title and a budget by the studio and was told to make horror films. He could come up with whatever script he wanted, but it had to be a horror film with that title. Lewton used contract players and cannibalized sets from other movies (the staircase in CAT PEOPLE was from the set of THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS), but was quite creative with his camera work and lighting to cover up the sometimes sketchy sets and crude special effects (if there even WERE any special effects).
That's pretty much how the B units worked in those days. You were on a tight budget and usually were assigned to do movies of a specific genre. You could be handed a title or be told to feature a certain actor, or to do a movie as part of a certain series (like the old Sherlock Holmes films with Basil Rathbone, or the countless Blondie comedies). Sometimes you had some liberty to do what you wanted, sometimes not. The B units could be a great breeding ground for future talent (some major stars got their starts in Bs, along with some major writers and directors), but there were even more who never got out of the B units.