Something entirely different and far more outlandish comes next with 1944’s The Curse of the Cat People from co-directors Gunther Von Fritsch and Robert Wise. It doesn’t sound very festive with a title like that and indeed it isn’t, though its thrilling climax does take place at Christmas with the giving of presents serving as a crucial plot point. Also, this creepy tale of a little girl befriending an imaginary playmate with terrifying results appears on quite a few lists of supposed ‘alternative’ holiday movies, so I’m totally having it. Why not?
It turns out that this is a ‘tangential’ sequel to the earlier Cat People made in 1942, with some of the same cast and characters. That one was about marine engineer Oliver (Kent Smith) dealing with the fact his new wife turns into a panther whenever she’s aroused. Mee-ow! That sounds awesome and of course was remade by Paul Schrader to chilly, sensual effect in 1982.
This one doesn’t really have much to do with cats but picks up the story of Oliver’s family a few years later. Evidently his cat-cursed missus died at the end of the last one, so Ollie has a new wife now, the perfectly lovely and definitely human Alice (Jane Randolph). Understandably, they don’t
like to talk much about his first wife.
They are, however, a teensy bit worried about the behaviour of their five year old daughter Amy (Ann Carter) who’s lost in a world of make-believe, preferring her own imagination to playing with other kids. She’s introduced punching a boy because he squished a butterfly she regards as her ‘friend’. Hmmmmmm.
This really speaks to me, as we’ve had our own ‘issues’ with our darling daughter Amelia. She’s a happy, wonderful child with a vivid imagination and more often than not the whole family gets involved as characters in ‘imaginary play.’ It’s all cool, but she can often get frustrated if anyone tries to break from character or the rules of her imaginary world. This doesn’t worry us too much – we’re quite sure she just has an incredibly creative mind and we want to encourage that, though her grumpy old head nursery teacher has her own ideas about this and isn’t afraid to say so.
So, this is the dilemma faced by the Reed family. Old fashioned Oliver is of the opinion that Amy simply must stop all this nonsense and make some real pals. But it’s not easy – nobody shows up to her birthday party because, inspired by a made-up story daddy told her, the kid decides to post her invitations into a hole in a tree instead of the post box. Yikes.
I really feel for this child as she seems like a sharp, polite, pleasant girl. Turns out Carter was also a huge child star of the ‘40s. On a quest to make new buddies, Amy befriends a possibly-insane older lady named Julia (Julia Dean), an ex-actress who gifts her a ‘magic’ ring. This leads her to make friends with a seemingly imaginary companion who appears in her garden and can change the weather and stuff. Wouldn’t you know it, it’s the ghost of Irena (Simone Simon), dad’s dead wife from the first film, here acting as some sort of spooky guardian angel. I don’t think these are the sort of friends daddy had in mind.
It's interesting, as we can never really be sure if Irena is really a ghost or just in Amy’s mind. It’s also a neat way to bring back all the main players from Cat People but doing so in a way that’s original and can stand alone as its own film.
It gets complicated when it turns out Julia has a grown-up daughter named Barbara (Elizabeth Russell) who, possibly through some form of dementia, she refuses to acknowledge as her child and treats like garbage. With Christmas coming, she starts showing Amy all the love and compassion Barbara missed out on, showering her with gifts while not giving Barbara a damn thing.
It all builds up nicely to a very dramatic and tragic conclusion on Christmas day. As I mentioned, it’s not mega Christmassy, but there are carols, a gorgeous tree and the gift-giving is where it all really kicks off. It’s short at 70 minutes, but it’s intriguing, odd and leaves some tantalising, delicious ambiguities just hanging there. Like a proper Christmas surprise, this is not what I asked for or expected, but I really appreciate it nonetheless.
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