Simone Simon had quite a screen presence. The original Cat People would have been unlikely to have caused as much of a stir with anybody but her in the lead. Simon tended to be cast as mysterious figures who seemingly come from places beyond the mortal realm. The most intriguing moment in All That Money Can Buy has a guy asking where she comes from, and she playfully, but honestly, answers, “Nowhere.” In 1944’s Curse of the Cat People, she appears as the ghost of the same character from the first film, answering young girl Ann Carter’s question regarding where she is from, saying, “I come from great darkness.”
In this film, her arrival is even preceded by a change in the lighting of the obvious set which is the backyard of the quaint, small town home where Carter has summoned her. The artificiality makes her encounters with Simon’s ghost all the more peculiar.
Simon plays the ghost of her character from Cat People. Although there was little sympathy towards her in that film, she is a benign force in this one, a playmate for the lonely Carter, while the girl represents for her the daughter she never had with husband Kent Smith from the first film. Carter’s mother is Jane Randolph, a woman who seems relatively unfazed that her daughter has what appears to be an imaginary playmate, one who should be unknown to the girl. Carter will find a photo in a drawer of Simon and identify her as the elusive friend. If I was Randolph, I would be wondering why photos of the husband’s dead ex are around the house and whether those were part of his wank bank.
I was a bit confused by Carter’s parentage initially, as Ken worries aloud whether Carter has some of Simon’s mysterious personality. I’ve heard of people doubting who was the father of a child, but this may be the first time I have heard anybody express doubt as to who was the mother. He is the kind of guy who believes his daughter “has too many fancies and too few friends.” There is so much pressure put on to conform, that her wish on her birthday is to “be exactly how Daddy wants me to be.” Guess we know the general nature of the conversations she’ll be having with a therapist in a few years.
It might help if the neighborhood kids weren’t such a bunch of stuck-up assholes. Carter had already alarmed teacher Eve March by slapping a boy who crushed the animated butterfly she had been chasing, even if it had been by accident. The girls who live nearby all feel shunned because she didn’t send them invitations to her birthday party. How those invitations all moved from the mailbox to a hole in the tree in the backyard is a mystery which remains unresolved.
That tree is not just in the middle of the backyard, but it seems to have some sort of supernatural aspect which isn’t explored. Carter seems a bit obsessed with it, yet the script seems to forget it exists after a while. Maybe the tree’s agent had negotiated a deal for another project, and it wanted to save its talents for James and the Giant Peach.
It is noticeable Carter talks about it less once she summons Simon via a “wishing ring” given to her by dotty, old neighbor Julia Dean, who lives in a decrepit old mansion with her daughter. That role is played by Elizabeth Russell, another carryover from the first film, though I suspect not as the same character. Dean denies Russell is her relation, that the real girl died when she was six, and this adult woman is a “liar and an imposter”. In that moment, Dean seems to channel a bit of Gollum. There will be another disturbing moment where Dean, a former actress, does a one-woman performance of the tale of the Headless Horseman, something which is a recurring motif in the story, though I was baffled as to its relevance.
Another odd aspect of this production is it is a Christmas movie. Again, this is an odd choice, as it is part of the plot while seemingly inessential to it. Primarily, it gives Dean yet another reason to shun her daughter, by refusing to open the gift Russell has given her. And yet, the old woman warmly receives the one from Carter. This reminded me of the odd relationship many women seem to have with their mothers, such as my own had with my grandmother, who would often say deeply hurtful things to her own flesh and blood, and then dote obsessively on the young girl next door. It is from experiencing that one step removed that I can understand the jealousy and rage Russell will develop towards Carter.
Another way the holiday factors into this is a charming little toss-off moment where a girl chides Carter because her family waits until Christmas morning to open their presents. The arrogant lass informs Carter that isn’t proper and then walks away. Carter just looks blankly at her retreating back and shrugs like she’s saying, “So?”
I greatly enjoyed this picture, though I would be hard-pressed to say exactly why it works. It feels like disparate elements of various stories floating around in a manner which makes the brain believe there is more connection tissue between them than there really is. It is not really a sequel to Cat People in either story or feel, and bringing back three of the actors is more jarring than if it had an entirely different cast.
That cast, from the largest roles to the smallest, is still solid. Smith is a bit of a dick, but he is effective at being that. Randolph is one again good in the role of a woman forced to play second fiddle, and this time to the ghost of her former rival. Sir Lancelot is the family’s butler, and he is charming as always, though it is odd for him not to sing his dialogue, like he did in Brute Force. Carter turns in an astonishingly good performance from somebody so young. Unfortunately, she did not have a career as an adult, as polio in her early teen years prevented that.
The real star of Curse of the Cat People is Simon. Her career in the U.S. was fleeting, what with studios not exactly sure of how to use her, and accusations of prima donna behavior. All I know is she is perfectly cast in the three films from which I know her. What is intriguing about this particular picture is how she is now a ghost, yet is more benign and gentle than in those other two movies. She achieves a strange kind of grace in one of her last U.S. screen appearances, a spectral presence in a single spotlight in the snow, a sad figure who has found love at last, however briefly.
Dir: Gunther von Fritsch and Robert Wise
Starring Simone Simon, Ann Carter, Kent Smith, Jane Randolph
Watched on Shout Factory blu-ray