CAT PEOPLE (1942)

Director: Jacques Tourneur

Writer: DeWitt Bodeen

Producer: Val Lewton

Cast: Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Tom Conway, Jane Randolph, Jack Holt, (and uncredited cast members) Alan Napier, Elizabeth Russell, Alec Craig, Theresa Harris, John Piffle, Dot Farley, Steve Soldi

In New York City’s Central Park Zoo, Oliver Reed (Kent Smith) meets lonely and beautiful Serbian immigrant Irena Dubrovna (Simone Simon). They soon fall in love and get married. Unfortunately, Irena is afraid to consummate their marriage because she believes that she is descended from a Serbian race of satanic cat people. She fears that if she has her passions aroused she will transform into a huge cat and kill her lover.

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When RKO Radio Pictures wanted to pounce on the same audience that made Universal Pictures’ The Wolf Man (1941) a big hit, they figured that a picture with the title of Cat People would grab them. They dumped that derivative title into the lap of their fledgling producer Val Lewton to make a derivative B-film. However, Lewton was a literate and cultured man with no appreciation for the horror film standards set by Universal Pictures. Despite the exploitative title, Lewton set out to make a horror film with a sophisticated and innovative approach.

Val Lewton made me appreciate that a film producer could be much more than just the guy watching the schedule and the budget on a film while kicking the director in the ass. Lewton’s taste and creativity shaped his productions as much as his writers and directors. He contributed story ideas and rewrote scripts.

Above all, Lewton decreed that his horror films would involve the audience by being ambiguous. There was often a decision to be made by the characters and the audience about what the menace was and who or what was to blame. The scares came from within the viewers prompted by the tease of shadows and sounds that could suggest almost anything. Suggestion forced the viewers to pay attention and use their imaginations that involved them more deeply than most other films.

In Cat People Lewton uses a very low-key approach in a slow burn story of marital dysfunction. We are left to figure out if that dysfunction is due to a psychological or supernatural cause. There is no outright villain provided.

As Irena Dubrovna, Simone Simon is quite adorable. She is immediately likable and always sympathetic. Even once we are aware that she may become a menace, we still feel for her. She has been emotionally and psychologically injured through no fault of her own.

Because Simon’s character is so charming, it would be easy to resent Kent Smith’s Oliver Reed. Some people may find him a bit dense as the lucky bum that hooks up with a sweet lady like Irena and can’t deal with her superstitions. That is really not a fair criticism. The horror film audience is primed to accept the possibility of a supernatural menace in a story. Were such a complication to be fixated on by someone in our own relationships, we would want to dismiss that as a fantasy or delusion to reestablish a sense of stability in our lives. Let’s cut Oliver Reed some slack. He does manage to remain chaste in his marriage waiting for his wife Irena to overcome her sexual dread.

However, Oliver does manage to eventually piss us off when he has the thoughtless lapse of letting his gorgeous co-worker Alice Moore (Jane Randolph) in on his marital problems. Despite the fact that she is also in love with Oliver (like I said, he’s a lucky bum), she is such a good sport that she recommends a psychiatrist to help Irena. As Alice says, she’s “the new kind of other woman.” It is a true credit to Randolph’s performance that we still like her Alice character as much as Irena.

A real highlight is the enigmatic cameo by Elizabeth Russell. She seems positively mystical as she disturbs Irena during a brief encounter in a restaurant. As with so many incidents in this film, we can’t put our finger on anything that is truly an indication of danger or evil in this moment, but as horror film patrons we are just as sensitive as Irena to the potential for the sinister.

The one character that seems a bit shifty is the psychiatrist Dr. Louis Judd (Tom Conway). With his upper crust manner and English accent, he seems a bit removed from the other characters and perhaps a bit too smug. He also lets his libido cross the line in his doctor-patient relationship.

Good performances by the aforementioned actors make the slow build up to the scenes of threat really work. Once we are bonded with these characters and their lives, the scary set pieces succeed because we feel that there is something to lose rather than just a morbid spectacle to witness. The technique used to present the scares relies on suggestion and the unease about a menace that can’t be fully comprehended.

The higher-ups at RKO insisted on a few shots in some scenes to make the menace a bit less ambiguous. There is still plenty left to the imagination and we are teased throughout the first half of the picture wondering just what sort of threat we are dealing with. In some later Lewton flicks, the menace could be soft-pedaled to the point of frustration. I think Cat People has just the right menacing mix of the suggested, the suspected, and the certain. Our perceptions are a bit vague as they are for the film characters, but we are given just enough information to arrive at our own conclusions.

It must be noted that one of Val Lewton’s innovations was introduced in Cat People. It has been dubbed “the bus.” This jump scare technique is usually done with much less finesse these days as the false scares that must punctuate most youth-centric fright flicks between the kills.

Cat People was the first of Val Lewton’s nine RKO horror films of the ’40s that have become classics of the genre. It set out to be a classy counterpoint to the prevailing MO in horror films typified by Universal Pictures. The management of RKO was not happy with Cat People until the cash from the box office started piling up. After a couple of big-budget RKO flops by Orson Welles, Cat People’s huge success on its small investment saved the studio. With its intimacy and sympathetic characters presented in a reserved and moody manner, Cat People demonstrated that there was more than one way for the horror film to skin a cat.

IT! (1967)

Director: Herbert J. Leder

Writer: Herbert J. Leder

Producer: Herbert J. Leder

Cast: Roddy McDowall, Paul Maxwell, Jill Haworth, Alan Sellers, Noel Trevarthen, Aubrey Richards, Oliver Johnston, Ernest Clark, Richard Goolden, Dorothy Frere, Ian McCulloch, Tom Chatto, Steve Kirby, Frank Sieman, Russell Napier, Brian Haines, John Baker, Mark Burns, Raymond Adamson, Lindsay Campbell 

Arthur Pimm (Roddy McDowall), the assistant curator of a London art museum, discovers that the latest piece to be put on display is the legendary Golem of Prague. This Hebrew statue can be brought to life and serve the will of its master. The frustrated and unstable Pimm is infatuated with the possibilities of the power he can wield controlling the indestructible Golem (Alan Sellers). 

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It may surprise my readers to know that this classy and cultured character doesn’t frequent museums very often. Is that due to this retro reprobate’s arrested development and intellectual laziness? Of course not! I avoid public collections of historic and cultural interest due to a finely developed sense of self-preservation. My lifelong study of cinematic artifacts has discovered that museums are very dangerous places. Hang around a museum too long and you run the risk of becoming a wax-covered display, getting strangled by mummies, or being disemboweled by demonic beings. The best you can hope for is that the gorgeous museum patron you obsess about will drive you nuts.

There is no clearer example of the warning about the danger zones that museums pose to the public than It! The joint in this flick makes headlines with the fatalities suffered by its staff and contractors at an alarming rate. Morbid bastards that the public are, it turns out to be good for business. Morbid bastard that I am, It! keeps me returning for more viewings, as well.

The novelty of this movie’s menace is that there had not been much done before with the Golem legend. Since there had been only a handful of Golem films made over thirty years earlier and one Czechoslovakian film in 1951, this monster seemed like a pretty fresh gimmick. Although this is not a Hammer Films production, this British film seems to be following Hammer’s lead by doing a contemporary take on an old movie monster. In fact, Carlo Martelli’s music score here is actually using similar themes he used a few years earlier in Hammer’s The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb (1964). 

The title menace itself is a monster lacking in any character aside from an unwillingness to stay idle. The Golem is little more than a weapon used by our villain. As portrayed by Roddy McDowall, Arthur Pimm is the one that brings the Golem to life, and Roddy McDowall’s performance is the force that animates this entire film. 

If ever a movie was carried by its star, It! is certainly held up by Roddy McDowall as nutjob protagonist Arthur Pimm. While his Golem can tear down Hammersmith Bridge, such power pales alongside McDowall’s performance singlehandedly lifting this wild and unwieldy story. He is funny, crazy, and sympathetic. We know he is wrong, yet as the main character he keeps our interest wanting to see just how long he can get away with his crimes that were already underway before he animated his stone henchman. 

As if to atone for being one of the biggest knobs I have ever seen in a horror film back in 1958’s How to Make a Monster, Paul Maxwell is the hero in It! As Jim Perkins, the visiting American representative of the New York Museum, Maxwell gives a nice performance that plays well off of McDowall’s. Perkins’ manner borders on smug, but his easy confidence contrasts nicely with Pimm’s instability. Of course, the fact that he scores instantly with Ellen Grove (Jill Haworth), Pimm’s object of unrequited lust, makes us empathize even more with the mad curator. 

Speaking of madness, there is another obvious horror film influence lumped into this narrative. Fans of Psycho (1960) can’t miss it and I rather like it. Derivative though it may be, it pumps up the ghastly content in the thin story and demonstrates how flawed our protagonist Arthur Pimm is. The whole point of the movie is that when power falls into the wrong hands, as it does with Arthur Pimm, that power will be misused. 

I appreciate a simple story well told, and It! is a fun bit of horror hokum. The only lapse for me is that, although the Golem is indestructible, it is awfully slow. Even if the military can’t destroy it, they could certainly outmaneuver it to raid Pimm’s hideout late in the film and waste the mad curator. Of course, that would still leave the Golem at large, and destroying it seems to be the military’s main objective. There may have been some concern about the safety of Ellen as Pimm’s hostage, but eventually the army decides to hell with that and goes for the nuclear option. This provides another heroic opportunity for Paul Maxwell to make me forget what an absolute jerk he was in How to Make a Monster. 

The thing I have always found to be most unsettling about the film is the warning that is engraved on the Golem. In attempting to understand the Golem and how to control it, Pimm takes a rubbing of the engraved characters to an old scholar (Richard Goolden) for translation. It is such a bleak prophecy that it is as nihilistic as anything appearing in any horror film at the time when things seemed to be taking a much darker turn in the genre.

ROADGAMES (1981), aka ROAD GAMES

Director: Richard Franklin

Writers: Everett De Roche, Richard Franklin

Producer: Richard Franklin

Cast: Stacy Keach, Jamie Lee Curtis, Marion Edward, Grant Page, Killer (Boswell the dog), Thaddeus Smith, Steve Millichamp, Alan Hopgood, Robert Thompson, Bill Stacey, John Murphy, Ed Turley, Angie La Bozzetta, Tony Bishop, Abbe Holmes, Colin Vancao, Paul Harris, Rochelle Harris, Carol Ann Aylett, Les James (uncredited), Tom Ryan (uncredited)

Pat Quid (Stacy Keach) is an American independent trucker in Australia. During his long, lonely drives, Quid resorts to several means to pass the time. His latest roadgame involves supposing that the driver of a dark green van he keeps passing along the remote Outback roadway may be connected to the recent serial killings in the news.

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With Roadgames the devout Alfred Hitchcock fan Richard Franklin directs a wonderful variation on Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954). Hitchcock’s hero with a broken leg (James Stewart) was cooped up in his apartment and alleviated his boredom staring out the window at his neighbors. He eventually comes to suspect one of them of foul play. Franklin’s protagonist Pat Quid is cooped up in his semi-trailer truck for hours on end and alleviates his boredom making assumptions about the lives of the various motorists he passes during his trips. Quid begins to suspect that one of them is a murderer. This hardly makes Roadgames a rip-off. Although it uses the same character quirk of filling idle time with morbid fancies that become obsessive, its settings, characters, and humor make it unique and engaging.

Star Stacy Keach is as important to the success of Roadgames as director Franklin. As trucker Pat Quid, he is an eccentric, intelligent, and witty character. We spend a lot of time with him alone on the road with only his pet dingo Boswell for company. His one-sided conversations with the dog are funny and demonstrate how independent his character is. With just a dog to share his life aboard his truck, which is equipped with a small sleeping compartment, Pat Quid is the ultimate, self-sufficient loner. When he happens to converse with others, he often stresses that he is a truly individualistic character and not just a “truck driver.”

It is also nice to see that while Pat Quid seems like a guy that can take care of himself, he can make some missteps. His heroics are all the more gripping because he is not infallible. The story never devolves into asinine and unbelievable action hero overkill.

Jamie Lee Curtis appears in the fifth of the six scream queen roles that began her feature film stardom. She plays Pamela, the hitchhiker that Quid eventually picks up. In a nod to director Franklin’s filmmaker idol, Quid refers to the hitchhiking Pamela as “Hitch.” Pamela has a nice chemistry with Quid, and their relationship has a bit of built-in suspense. Of course, there is the will-they-or-won’t-they-get-it-on aspect. Additionally, as the story progresses, Quid’s changing feelings for Pamela make him vulnerable. Eventually, Quid’s association with her winds up making him a person of interest to the law.

Roadgames creates much of its audience involvement with its suggestions of the grisly deeds of its killer. Hinting at the deadly details makes us want to find out more and to be sure of the killer’s identity. Most of the time we are being led to certain conclusions by the assumptions of Pat Quid and the things he observes. One of the creepiest scenes is Quid’s nighttime inspection of the sides of pork that are hanging inside the trailer he is hauling. We are along for the ride in Quid’s big rig and can’t help but play his roadgame of look-for-the-killer.

Throughout the film the killer remains an enigma. This bonds the viewer more closely to Quid’s point of view. While Quid has his suspicions, he has them confounded and this raises doubts in him and the audience. In turn there are other characters that are suspicious of Quid and his behavior. We immediately take Quid’s side because he is the main character through which we glean a lot of information, yet the conclusions we share with Quid may be flawed.

Director Richard Franklin’s visual set pieces are very engrossing. He presents tense and creepy situations with little or no dialogue. These images intercut with Stacy Keach’s expressions get our imaginations working to arrive at some morbid conclusions. No doubt Franklin’s hero Alfred Hitchcock would have approved.

One can’t attribute enough credit to the script co-written by Franklin’s frequent collaborator Everett De Roche. Despite Hitchcock’s preference for purely visual storytelling, his films were also graced with provocative and witty dialogue. Franklin’s Roadgames is also loaded with fun dialogue that intrigues and amuses. Whether talking to his pet dingo during his long drives or to hitchhikers, Quid’s conversations are always interesting.

Prolific Australian composer Brain May’s music is just right. It serves to present a theme for Pat Quid that can be carefree or assertive. May’s score gets the adrenaline pumping when Quid takes action and raises goose bumps when something nasty is developing.

On the basis of this great Hitchcock-inspired film, Richard Franklin was picked to direct Psycho II (1983), the sequel to the Hitchcock masterpiece Psycho (1960).

Unfortunately, Roadgames went unappreciated by the movie-going public during its initial release in both its native Australia and the US. However, it has developed into a cult film over the years, thanks to home video. That’s how I first thumbed a ride on this big rig of suspense, and it still gets this fright flick fan to where I’m headed.