PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological, metaphysical*
Lou Rusoff’s SHE CREATURE ended on
an upbeat note for its monstrous female, but about a year later Rusoff's
CAT GIRL, like its probable inspiration 1942’s CAT PEOPLE, consigns the
titular female fiend to destruction by the forces of realism and practicality.
The film doesn’t open on the title
character Leonora Brandt (lion-brand?).
Instead it begins with her aged uncle Edward looking out the window of
his English manor into a dark and stormy night, awaiting his niece’s
arrival. A brief conversation with
Edward’s housekeeper establishes that Edward has a legacy he wants to bestow on
Leonora, one that connects in some strange way to the caged leopard in the
cellar.
The scene shifts to an inn not far
from the manor, where Leonora and her three associates have paused—a couple
named Kathy and Alan, and Leonora’s husband Richard Johnson. Interestingly, Leonora is never addressed as
“Mrs. Johnson.” Despite the fact that
they’re only a few miles from Edward’s domicile, Leonora fears seeing her uncle
again and begs Richard to take her back to London. Richard proves indifferent to her fears,
urging her to be “practical,” though in this scene and others it’s clear that
he merely wants to placate her wealthy uncle’s whims so that he won’t cut
Leonora out of his will. While at the
inn Leonora encounters what seems a more positive male figure from her past, a
psychologist named Brian—only to find out that after they broke up (for reasons
never specified), Brian married another woman, name of Dorothy.
In DELIRIOUS #5, Steven Johnson
interpreted Leonora’s fear of her uncle as indicative of an incestuous, or
quasi-incestuous, relationship. There’s no overt testimony of such, but it’s
clear upon Leonora’s arrival that she shares a bond with her uncle, for she
hears the roar of the caged leopard below when no one else in the room with
Leonora hears anything. The uncle
refuses to interact with Leonora’s guests, though he does come across Richard
cheating on his wife with Alan’s girlfriend Kathy. Later that night, when everyone else is
asleep, the housekeeper summons Leonora (who isn’t sharing a bed with Richard)
to meet Edward in the cellar, a room where in earlier days Leonora was never
allowed to trespass.
Edward, calling his brother’s child
“my Leonora,” shows her the caged leopard and tells the girl that their family
shares a common curse in which they share identity with a great cat. It’s lightly suggested that the leopard may
be more than a simple beast, though only at the story’s end does it seem to
possess any strong metaphysical traits.
Edward tells Leonora that when he dies, the curse will descend upon her,
so that she will revel in the leopard’s killings and be “as one” with it. Thus he encourages her not to make his
brother’s mistake: that she should never reproduce. Leonora doesn’t believe him
and flees, but not before Edward encourages her to touch the leopard’s fur,
which apparently bonds her to the big cat. After Leonora runs away, Edward
releases the creature from its cage and allows it to kill him.
The leopard escapes the manor. The authorities are called in, and because
Leonora is so distraught, they call in the closest psychologist, Brian. Brian attempts to refute Leonora’s fears of
werewolfism with paternalistic logic.
But the next night Leonora discovers Richard messing around with Kathy,
and, as if in tune with Leonora’s savage hatred, the leopard shows up and kills
Richard. Guilty Leonora tries to
confess, but the police suspect no one but the leopard.
Brian talks Leonora into seeking
psychiatric help at the sanitarium he runs.
Brian never makes any direct overtures to her, but he’s evidently not
forgotten her charms, since in his wife’s presence he calls her “Lee,”
prompting Leonora to observe that no one else calls her that. At the sanitarium Leonora imagines that she
transforms into a were-cat, but when Brian challenges her to summon the cat, as
she claims she can, Leonora fails. She
seems to improve enough that Brian releases her, hoping that normal life will
dispel the last of her abnormality.
Instead, her release encourages
Leonora to plot Dorothy’s death. Brian makes this easy, since he encourages
Dorothy to help Leonora despite Dorothy’s fearful presentiments. When Brian invites the two of them to meet
him at night—the time when the leopard can prowl best—Leonora tries to set
things up to have her “other self” slay Dorothy. Only Brian’s belated ability to listen to his
own presentiments prevents Dorothy’s death, with the result that Leonora
perishes instead. The curse is in theory
laid to rest, though the film fades out on Edward’s haunted manor and the
forbidding forest, as the voices of Edward and Leonora repeat phrases spoken in
life.
CAT GIRL isn’t as stylishly
directed as CAT PEOPLE; Alfred Shaughnessy is never more than simply
competent. However, though most critics
prefer CAT PEOPLE’s script for its ambivalence as to the existence of the supernatural,
I find that sort of ambivalence tedious.
I like the way CAT GIRL shows up the conceit and pretension of
patriarchal society, as represented by Richard and Brian, by showing the
profundity of the world of feelings to which women are sensitive—and, by
extension, the reality of Leonora’s shared identity with a prehuman creature.
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