CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE (1944)

Misbegotten sequel (in name only) to the imaginative chiller from Val Lewton’s R.K.O. unit retains the original cast but perversely rejects most of the elements that made the first film a semi-classic. It’s not a thriller at all, but a modest child psychology lesson about a shy girl whose imaginary friend is Simone Simon, her dad’s ill-fated first wife. Is it childhood fancy or another possession by the Cat People? Jacques Tourneur had left Lewton and newbie megger Robert Wise is unable to animate either the actors or the staging. It plays like a precursor to ONE STEP BEYOND, one of tv’s great guilty pleasures, but no CAT PEOPLE.