A disturbed young woman (future genre stalwart Barbara Shelley) grudgingly accepts her feline legacy. Imitation CAT PEOPLE (1942) that attempts to have its cake and eat it too: just as the preliminary backdrop of a creaky mansion is traded for an urban milieu during the film's second half, a tangible menace – a pet leopard who feasts on its willing master (Shelley's batty uncle)! – is offset throughout by bouts of cod psychology – courtesy of neglected wife Shelley's long-suffering suitor of a medico. Not too badly done as these things go, but the lack of originality hurts the overall effort. While the running-time on IMDb is given at 76 minutes (and downloading websites seem to offer both 69 and 72-minute versions), the copy I watched – acquired off "You Tube" – ran for only 65 minutes, and even featured inordinately long transitions between scenes!

*Spoiler/plot- Cat Girl, 1957. An eternal female being that become a wild cat animal tries to make it's way through modern society. Her secret is badly kept and drama occurs.*Special Stars- Barbara Shelley, Robert Ayres, Kay Callard, Ernest Milton.*Theme- Never challenge nature.*Trivia/location/goofs- B & W, Remake of classic film: 'The Cat People'.*Emotion- A very stylized film noir remake of a classic fantasy story. The film has all the wonderful elements of the exploitation genre of films of the 50's. Horror is deliciously used to engage the viewer and it's a very watchable film.*Based On- The earlier film, 'The Cat People'.

As if the title wasn't a dead giveaway, The Cat Girl is a fifties version of the 1942 Jacques Tourneur classic Cat People; although ironically it shares more in common with the 1982 remake as to how the idea of a woman turning into a cat blends with the plot line. The film was made in 1957 so by today's standards is still pretty tame, but much less is left to the imagine than was the case with the earlier 1942 film, and this one certainly is a brash take on the subject. However, in doing away with the subtlety of Tourneur's film, The Cat Girl also loses a lot in the way of intrigue. The plot focuses on a young woman named Leonora Brandt. Leonora is the unlucky recipient of a family curse, which means that she turns into a bloodthirsty leopard at night…or at least so she is told. leonora begins to believe that the curse is real and sees herself changing during times of high stress; but it's never really clear whether what is happening is real or just inside her head.As was the case with the Cat People, the film relies a lot on atmosphere and director Alfred Shaughnessy ensures that the film always feels very sinister feel about it and a few key scenes in particular are real highlights in that respect; although nothing in the film reaches the highs of the swimming pool scene in Jacques Tourneur's film. Barbara Shelley (who would go on to make a number of Hammer Horror films) takes the lead role and does rather well with it; she successfully manages to convey her character's emotions throughout the film. Her performance is not matched by the plot, however, as it moves rather sluggishly and the curse itself is never really explored. Of course, we didn't find out a great deal about the curse in Cat People; but that film kept all of its cards close to its chest so it didn't feel improper; which is not the case here. The film boils down to an interesting and well done ending and while it's slightly unfair to compare it to Cat People; that is the obvious film to compare it to...although The Cat Girl is a decent little film in its own right.

Though highly derivative of the 1942 Cat People, this British movie is quite dramatic and interesting in its own right. The opening sequence, with the sinister uncle preparing for the arrival of his lovely young niece, sets an effective mood of doom and dread for the rest of the film. The youthful Barbara Shelley is more sensuous and provocative here than in any other role, except the prim wife turned voluptuous vampire in Dracula, Prince of Darkness. She's very convincing as the nice young woman whose repressed anger and jealousy erupt in the form of a psychically controlled ghost-leopard. She successfully takes the character of Leonora from sad, resigned wife to vengeful betrayed spouse to menacing cat woman by the end of the film. The exact details of her relationship to the supernatural leopard are a bit vague, since she apparently doesn't transform physically, but is able to unleash the phantom leopard on victims by her mental power. It manages to work pretty well, in spite of some vague details. The unexpected aspect of the movie today, that could not have been foreseen when the film was made, is the remarkable resemblance of actress Kay Callard as the psychiatrist wife of psychiatrist husband Robert Ayres, to the real life popular psychiatrist Dr. Joyce Brothers. This risks causing a bit of unintentional humor, but also adds to the odd intrigue of the story. The night time scenes of the dreary old house in the country ,and the dangerous back alleys of dockside London,are nicely filmed, with a very good sense of literal atmosphere: wind, rain, wet streets, cold pavements. A very interesting little film worth seeing if only for the treat of seeing such a very young and heartbreakingly beautiful Barbara Shelley.