This is more of a ghost story than a horror story. The cat reference has to do with Simone Simon who plays the not so "imaginary" friend of a little shy girl. She was previously the star of the original "Cat People." The little girl is brought into a family with serious history. She has no playmates (and doesn't seem to have the wherewithal to find any) until the "ghost" of Simon's character comes into her life. This creates great problems because people begin to see the girl as strange at best, mentally handicapped at worst. Soon there is a jealous lady involved, and an umbrella of protection that begins to manifest itself. This is a nicely complex film. Ignore the title and see it as a movie all its own.

"The Curse of the Cat People" features neither a curse nor cat people, but is a follow-up to 1942's well-done "Cat People." It stars four of the characters from the earlier film. Oliver ("Ollie" = Kent Smith) and Alice (Jane Randolph) Reed are still married and now have a daughter Amy (Ann Carter), who is about to turn age six. The small Tarrytown, NY household includes the agreeable and protective Jamaican domestic servant Edward (the nicely cast Sir Lancelot). As the town itself is rather devoid of inhabitants, the setting does remind one of loneliness in a large, empty world. Tarrytown, of course, was the setting of Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." The film is a psychological exploration of what goes on in a lonely (and unaccepted) child's mind, i.e., her imaginary friend, which – by the way – is not all that uncommon. Only Amy's schoolteacher (Miss Callahan = Eve March) is truly supportive and sympathetic to the dreamy child's plight. Being shunned by her childhood playmates drives Amy's imagination to her grown up "friend" Irena (Simone Simon), Ollie's first wife. Ollie is so cognizant of what happened to the ill-fated Irena in "Cat People" that he uncomprehendingly believes that Amy's thinking of the fantasy world is unhealthy. Alice too is mostly in Ollie's corner, but, like Ollie, is still a loving parent.Adding to the story are the two inhabitants (Julia Dean and Elizabeth Russell) of the creepy green mansion, thought to be "haunted" by children. Russell (as Barbara Farren) looked feline during the wedding banquet scene in the Serbian restaurant in "Cat People." The older woman, former stage actress Julia Farren (Dean) gives Amy a ring and seems to favor Amy over Barbara, her supposed own grown up daughter. But, then again, Julia, apparently deranged, believes that Barbara is an impostor and is just her housekeeper. Now through the "wishing" ring Amy produces Irena. The ghostly Irena here is more French than Slavic-Serbian though, and even sings the popular French Catholic Christmas Carol, "Il est né, le divin En-fant" ("He Is Born, the Heavenly Child"). Irena, who truly wanted to be a decent person in "Cat People" but thought she was cursed, here is the creator of the seasonal changes of the enchanted wonderland (great visuals). And, in the end, when the chips are down, intervenes at just the right time. As I wrote in my 2011 review of "Cat People," suspense and terror are best created the artistic and eerie way – using shadow and sound and imagination rather than the unsubtle way – with its shock effects of blood and gore. We cringe when the child initially enters the spooky-looking house alone. And the finale is haunting. The crew (Robert Wise, Val Lewton, DeWitt Bodeen, Nicholas Musuraca, Albert D'Agostino, and others) have done a fine job with this bow-budgeted flick. And Ann Carter was a beautiful child.

The sixth of producer Val Lewton's memorable series of psychological horror films made at RKO in the 1940s, The Curse of the Cat People is pretty controversial. It's a sequel to Cat People, Lewton's first RKO film and one that is rightfully considered a classic today. However, unlike Cat People, it's not a horror film. It has some scary parts, for sure, and the entire film has a haunted, dreamlike atmosphere about it. Rather than being a horror film, though, this is a film about imagination and childhood fantasy.The film takes place many years after the events of Cat People. Oliver Reed and Alice Moore (Kent Smith, Jane Randolph) from the first film are now married and have a young daughter named Amy (Ann Carter). Amy is a lonely child who has trouble making friends and retreats into daydreams frequently. Amy wishes very hard for a friend and later, after she finds a photo of Oliver's first wife Irena (the always enchanting Simone Simon), her wish is answered. Irena's ghost appears to Amy and becomes her friend, just as her relationship with her father is growing more strained. There's also a subplot about an aging actress Amy meets whose failing mind has caused her to believe her daughter (Elizabeth Russell) is someone else. This nicely ties in with the main plot in the end.The Lewtonian approach of planting ambiguity within the mind of the viewer is still alive in this sequel. Much in the same way viewers were left to wonder throughout Cat People if Irena really was what she thought she was or if it was all in her head, in this film viewers are left to wonder if the ghostly visits of Irena are real or all products of the little girl's imagination.Some defenders of the film seem to feel the need to downplay this film's status as a sequel in order to appease the critics, the vast majority of which seem to hate the film based solely on what it isn't as opposed to what it is. Statements like "it's a sequel in name only" and "pretend it's not a sequel and you'll enjoy it more" show up quite often in favorable reviews. Yes, originally they envisioned this story as something separate and the studio forced them to make it into a sequel. But we aren't watching that film that was never made. We're watching the one that was. And the one that was made is a sequel. It features the same characters with the same actors with many references to the first film. In fact, elements of the first film are a prominent part of this one. The whole reason Oliver is so upset about Amy's make-believe is because he believes she will turn out like Irena did. Take away the connection to Cat People and the movie is less enjoyable in many ways. Yes, the story is such that you do not need to have seen the first film in order to understand this one. That's a good thing but it's important to add that having seen the first film does add an extra something to the experience. It's a beautiful, lyrical, magical film that is so much more than most sequels ever even try to be. I would recommend it to everybody.

For reasons best known to the cynical, exploitationers concerned, this film was screened in a double bill with Cat People, to which, of course, it bears only the most tenuous connection. Like Cat People - in which I detected several flaws - I found here one gigantic flaw but again that may stem from the fact that I was watching both some seventy years after they first hit the screens. When, towards the beginning of the movie, Amy's contemporaries - three little girl who decline to play with her - first notice the old, large, house, it is on a regular block alongside others, yet when Amy runs out of the house in the last reel, she stumbles on the house after running through the WOODS for several minutes and it is completely isolated. That to one side I can but agree with several people who have recorded here their enchantment at this beguiling movie which is surely, as several of them noted, one of the finest depictions of a lonely child ever put on screen. Of the two titles in the double bill I found this the most enjoyable, entertaining and thought-provoking.