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This was the first of a string of great films produced by the brilliant Val Lewton (The Body Snatcher, I Walked With a Zombie), and an early triumph for director Jacques Tourneur, who also directed Curse of the Demon, I Walked With a Zombie and The Leopard People. Lewton was originally given nothing but the title "The Cat People" and vague instructions to come up with an exploitative B movie to compete with the likes of The Wolf Man. Well, he and Tourneur royally screwed it up and even with (or perhaps due to) a painfully low budget managed to concoct a beautiful, subtle psychological horror film that resonates in the memory long after its noisier cousins have faded into insignificance. Oops.

While The Cat People isn't up to the stark visual standards of Tourneur's noir classic Out of the Past with Robert Mitchum, it does set quite high standards for pure suggestive terror that has very rarely been equaled, least of all by Paul Schrader's glossy but dull and virtually worthless 1982 remake.

The story: Achingly beautiful but painfully shy Irena (Simone Simon) marries handsome but dull Oliver (Kent Smith) only to have poor Oliver discover that Irena is afraid to consummate their marriage. It seems that she believes that she is one of a line of werecats, who remain human but become panthers if aroused by strong emotions. Oliver, showing superhumanly unbelievable patience, is understanding (Okay, maybe this isn't the most plausible plot you've ever heard, but let's carry on) for some time but eventually turns to an ex-girlfriend (Jane Randolph) for comfort. Somehow Tourneur manages to make everyone here believable and sympathetic and gets away with some quite mature themes for 1942.

Well, this movie IS called The Cat People, so it would seem that Irena's jealousy begins to get the better of her and her worst fears become realized. Or do they? Part of this film's brilliance is in allowing the viewers to make up their own mind about whether or not the curse is real or indeed if there even is a panther until the climax, and I won't be the one to spoil that for you. Suffice it to say that while this movie starts off on the slow side by modern horror standards, there are some fine, thrilling moments that are only muted in comparison to the myriad imitations and more graphic variations that have sprung up over the years. Two set pieces in particular, one set at an indoor pool and another a spine-tingling walk through the park with an unseen pursuer, are quite rightfully renowned as blueprints for finely tuned suggestive horror. All builds to a satisfyingly tense and quite sad climax.

Tourneur had an unequalled instinct of how to use light, shadow and sound to produce an almost subliminal sense of mystery and menace. He also used deliberate, methodical pacing to build up to his most tense scenes with long unbroken shots that quite possibly were an inspiration for modern masters of mood such as Argento and Carpenter. Sadly, this kind of style has mostly fallen out of favor in recent years and may seem quaint and old fashioned to the impatient. I'm afraid that the younger gorehound may be bored and turned off by The Cat People, but that says more about today's MTV-fried and slasher film-bludgeoned attention spans than it does about this fine, delicately crafted film.

This is a quite low-key and atmospheric effort for those who have been numbed by the flashy and noisy kind of obvious Jason and Freddy horror. However, a thinking film enthusiast with patience and an occasional taste for moody and shadowy, subtle terror should find it a true treasure. The only negatives that come to my mind while watching this film are some of the common complaints about many of its contemporaries: The characters are at times a bit broad (though not as much as most modern horror), some of the more adult themes are handled quite obtusely and obscurely to comply with the censorship standards of the day, and the dialogue is often a bit stiff and labored. Otherwise, this is a nearly perfect terror film and one that everyone with a taste for classic fright should see at least once. Those with a taste for the subtle, intelligent and artful will probably want to eventually own a copy.