THE   SCREEN
A Child's Mind
EHE    CURSE    OF    THE    CAT    PEOPLE; \ Bcrein   play   \>y   DeWitt   Rnrfppn t   riirpctŕrt! toy G-untíier v.  >Yitaeh  and  Robert wj.se: prniiiicpd   by Val  Lewton   ídľ  RKO Radio I Pictures.    At  the  Rial to.
rena......, .............* <. . - Simcjne Simon
Oliver Reed.....+ ..^*..........Kent Smith
vlico  Reed..................Jane   Randolph.
\my  Roed.....♦♦.♦.,-..........Ahn carter
3arbara~................. .EUzaneth Russell
tffae Cullansn - -. r *..............Eve ilEircii
fulla Farren. ,, T.....,.........    Julia Dean
3d*vard....... H............... .Sir Lancelot
Donald..........................Jo«   Davis
^ois. T____,.*.-,,.«* *»♦. .... Ju wiita Alvarez
, In a film called "The Curse of 'Jhe Cat People'* you would hardly yepect to find a quite wistful and appealing little story of a small £irľs fantasies* Yet that is surprisingly the substance of the new tenant on the Rial to" s screen and pou could have knocked us over with a snowball when we saw it in diat usually lurid place. True, its, ÍKO producers have injected some íorror elements and have tried to oretend that it is a sequel to their ľCat People" of a year or so back, put actually it makes a rare departure Tom the ordinary run of fiorror films and emerges as an addly touching- study of the working of a sensitive child's mind. í The story is very simple. A lit-fle girl is inclined to dream; her nind creates all sorts of fancies, örtlich upsets her daddy no en á. But when she builds up an imagi-lary playmate who was actually ler daddy1 s former vife—a lady who had disturbing- traffic with the /cat people" in that former filmte gets mad and punishes his laughter. Thereupon she runs iway. There is a frantic chase in £ snowstorm. Then everything >;urns out all right*
It is  too bad that  commercial considerations should have necessitated horror in this iiim, for it is best when its producers are creating the unworldly disposition of a hhild.    And little Ann Carter  in ie main role of the youngster is Remarkably good.   Kent Smith and : Tane Randolph are pleasant as her parents and Simone Simon plays -Oie   beautiful, lady   quite   nicely,; iyhilé Julia Dean is likely as a curious crone.    The whole conception :ind- c on a tru ctí on of this picture indicates  an  imaginative  approach.! its chief fault is that it is cursed jvith a flavor and some of the claptrap from that "Cat People" film.
Et»r íícUr Jlork Simcs
Copyright © The New York Times Originally published March 4, 1944