Raetsonwe
Redundant and unnecessary.
ReaderKenka
Let's be realistic.
Guillelmina
The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
Billy Ollie
Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
dsayne
This review is short and so is this movie. SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER! Here is my synopsis: "You're the Catman!" "No, I'm not." (Insert gratuitous cat scene here.) "You're the Catman!" "No! I'm not!" "Meow" "I'm the Catman!" "No, you're not." "Yes, I am!" "No, You're not!" "Meow!" "Let's have dinner." "He's the Catman! Get him!" (Insert gratuitous Roy Rogers fight scene here.) "I'm hiding the Catman in my bedroom." "I'm Catman." "Are you? Is he?" "He is not. Is he?" (Insert gratuitous Gene Autry chase scene here.) "I'm the Catman!" "Surely you're not! Maybe he is!" "Meow" "No! Getaway!" "He was the Catman!" "Was not." THE END. A REPUBLIC PICTURE.
MARIO GAUCI
Savage murders at turn-of-the-century Paris are attributed to a popular crime author who suffers from bouts of amnesia. Preposterous Poverty Row riff on both WEREWOLF OF London (1935) and CAT PEOPLE (1942), disguising its singular lack of purpose under indifferent period detail. Prolific director Selander is best-known for a spate of Western programmers and, if anything, this routine affair only serves to prove that his earlier atmospheric foray into the fantasy genre, THE VAMPIRE'S GHOST (1945), was a mere fluke; having said that, the film under review does feature a bar-room brawl (involving a young Anthony Caruso and John Dehner) and a carriage assault that seem to come straight out of a cowboy movie! The troubled hero (Carl Esmond) is a bore and no sparring partner for Inspector Gerald Mohr; the root of and the reason behind the transformations are far-fetched even for the genre
and you have not lived until you have seen ubiquitous comedy foil Douglass Dumbrille decked out in the hirsute titular 'costume'!
djsonovox
This is a middling to fair movie, gamely cashing in on the popular 1940s passion for Wolfman and Cat People creature films. Lame, but it limped along anyway.Spine-chilling horror and suspense it has little of, but be fair! When you stack this film up against other non-Val Lewton movies or non-Brit films, (think DEAD OF NIGHT) it's okay for what it attempts. The director was probably a studio hack given the task of making something cheap using standing sets and on-hand costumes to fill the double bill and not run much more than an hour, thus clearing the seats for the A picture.Workmanlike is he best that can be said about it. A good monster, wasted.Anticipation ran high for me in the pre-home taping/DVD days when indie TV stations surrounding the SF Bay put this in their late-night viewing logs in the papers. My appetite for it was whetted by a photo spread in Monster World or maybe FAmous Monsters, showing Bob Wilke down in a makeup chair with a week's whiskers, getting on the fingernails and greasepaint and hair and full catty dentures. He looked great as the monster. His eyes were always cat-like and a bright shiny green anyway. Recall him as the first mate to Captain Nemo (James Mason) in 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA?Robert J. Wilke made his career primarily playing villains in Westerns and was always a solid on screen presence. More of the Catman and less palaver was called for. It would be a better film, but I liked it for what little it achieved in moments of unease and threatening shadows.And whomever id the makeup was an ace at greasepaint and direct work, without much in the way of prosthesis. DB Jones, Mountain View, CA
mord39
I came across a copy of this rarely-seen film and I can safely say it's better off never seen. Some films just are too damned dull and uneventful for their own good, and this is one of the best examples of an uninvolving movie where nothing occurs.If you have ever seen bores like DEVIL BAT'S DAUGHTER, SCARED TO DEATH, THE UNDYING MONSTER, or SHE-WOLF OF LONDON (all from the 1940s) you'll know what to expect...or should I say what NOT to expect? The only worthy mention is Lenore Aubert (from ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN) on hand as the leading lady.The monster isn't seen until the very end, and you'll have given up long before that anyway. At 60 minutes or so, this feels like 60 YEARS.