SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Traveling to a family members' house, a woman finds that her family curse has passed onto her where she will transform and become a cat- like creature and tries to protect her friends there to help her from the now-murderous creature prowling the area.This one wasn't too terrible of a Gothic horror effort. What really works here is the fact that there's a solid amount of work delivered here from the curse which is pretty explicitly told and given plenty of reign across the film. Starting from the expository scene where he goes into detail about the concept of the legacy affecting the family and how it will become a part of her that works all the traditional Gothic tropes of the unsuspecting falling victim to the wrongs committed by the past, this one really gets quite a decent amount of mileage out of this setup which is what gives this some great points to work with. The additional configuration of the curse into a typical werewolf storyline but transplanting the creature in every other mindset into that of the titular leopard cat makes for a further great plot-point here telling this type of story while making for the great scenes of transformation occurring as she comes into the change through these rather fun scenes. As well, the film's biggest plus here is that it gets away from the grand Victorian mansion and into the city for the finale which is fun enough with the rather tense stalking scene in the city street as well as the big finish where the encounter with the turned animal hunting her in the darkened alleyways before the startling manner of finishing it off gives this a strong scene to close out on. For the most part these here are what really hold this one up over it's somewhat minor flaws. The biggest issue is the rather overt and obvious threadbare plot that simply generates nothing but the same scene over and over again of her being worried about what's going to happen to her and letting these fears onto others yet nothing else is ever done about them. That is repeated so frequently throughout here that it really manages to throw the film into a rather familiar pattern quite easily as once again playing up the influences of the werewolf genre by telling of the reluctant participant once again going for the majority of the film that really makes for quite a familiar route here that exposes this factor. As well, the other big issue with the film is that it's barely hour-long running length doesn't really leave it with a whole lot of time to get this going and it really just rushes by so quickly that it just enhances the overall cheapness of the film as a whole. Otherwise there's not a whole lot really wrong here.Today's Rating/PG: Violence.

Out of Insignia Films, Cat Girl is a cheap British variant on Jacques Tourneur's Cat People from 15 years earlier. Plot basically finds Barbara Shelley as Leonora Brandt, a woman seemingly the victim of a family curse that turns her into a killer Leopard when disturbed emotionally. Naturally her psychiatrist Dr. Brian Marlowe (Robert Ayres) is positive that she's suffering mental illness, this in spite of the evidence suggesting otherwise. As the bodies begin to pile up and Dr. Marlowe takes Leonora under his wing, something is going to give come the finale.Directed by Alfred Shaughnessy and photographed by Peter Hennessy, it's a picture that doesn't lack for moody atmosphere. The Brandt family home is a creepy looking place, a sort of rectory type establishment, this forms the backdrop for the first half of the piece as it dallies in old dark house conventions. With barmy uncle and pessimistic housekeeper thrown in for good measure. Then it's a switch to a sanitarium in preparation for the tense finale that takes place out on the dank and dimly lighted streets.Some decision making by the doctor is hard to swallow, as is his approach to mental illness come to think of it, while there's some poor acting away from future Hammer Horror darling Shelley, but it does well with its minimal budget funding. Yes it makes you appreciate even more the brilliance of Tourneur and Musuraca back in 1942, yet there's a fun time to be had with this one if accepting it on its own modest eerie terms. 6/10

Although similar in many ways to the movie "Cat People" from 1942, this was still a splendid little film in its own right. Essentially, "Leonara 'Brandt' Johnson" (Barbara Shelley) has inherited an infliction from her uncle which causes her soul to transform into a leopard at night which kills those she doesn't like. She confides to her ex-boyfriend (who happens to be a psychiatrist) and he convinces her to be admitted into a sanitarium in London for treatment. But even though she has left her uncle's estate and traveled to London she cannot escape her curse. At any rate, while this is a rather short movie it manages to give a good account of itself in spite of the time constraints. As a side note, I enjoyed the performance of Barbara Shelley as she managed to keep things interesting with both her talent and her looks. Definitely worth a watch for fans of this genre and I rate the movie as slightly above average.

This film is a 1950s updating of Val Lewton's CAT PEOPLE. In this adaptation, Barbary Shelley's character of Lenora inherits the family curse of turning into a wild animal at night and controlling the killing nature of a leopard on the loose. While this is not in the same league CAT PEOPLE, it is nonetheless a nice low budget effort with great atmosphere, good suspense and a decent leading performance from Shelley in the werewolf-like role. I was slightly disappointed however by Robert Ayres rather stiff performance as Dr. Brain Marlowe.