A peculiar film,very much greater than the sum of its parts. It is important to read its plot line as written in wartime . The theme of a child abandoned by parents who are physically present, yet emotionally distant would appeal strongly to children in 1944 whose parents were absent on overseas service,but whom they would hope would return home to cherish and care for them : the distresses are alike, but the causes and outcomes very different, and the resolution of the plot explains that separation will end, however faraway it may seem,and that caring,loving friendships depend upon caring perceptive individuals to develop them.
The bluff,insensitive Oliver treats Amy as an adult and is unable to grasp the childishness of his behaviour towards his child. If it is baffling to us,it reflects the strangeness of adult actions as experienced by children and the self-repressing mechanisms they develop to anticipate disapproval and punishment – the archetypical signs of abusive mistreatment in a child.
The surprise of the film is that the marriage of Oliver and Alice, the selfishly manipulative and destructive pairing in the first film, does not get its come-uppance in the sequel at the hands of Irene, the original Cat Woman,who,far from being a vindictive Revenant, is a pagan herald of hope in the midst of blind orthodoxy.
The emergence of another America is noted in the heroic figures. Outsiders are sensitive to the child’s intolerant exclusion from parental affection and from the truth about their past – the character of Edward,the kindly and protective domestic helper, is a forerunner of 1960s Black America stepping out on camera from behind the movie stereotypes, and the character of another outsider (in all senses)the immigrant – and dead Irene – is more alive and reflective of the best in the American character than are the one dimensional All-American parents.
The Child’s-Point-of-View anticipates the extraordinary and heart-rending outpourings of the postwar French cinema – Les Jeux Interdits creates a shattering vision of children caught up in an adults’ war.
Cat People and this,its sequel, may be classed as B-Movies by budget and box office, but they are forgotten classics of an ignored genre, the symbolist fairytale,which has had few outings over the decades, yet which almost always produces remarkable and haunting films – Edward Scissorhands is a sterling example – and which Hollywood is indeed capable of making when it looks away from actuarial diktats and focuses on genuine production values and the engaging qualities of the screenplay.
