Line #6 YMMV/CatPeople


1	* AlternateCharacterInterpretation:
2	** Irena is apparently considered clingy and jealous for being bothered by her husband confiding personal things about their marriage to his American co-worker Alice. [[spoiler:Since her husband ends up leaving her for Alice, it actually seemed rather sensible of her to be worried.]]
3	** Oliver seems unable to comprehend how harsh life was for Irena in her younger years in general. He says his childhood was a good one and that he's never known unhappiness. This could possibly explain (though not excuse) his inability to deal with Irena's condition.
4	** Then there's the [[spoiler: death by panther after she opens the cage. Was Irena finally giving into her evil impulses as Dr Judd suggested or was this her form of SuicideByCop - horrified that she actually killed someone?]] Or an even sadder possibility - was she hoping [[spoiler: the panther would accept her as no one else does]]?
5	* AntiClimaxBoss: [[spoiler: Irena dies extremely anti climatically when she releases the panther from the zoo and it claws her as it escapes. It's not even revealed she's dead from such a mild looking confrontation until a few moments later]].
6	** To be fair, [[spoiler: she had already been stabbed through the shoulder by Dr. Judd. His sword cane is found to be broken when his body is discovered, and as Irena dies, you can see part of the blade protruding from her back.]]
7	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
8	** The Music/DavidBowie song that appears at the end of the 1982 remake.
9	-->"I've been putting out fire..... (growl) WITH GASOLINE!"
10	** For that matter, the entire score by Music/GiorgioMoroder. Highlights include [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HvJfeSk1RU "Irena's Theme"]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JchEdFsVFPs "Paul's Theme"]], and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAxoOGxfLnA "Leopard Tree Dream"]].
11	* BrokenBase: Simone Simon's performance as Irena has been debated ever since the movie came out. A lot of critics scoffed at her, feeling she didn't have the range to help Irena's more villainous moments, and Jacques Torneur was dissatisfied with how she did. A few fans think Elizabeth Russell - who plays the 'Cat Woman' and appeared in the sequel - would have been a better choice. But there are just as many who think Simone's performance serves to humanize what could have been a standard FemmeFatale, and she brings a child-like sense of innocence to the character - which helps make her a TragicMonster. In fact Creator/ValLewton cast her as Irena because he did not want a conventional femme fatale and thought her kittenish looks made her appear vulnerable.
12	* DracoInLeatherPants: While Irena is a TragicVillain, a lot of viewers can go overboard with her sympathetic qualities. Her marriage does not fall apart simply because Ollie is unfaithful; but because she refuses to be intimate with him based around her own fears. Ollie is remarkably tolerant of the whole thing, besides some insensitivity about her culture. He attempts to make the marriage work and, when he realises it won't, tries to get a divorce that will allow them both to see other people. Irena then chooses to [[spoiler: kiss Dr Judd, in the hopes it'll bring about a transformation - which it does]].
13	* GenreTurningPoint: Monster movies beforehand had often relied on their costumes and effects to convey the horror. ''Cat People'' instead opted to go for suspense - due to its low budget requiring them to use a real panther, which couldn't be in the scene too much. This ended up popularizing NothingIsScarier - though it would later be done on a much larger scale in ''{{Film/Jaws}}''.
14	* HilariousInHindsight:
15	** Irena Dubrova's transformation into an humanoid feline is pretty ironic given that her actress Simone Simon's character Diane from ''Film/SeventhHeaven'' was depicted as disliking and even fearing cats...
16	** Tom Conway would again have to put up with a supernatural FemmeFatale in ''Film/OneTouchOfVenus'' a few years later, likewise involving unrequited love.
17	* {{Narm}}: When Ollie uses a t-square to make the sign of the cross and repel the cat creature with "in the name of God" - as if it's a vampire panther.
18	** It may not be a vampire, but it is supposed to be a supernatural creature of possible Devil-worshipping origins.
19	* OneSceneWonder: The other Serbian woman who shows up at Irena's wedding party, calls her "sister" and never appears again. Extremely memorable and unsettling, it's been suggested that her appearance may have inspired Julie Newmar's as Catwoman in ''{{Series/Batman 1966}}''. Incidentally Elizabeth Russell is credited as 'The Cat Woman'.
20	* OnceOriginalNowCommon: The film popularized the technique of not showing the monster, basically employing NothingIsScarier to build suspense. You know, what became one of ''the'' cheap tricks in horror movies, and usually done for budgetary reasons.
21	* TearJerker: "She never lied to us".

Context YMMV / CatPeople