CAT PEOPLE

{ A quick comparison between Cat Pople from 1942 and Cat People from 1982. }

{ Cat People (1942). }

Cat People (1942) - story:

An American man marries a Serbian immigrant who fears that she will turn into the cat person of her homeland's fables if they are intimate together.

Cat People (1982) - story:

The Cat People originated way back in time, when humans sacrificed their women to Leopards, who mated with them. Cat People look similar to humans, but must mate with other Cat People. We follow brother and sister - who seem to be the only ones of their kind left...

Cat People (1942) - tagline:

This movie has ten taglines (!) and my favourite is:

LOVELY WOMAN... GIANT KILLER-CAT... THE SAME "PERSON"!... IT'S SUPER-SENSATIONAL!

...yeah.

Cat People (1982) - tagline:

This movie had three taglines, all bad. My "favourite":

They Are Something More Than Lovers Who Are About to Become Something Less Than Human.

...I dunno. So I wrote two alternatives myself: 

Humans Steal All The Good Sex From Leopards!!!

Furry Siblings Get Hot And Heavy In Trail Of Blood And Guts!!!

I worked hard on my exclamation marks.

Cat People (1942) - how it's better than Cat People (1982):

Better story.

Less incest.

More subtle transformations from person to cat and back - more shadow and light play, less mask and sweat.

Gets its mystery from film noir, which is classy.

Less bad sex (if you're into that).

Cat People (1982) - how it's better than Cat People (1942):

Nastassja Kinski.

Better soundtrack - David Bowie and Giorgio Moroder!

Gets its mystery from New Orleans, cheesy perhaps, but I like it.

More bad sex (if you're into that).

Some last words:

The panthers were equally good in both movies, and the zoos equally shitty. That made me sad.
  If I had to watch one of them again, I'd pick the 1982 one solely because of Nastassja, Simone Simon was... too whiny. None of the men in any movie made much impression on me. I kept wishing that David Bowie would replace Malcolm McDowell because David and Nastassja would be... hot. 

Here is my post on Cat People (1982). Bonus: Very neon pics from the movie!

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