I suppose we should give Republic credit for doing their best to try and cash in on the Cat People films from 1942 and 1944. You can never have enough killer cat people. Of course, it feels closer to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde or even The Wolfman but still it is a human transforming into something else, something evil. How? Let's not worry about the small details. As you may or may not know, every fifty years a Cat person arrives on the scene during times of historical significance due to planetary influence. He first appeared in Rome at the time of the massacre of the Christian martyrs, at the birth of Mohammed, during the Saracen conquest of Egypt and the Battle of Hastings. All of course well established facts. And now he is back!


Charles Regnier (Carl Esmond) has returned to Paris in 1896 from his travels abroad to be received as a great author for his book that exposes secrets of the French state. Little of this success makes him happy as he is engaged to Marguerite (Adele Mara) but in love with Marie (Lenore Aubert). And he gets these blinding headaches and goes walking off into the night. And he has no memory of what happened to him. Except people are killed, the sound of a cat is heard and the victim is torn to bits. People who could have hurt Regnier. The Inspector (Gerald Mohr) sets his sights on him, but Regnier's friend Borchard (Douglass Dumbrille) helps him escape. But will he turn into a cat again and kill?


A B film through and through at 60 minutes but with a decent cast and some atmosphere and shadows thrown in. Shadows come cheap. A few decent horror scenes. Unexpectedly, there really is a Catman. An international cast among the American actors - Fritz Feld born in Germany plays the Prefect, Lenore Aubert was born in present day Slovenia but had to leave because she was married to a Jewish man and Carl Esmond was born in Austria and was a matinee idol in Europe till he too had to leave to save his life.