1942. Directed by JACQUES TOURNEUR, Produced by VAL LEWTON, Edited by MARK ROBSON. TAGLINES : "The exciting story of a woman who kills the thing she loves!" "The strangest story you ever tried to get out of your dreams!" "A kiss could change her into a monstrous fang-and-claw killer!" - 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. Serbian national Irena Dubrovna, a fashion sketch artist, has recently arrived in New York for work. The first person who she makes a personal connection with there is marine engineer Oliver Reed. The two fall in love and get married despite Irena's reservations, not about Oliver but about herself. She has always felt different than other people, but has never been sure why. She lives close to the zoo, and unlike many of her neighbors is comforted by the sounds of the big cats emanating from the zoo. And although many see it purely as an old wives' tale, she believes the story from her village of ancient residents being driven into witchcraft and evil doing, those who managed to survive by escaping into the mountains. After seeing her emotional pain, Oliver arranges for her to see a psychiatrist to understand why she believes what she does. In therapy, Dr. Judd, the psychiatrist, learns that she also believes, out of that villagers' tale, that she has descended from this evil - women who change into great cats like panthers in passion, anger or jealousy - and that she will turn into a such a dangerous big cat upon being kissed in turn killing her lover and others who have betrayed her. This belief is why she has resisted falling in love before she met Oliver. Learning this information from Irena, Oliver wants to do whatever needed to help her as does Dr. Judd. But Irena's beliefs may be tested when Oliver's friendship with a co-worker named Alice Moore may become more than just friends. CAST includes Simone Simon, Tom Conway, Kent Smith, Jane Randolph, Jack Holt, Alec Craig, Eddie Dew, Mary Halsey, Dot Farley, Alan Napier. BEHIND THE SCENES TRIVIA : Filmed in 18 days. The film was in theaters for so long that critics who had originally bashed the film were able to see it again and many rewrote their reviews with a more positive spin. The film was such a hit at the box office, the releases of the next two Lewton films (I Walked with a Zombie (1943) and The Leopard Man (1943)) were delayed. RKO executives were reportedly skeptical about the finished film, which they believed was too subtle and possibly not overt enough to compete with Universal's brand of horror. Because of the incredibly tight budget, sets from Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) were re-used. The horror movie technique of slowly building tension to a jarring shock which turns out to be something completely harmless and benign became known as a "Lewton bus" after a famous scene in this movie created by producer Val Lewton. The technique is also referred to as a "cat scare," as off-screen noises are often revealed to be a startled harmless cat.