During the mid-1940s, the success of the B movie horror units at Universal and at RKO tempted 3 of the best known Poverty Row studios (Monogram, PRC, and Republic) to produce B movie horrors of their own. A great deal of attention has been paid to the horror films of the first two outfits with books, DVDs, and Blu-rays devoted to them. Until now, very little attention has been paid to Republic’s meager output in the horror genre. A lot of this has been due to the unavailability of quality prints which for a long time were in the public domain. Now these titles belong to Paramount who, along with Kino Lorber, have decided to make some of them available on Blu-ray.
Between 1944-1946, Republic made 7 short B movie horror features (most of them run around an hour). 4 of them are included in this REPUBLIC PICTURES HORROR COLLECTION and show that Republic could produce horror movies as well but with a unique twist. Republic’s bread and butter were Westerns along with multi-chapter Serials and elements of both of those genres made it into these films especially the later ones. The 4 that are included here include THE LADY AND THE MONSTER (1944) which was the first one made, THE PHANTOM SPEAKS (1945), THE CATMAN OF PARIS and VALLEY OF THE ZOMBIES (both 1946).
CATMAN OF PARIS was inspired by Universal’s THE WOLF MAN (1941) and was planned as a double feature with VALLEY OF THE ZOMBIES. Both were made in 1946 the year when the classic horror movie cycle came to an end. Audiences had now shifted their attention away from horror films to cynical film noirs. CATMAN came up with an original idea which was an interesting twist. It featured a Catman (the feline equivalent of a werewolf) who terrorizes Paris.at the end of the 19th century. A celebrated and controversial writer (Carl Esmond) returns to France after a year in the tropics where he contracted a jungle fever. Once back in Paris, he reconnects with an old friend (Douglas Dumbrille) and an old flame (Lenore Aubert).
Almost immediately after his return a librarian is brutally killed and important documents are stolen. A few days later his fiance’ (Adele Mara) is killed in the same brutal way. Both were clawed to death as if by a giant cat. Witnesses claim to have seen a “Catman” but there is no evidence. Police Inspector Severin (Gerald Mohr) immediately suspects the writer as he has been having blackouts and can’t account for some of his whereabouts. As the police begin to close in, the writer, his friend and his old girlfriend hide out in a chateau where things take an unexpected turn. The Catman appears and menaces the girlfriend but the police arrive in the nick of time.
CATMAN is a B movie all the way but an above average B for Republic as it features better than usual production values, an interesting though somewhat talky script, and solid performances. Douglas Dumbrille and Gerald Mohr were familiar faces in B movies of the 1950s while actresses Aubert and Mara were Republic contract players. You can’t have a Republic movie without a fistfight or a horseback chase and both are provided even if it’s supposed to be 19th century Paris. Director Lasley Selander was an in-house director at Republic who specialized in Westerns but he could handle whatever assignment the studio gave him.
If you are a fan of B movie horrors and have not seen CATMAN nor the other 3 movies I mentioned then I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. While all of these titles are currently available on YouTube, the REPUBLIC HORRORS Blu-ray double disc set gives you the best quality prints and completely accurate subtitles (while auto generated subtitles can be a laugh riot, they can also become a distraction and take your attention away from the movie in a negative way especially if it’s a mystery or horror film). In addition you also get feature length commentaries from well known horror film historians Tim Lucas & David Del Valle.
The Capsule Critic 