March 13, 2021

Amazing Animal People #4: Cat Girl

Amazing Animal People trading card #4: Leonora, Cat Girl, 1957

Beautiful Leonora (Barbara Shelley), recently married to a dissolute playboy with a wandering eye, is summoned by her weird old uncle (Ernest Milton) to return to the ancestral home to discuss her inheritance. Along with the dark old house, the uncle informs her that she will also be inheriting the centuries-old Brandt family curse: to be forever connected with the soul of a killer cat, lusting for blood when the moon is full.

The uncle, who keeps a leopard caged up in his study, tells Leonora that the big cat is his other self. The old man frees himself from the curse and passes it on to his niece by willing the leopard to kill him. When Leonora starts to believe that the curse is real, she turns to an old childhood friend, psychiatrist Brian Marlowe (Robert Ayres), for help. But will he be able to convince her she is not a Cat Girl before it’s too late?

Funanimal Fact: Barabara Shelley, who starred in such classic horror and sci-fi films as Village of the Damned, The Gorgon, and Dracula: Prince of Darkness, made yet another cat-themed horror film in the early ‘60s.

In The Shadow of the Cat (1961), Shelley plays Beth Venable, the niece of a wealthy woman who has recently died under suspicious circumstances. When she is invited by her uncle to come stay at the estate, she gets caught up in a dark conspiracy -- which she unravels with the help of her aunt’s loyal tabby cat.

 

Still - Barbara Shelley and Paddy Webster in Cat Girl, 1957
Unfortunately, Leonora misunderstood the meaning of "I've got your back."

Animal Crack-up (click on the text to see the punchline):

What's a cat's favorite cereal?

Don't miss these other amazing animal people

Don't miss these other Amazing Animal People:
Lota from Island of Lost Souls | Paula Dupree, Captive Wild Woman | The Mole People

2 comments:

  1. I rather liked CAT GIRL. Barbara Shelley was always pretty awesome.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, she always lent extra class to whatever movie she was in.

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