snicewanger The Catman of Paris sounds more a movie about a jewel thief or second story man then a monster film. Lesley Selander was Republics go to western director and the cast has some recognizable faces but of course, no big stars. The catman is a were-creature and part of the fun is trying to guess who the shape shifter really is. Carl Esmond and Lenor Aubert are top billed and they give the proceedings a European flavor. There is bit more attention to period detail in the set and costume design then is seen in most of these little opuses.Selander directed westerns and Catman rolls like a western. John Dehner, Anthony Caruso, and Robert J Wilkie would all go on to make their make in television westerns in the 1950's. Republic in house eye candy Adele Mara is around to liven up the proceedings. Sherman L Loews screenplay is a no frills and move the story along quickly affair. The FX is kept to a minimum with minimal lighting and the use of shadows and darkness in the shots to convey a creepy look and cover up the cheapness of the sets.Catman of Paris is not going to entertain the blood, guts, and gore fanatics. Its an entertaining little, horror, western action film that keeps you guessing until the end.

MARIO GAUCI Savage murders at turn-of-the-century Paris are attributed to a popular crime author who suffers from bouts of amnesia. Preposterous Poverty Row riff on both WEREWOLF OF London (1935) and CAT PEOPLE (1942), disguising its singular lack of purpose under indifferent period detail. Prolific director Selander is best-known for a spate of Western programmers and, if anything, this routine affair only serves to prove that his earlier atmospheric foray into the fantasy genre, THE VAMPIRE'S GHOST (1945), was a mere fluke; having said that, the film under review does feature a bar-room brawl (involving a young Anthony Caruso and John Dehner) and a carriage assault that seem to come straight out of a cowboy movie! The troubled hero (Carl Esmond) is a bore and no sparring partner for Inspector Gerald Mohr; the root of and the reason behind the transformations are far-fetched even for the genre…and you have not lived until you have seen ubiquitous comedy foil Douglass Dumbrille decked out in the hirsute titular 'costume'!

djsonovox This is a middling to fair movie, gamely cashing in on the popular 1940s passion for Wolfman and Cat People creature films. Lame, but it limped along anyway.Spine-chilling horror and suspense it has little of, but be fair! When you stack this film up against other non-Val Lewton movies or non-Brit films, (think DEAD OF NIGHT) it's okay for what it attempts. The director was probably a studio hack given the task of making something cheap using standing sets and on-hand costumes to fill the double bill and not run much more than an hour, thus clearing the seats for the A picture.Workmanlike is he best that can be said about it. A good monster, wasted.Anticipation ran high for me in the pre-home taping/DVD days when indie TV stations surrounding the SF Bay put this in their late-night viewing logs in the papers. My appetite for it was whetted by a photo spread in Monster World or maybe FAmous Monsters, showing Bob Wilke down in a makeup chair with a week's whiskers, getting on the fingernails and greasepaint and hair and full catty dentures. He looked great as the monster. His eyes were always cat-like and a bright shiny green anyway. Recall him as the first mate to Captain Nemo (James Mason) in 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA?Robert J. Wilke made his career primarily playing villains in Westerns and was always a solid on screen presence. More of the Catman and less palaver was called for. It would be a better film, but I liked it for what little it achieved in moments of unease and threatening shadows.And whomever id the makeup was an ace at greasepaint and direct work, without much in the way of prosthesis. DB Jones, Mountain View, CA

Michael_Elliott Catman of Paris, The (1947) * 1/2 (out of 4) Cat pee poor Republic horror film about a werewolf like creature stalking the streets of Paris. This is a pretty poor, extremely lame and overly talky horror film that goes no where in its short 65-minute runtime. Not for a single second does the film quite talking, which grows quite tiresome after the first five minutes. The "creature" is only on screen for three scene and probably a total of thirty seconds. Carl Esmond stars with Lenore Aubert of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein fame.