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'!
Review of The Catman of Paris
