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Cowboys, Creatures, and Classics: The Story of Republic Pictures
Republic Pictures made a number of ridiculous horror films. The Catman of Paris was the studio’s version of the successful motion picture Werewolves in London
In April 1946, thrill seekers were looking forward to the release of The Catman of Paris. The gruesome mystery melodrama involved a man suffering from a loss of memory who was accused of being a feline filler operating in Paris.
The tagline read: “Walks like man. Attacks like a cat. Who is the Catman of Paris.” The plot involved author Charles Regnier returning to 1896 Paris after exotic travels, having written a best seller that the Ministry of Justice would like to ban. That very night, an official is killed on the dark streets…clawed to death! The prefect of police suspects a type of cat, but Inspector Severen thinks there is nothing supernatural about the crime and thinks Regnier is responsible for the murder. Regnier denies he had anything to do with the crime but begins to doubt himself when he has a hallucinatory blackout during a second killing.
Vienna-born stage actor Carl Esmond played the troubled author Regnier. Lenore Aubert, the female lead in the movie, was also from Vienna. The press packet Republic Pictures circulated to theaters and media across the country contained plenty of information about the film as well as background information about the picture’s stars. Aubert’s story of how she made it from Vienna to Hollywood could have been a movie on its own.
To learn more about cliffhanger horror films made by Republic Pictures read
Cowboys, Creatures, and Classics: The Story of Republic Pictures.
