Simone Simon as Irena Dubrovna
Irena Dubrovna, a beautiful and mysterious Serbian-born fashion artist living in New York City, falls in love with and marries average-Joe American Oliver Reed. Their marriage suffers though, as Irena believes that she suffers from an ancient curse- whenever emotionally aroused, she will turn into a panther and kill. Oliver thinks that is absurd and childish, so he sends her to psychiatrist Dr. Judd to cure her. Easier said than done...
Biography for Simone Simon
Date of birth
23 April 1910
B�thune, Pas-de-Calais, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France
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Trivia
Her maid revealed that she rewarded men to whom she was attracted with a gold key to her boudoir.
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Biography from Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia:
Although film buffs remember this French actress as Irena Dubrovna, the feline beauty of Jacques Tourneur's stylish low-budget horror film Cat People (1942), it should be noted that Simon, a top screen star in her native country, came to Hollywood amid much hoopla and predictions that she would become one of Tinseltown's brightest stars. With modeling experience behind her, the beautiful Simon made her film debut in 1931. Darryl F. Zanuck imported her to 20th Century-Fox in 1936; her debut, in the routine programmer Girls' Dormitory (1936), showed her to have the prettiest pout in the movie capital, but put little demand on her acting ability (which was hampered somewhat by her limited grasp of the English language). She played the Janet Gaynor role in a sappy 1937 remake of the silent classic Seventh Heaven opposite a badly miscast James Stewart. Her other Fox films, including Ladies in Love (1936), Love and Hisses (1937), and Josette (1938), were cookie-cutter products of no particular merit.
Disenchanted with Hollywood in general and Fox in particular, she returned to France, where her luminous performance in Jean Renoir's La B�te humaine (1938) reestablished her as an international star. World War 2 drove her back to America, where she appeared as the Devil's temptress in All That Money Can Buy (1941, aka The Devil and Daniel Webster before accepting producer Val Lewton's offer to star in Cat People a literate, tasteful exercise in terror that called upon her in ways that her more expensive Fox pictures never did. She reprised her Irena characterization in a limited way for The Curse of the Cat People (1944) and starred in Lewton's Mademoiselle Fifi (also 1944).
Simon remained in Hollywood until the end of the war, languishing in undistinguished B pictures such as Tahiti Honey (1943) and Johnny Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1944) for such outfits as Republic and Monogram. Back in France following the conflict, she made a handful of films, including Max Ophuls' witty and charming La Ronde (1950) and Le Plaisir (1951) before retiring in 1956.
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Femme en bleu, La (1972) .... Madam
... aka Woman in Blue, The (1972) (International: English title)
Extra Day, The (1956) .... Michele Blanchard
Tre ladri, I (1954)
Zweite Leben, Das (1954) .... Fran�oise Dunoyer
... aka Double Destiny (1954) (International: English title)
... aka Double Life, A (1954) (USA)
... aka Double destin (1955) (France)
Plaisir, Le (1952) .... Josephine
... aka House of Pleasure (1952)
... aka Pleasure (1952)
Olivia (1950)
... aka Pit of Loneliness, The (1950) (USA)
Ronde, La (1950) .... Maid
... aka Roundabout (1950)
Donne senza nome (1949) .... Yvonne Dubois
... aka Women Without Names (1951) (USA)
Temptation Harbour (1947) .... Camelia
Petrus (1946) .... Migo
Curse of the Cat People, The (1944) .... Irena Reed, Oliver's dead wife
Mademoiselle Fifi (1944) .... Elizabeth Rousset
Johnny Doesn't Live Here Any More (1944) .... Kathie
... aka And So They Were Married (1944) (USA: reissue title)
Tahiti Honey (1943)
Cat People (1942) .... Irena Dubrovna
Devil and Daniel Webster, The (1941) .... Belle
... aka All That Money Can Buy (1941)
... aka Certain Mr. Scratch, A (1941)
... aka Daniel and the Devil (1941)
... aka Here Is a Man (1941)
Screen Snapshots Series 21, No. 1 (1941) .... Herself
Cavalcade d'amour (1940) .... Juliette
... aka Love Cavalcade (1940) (International: English title)
B�te humaine, La (1938) .... S�verine
... aka Human Beast, The (1938)
... aka Judas Was a Woman (1938) (UK)
Hollywood Goes to Town (1938) (uncredited) .... Herself
Josette (1938) .... Renee LeBlanc
Love and Hisses (1937) .... Yvett Guerin
Seventh Heaven (1937) .... Diane the Hooker
Ladies in Love (1936) .... Marie Armand
Girls' Dormitory (1936) .... Marie Claudel
Under Two Flags (1936) (scenes deleted) .... Cigarette
Beaux jours, Les (1935) .... Sylvie
Yeux noirs, Les (1935) .... Tania
... aka Dark Eyes (1935)
Lac aux dames (1934)
... aka Ladies Lake (1936) (USA)
Voleur, Le (1934)
Tire au flanc (1933)
... aka Sad Sack, The (1933) (International: English title)
�toile de Valencia, L' (1933)
Petite chocolati�re, La (1932) .... Julie
... aka Chocolate Girl, The (1932) (International: English title)
Pour vivre heureux (1932)
Prenez garde � la peinture (1932)
... aka Mind the Paint (1935) (USA)
Roi des palaces, Le (1932) .... Victoire
... aka King of Hotels (1932) (International: English title)
... aka Roi du Palace H�tel, Le (1932) (France)
Un fils d'Am�rique (1932)
... aka Amerikai flu, Az (1932) (Hungary)
... aka Son from America, A (1932) (International: English title)
Chanteur inconnu, Le (1931) .... Pierette
Durand contre Durand (1931)
Mam'zelle Nitouche (1931)
On op�re sans douleur (1931)