But, there are some bad scenes and dialogue that prevent the film from outright greatness, even if it can still be called a great horror film. Yet the film's import, in its time and genre, is indisputable, and that difference, and recognition of it, is important. The dialogue, by screenwriter DeWitt Bodeen, veers between B film cheese and real depth, yet contains many great lines and moments, such as Oliver's claim that Irena's perfume is "warm and living." Alice also gets a number of great lines, that suggest double entendre is her native tongue, and display her duplicity and sexual skills in snaring the man she loves. The exchanges between Dr. Judd and Irena are also quite strong, and realistic of some of the Freudian nonsense of the era. Lewton, a man who wrote poetry and pulp novels, reputedly spiced up some of the dialogue, and was noted for having dissed David O. Selznick's (his former boss) love of the film Gone With The Wind as being trash.

Cat People is aided by the fact that it runs a brisk 72 minutes, and this is because Tourneur wisely employs many ellipses of scenes that we can figure out, such as Oliver's and Irena's courtship, long before such a technique became fashionable in European art films, and shots to establish the definity of the connection of Irena to the panther. Cinematographer Musuraca and the film's typically upbeat 1940s score, by Roy Webb, also make the film memorable, the former in its superb embodiment of film noir, and the latter in its ironic undercutting of what is seen.

The film was so popular that it made over $4 million, after being produced for about $140,000 — a nearly thirtyfold profit. Imagine a routine Hollywood horror film, with a budget of $40 million — it would have to gross over a billion dollars to be as successful an investment.

Two years later a sequel, The Curse Of the Cat People, was released. That film was the first directorial feature for Robert Wise, who would direct future classics like The Day The Earth Stood Still, West Side Story, The Sound Of Music, and The Andromeda Strain. It is also included on the Warner Brothers DVD of Cat People, along with its own commentary and features. The two films are part of a five-disk, nine film (including one documentary on the works of Lewton) package called The Val Lewton Horror Collection, which has all the classics made between 1942 and 1946.

The features for Cat People are a theatrical trailer and a commentary by horror film maven and historian Greg Mank. Mank gives a sterling commentary. Although scripted, it is concise, ebullient, informative, and punctuated with several interludes from a recorded phone conversation with Simon. Were all commentaries as good as this even the worst films would be enjoyable DVD experiences. The DVD print of the film, however, is solid, at best. There are several instances where spots and scratches are abundant.