Cat Girl (1957) US 1 Sheet Poster

Barbara Shelley’s breakthrough role, (her first British film after working in Italy) she was quickly used by Hammer in The Camp on Blood Island (1958) and the same year she made the Eros Film Blood of the Vampire. After Village of the Damned (1960) she filmed the quasi-Hammer Shadow of the Cat (1961), was Spike Milligan’s love interest in Postman’s Knock (1962), then the run with Hammer as she was elevated to leading lady – The Gorgon (1964), The Secret of Blood Island (1965), Rasputin: The Mad Monk (1966) and Quatermass and the Pit (1967) which cemented her status as Queen of Horror.

Derivative of Val Lewton’s Cat People (1942), Shelley is more overtly sexual and provocative than in any other role barring her vampire in Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966), as Leonora, the victim of a family curse that transforms her into a ghost-leopard when her repressed anger or jealousy erupts. Directed by Alfred Shaughnessy, his second of only four films, he’s mainly remembered for writing many Upstairs, Downstairs (1971 – 1975) scripts, and also the screenplay for Pete Walker’s The Flesh and Blood Show (1972). Screenplay by Lou Roussoff, who was also responsible for It Conquered the World and The She-Creature (both 1956) and three other scripts for Roger Corman.

Artist: Unknown

Condition: FINE / VERY FINE - Canadian censor seal top right quarter

Cast: Robert Ayres, Kay Callard, Ernest Milton, Lily Kann, Patricia Webster, Lohn Lee