Cat People (1942)

Kent Smith: Oliver Reed

Photos 

Quotes 

• Oliver 'Ollie' Reed : You cold?

  Alice Moore : A cat just walked over my grave.

• Irena Dubrovna : Oliver, how can you discuss such things? Such intimate things about me. How much did you tell her?

  Oliver 'Ollie' Reed : Oh, you can tell Alice anything, she's such a good egg she can understand anything.

  Irena Dubrovna : There are some things a woman doesn't want other women to understand.

• Oliver 'Ollie' Reed : [Looking down at Irena's lifeless body in the form of a panther]  She never lied to us.

• Irena Dubrovna : You see, the Mameluks came to Serbia long ago and they made the people slaves. Well, at first, the people were good and worshipped God in a true Christian way. But, eh, little by little, the people changed. When King John drove out the Mameluks and came to our village, he found dreadful things. The people bowed down to Satan and said their masses to him. They had become witches and were evil. Well, King John put some of them to the sword, but some, the wisest and the most wicked, escaped into the mountains. Now do you understand?

  Oliver 'Ollie' Reed : Well, I still don't see what it has to do with you.

  Irena Dubrovna : Those who escaped, the wicked ones, their legend haunts the village where I was born.

• Irena Dubrovna : Perhaps, Mr. Reed, you would like to have tea in my apartment?

  Oliver 'Ollie' Reed : Oh, Miss Dubrovna, you make life so simple!

• Oliver 'Ollie' Reed : I'm drawn to her. There's a warmth from her that pulls at me. I have to watch her when she's in the room. I have to touch her when she's near.

• Irena Dubrovna : That's Lalage - the perfume I use. I like it, perhaps too well. Maybe I use too much of it, living alone like this.

  Oliver 'Ollie' Reed : It's hard to describe. It's not like flowers exactly. It's - it's like something warm and living.

• Irena Dubrovna : I like to be liked.

  Oliver 'Ollie' Reed : That ought to be easy - real easy!

• Irena Dubrovna : I envy every woman I see on the street.

  Oliver 'Ollie' Reed : They can't match your little finger.

  Irena Dubrovna : I envy them. They're happy. They make their husbands happy. They lead normal, happy lives.

• Oliver 'Ollie' Reed : Boys who come to tea can't expect to stay for dinner.

• Irena Dubrovna : I fled from the past. From things you could never know or understand. Evil things. Evil!

  Oliver 'Ollie' Reed : Irena, you told me something of the past about King John and the witches in the village and the Cat People descended from them. They're fairy tales, Irena. Fairy tales heard in your childhood. Nothing more than that. They've nothing to do with you, really. You're Irena. You're here in America.

• Irena Dubrovna : Oliver, be kind. Be patient. Let me have time. Time to get over that feeling there's something evil in me.

  Oliver 'Ollie' Reed : Darling, you have all the time there is in the world if you want it. And all the patience and kindness that's in me.

  Irena Dubrovna : Only a little time, Oliver. I don't want more than that.

• Irena Dubrovna : You saw her, Oliver. You saw what she looked like.

  Oliver 'Ollie' Reed : Oh, the Cat People. She looks like a cat, so she must be on of the Cat People. One of King John's pets.

  [laughs] 

  Oliver 'Ollie' Reed : Oh, Irena, you crazy kid!

• Oliver 'Ollie' Reed : You know, it's a funny thing. I've never been unhappy before. Things have always gone swell for me. I had a grand time as a kid. Lots of fun at school and here at the office with you.

• Irena Dubrovna : We should never quarrel. Never let me feel jealousy or anger. Whatever is in me is held in, is kept harmless... when I'm happy.

  Oliver 'Ollie' Reed : I'd turn handsprings, darling. I'd dance in the streets to make you happy.

• Oliver 'Ollie' Reed : What's that?

  Irena Dubrovna : Its the lions in the zoo. One can hear them here often. Many people in this building complain. Their roaring keeps them awake.

  Oliver 'Ollie' Reed : But you don't mind it?

  Irena Dubrovna : No. To me its the way the sound of the sea is to others. Natural and soothing. I like it. Some nights there is another sound. The panther. It screams like a woman. I don't like that.

• Oliver 'Ollie' Reed : I don't really know her. In many ways we're strangers.

  Alice Moore : You and I, we'll never be strangers.

• Oliver 'Ollie' Reed : Alice, you're very swell.

  Alice Moore : That's what makes me dangerous. I'm the new type of other woman.