Who doesn't like Cat People?

I was surprised last night to see that Alec Baldwin didn't think Cat People should be an essential. To me, it's one of those example of movies that show how a good story is so important to a movie. Like Detour (coming up at 6:00 AM Tuesday on TCM) or Village of the Damned (8:00 PM tomorrow on TCM), Cat People is one of those low-budget movies that makes up for its lack of money by not only having a good story, but telling it well. I find it hard to believe people wouldn't be ill at ease during the swimming pool scene in Cat People, for example.

Then again, part of the introduction to Cat People as last night's TCM Essentials movie involved Alec and Robert Osborne having a disagreement over the Marlon Brando version of Mutiny on the Bounty, with Baldwin thinking it's essential and Osborne not. I guess I'd have to agree with Osborne, unless the way you want a movie to be essential is to show how putting somebody like Marlon Brando in the cast can ruin your movie. I think I'd pick Sayonara for that, however.