in Hollywood. Tourneur recalled that he was nearly fired three days into shooting after executive producer Lew Ostrow saw the daily rushes, called Lewton and told him to fire the director. According to Tourneur, Lewton subsequently contacted Koerner, who viewed the raw unedited footage of the film the following day and expressed satisfaction with Tourneur's performance. Simon frequently clashed with co-stars as well as Tourneur during the shoot and displayed a significant temper. Randolph recalled that Simon frequently upstaged her during their scenes together, to the point that Tourneur confronted Simon: "He really bawled her out—in French. And she didn't like that either". Randolph also recalled Simon intentionally pouring coffee on one of her costumes in order to halt the production for the day. In a 1994 interview, Simon commented on her reputation in the United States: "I had a reputation of being temperamental – I never knew why – but this became part of my temperamental legend". Tourneur also clashed with higher-ups at RKO, recalling a later scene in the film, which featured a panther: "The front office made me put a cat in the drafting room scene: I had only intended to suggest the cat's presence by shadows". The director finished this scene by shooting it in a way that "you couldn't really be sure what you were seeing. That's the only way to do it". Some of the film sets were re-used from previous productions, such as the hallway and staircase in Dubrovna's apartment, which were from The Magnificent Ambersons. Other sets were re-used from The Devil and Miss Jones. Additional photography took place at the Royal Palms Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, where the swimming pool sequence involving a character believing she is stalked by a panther was shot. The location was chosen by the production team due to its claustrophobic atmosphere. Bodeen also stated that the scene was inspired by his own experience of nearly drowning when swimming alone at night in a pool while Tourneur said that the scene was based on his own experience of swimming alone in a friend's pool while the friend's pet cheetah escaped and began pacing nearby. Filming was concluded on August 21. The film's final cost sheet was $141,659.88, which was $22,711.88 over-budget. Post-production Cat People editor Mark Robson had previously worked on Orson Welles's The Magnificent Ambersons, which was a financial failure on its release. Robson felt