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 Contents

The Sel'ellth Victim: the 'haunted eyes' of Jean Brooks frontispiece

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Val Lewton, 1904-1951 page 7
I. Cat People (I942) 101

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2. I Walked With a Zomhie (1943) 107

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, 3. The Leopard Man (1943) 115

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4. The S evcntlz Victim ( I 943) 120
5. TlzeGhostShip(1943) 129

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6. The Curse ({(the Cat People (1944) 135
The Cinema One series is published by . 7. YOllth Runs Wild (I 944) 142
The Viking Press, Inc., in associatIOn wIth. .
Sight Gnd S01lnd and the EducatIonal AdvIsory ServIces of 8. /'vlademoise//e Fiii (1944) 145

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the British Film Institute 9. Isle of the Dead (1945) 150
Copyright 1973 in all countries of the International Copyright Union by 10. The Body Snatcher (1945) 153
Jocl E. Siegel II. Bcd/am (1946) 160
. 12. /l1.v 0 H'll True LOI'e (1948) 166
A II rights resen'ecl
i13. Please Be/iel'e/lfc(1950) 168

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Published in 1973 in a hardbound and 1,14. Apache Dm/lls(195 I)
paperbound edition by The Viking Press, Inc.
170
625 Madison Avenue, New York, 'Val Lewton's Credits 173
NY. 10022 IAcknowledgements 176

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SBN 670-74231-7 (hardbound) Cover: Redlam
SIlN 670_01955-0(paperbound)

Library of Congress catalog card number: 72··75340

Printed and bound in Great Britain

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Val (Vladimir) Lewton was horn in Yalta. Russia. on 7 May 1904.

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started throwing things at him. Lewton began creating elaborate, under the name Vladimir Ylblondili, identifying himself as a retired

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mother's statues of Christ and the Virgin and used the proceeds to

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neighbourhood girl of whom he had grown very fond. He would

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The summer of his sixteenth year Lewton worked as a reporter for only the belief in the theology peculiar to the religion. But always the

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the DarienStOl!?ford RCl'icH'. He lost his job after it was discovered

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Ladder. that I was made aware that there is one belief in life after death that
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saw an advertisement for a play called The Ladder, a dreadful semi- appraised at over :52,000 - and he and Ruth were engaged. They

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religious drama backed by a wealthy man who was determined to were married on 19 April 1929. and took an apartment in
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keep it on the New York boards. To stir up interest, prizes were Greenwich Village.
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translation of the novel W<1S burned by Hitler's orders.

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Upon the success of No Rcd of Hcr Oll'n, Lewton was signed by

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Vanguard Press to a back breaking five novels per year contract.
Improbable as it may seem, Lewton was able to fulfil the contract:
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several years earlier he had ground out The Fate/Ill Star Murdcr. a

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pot-boiler based on the Starr Faithful murder case. in forty-eight

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hours in a hotel room. The best of the Vanguard books were Vcar(l'
Lease, a story about the inter-relationships of couples in a

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Westchester apartment house. and Four Wives. a tale of marital strife

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which cut across the various social and economic levels of life in

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Manhattan. Four [Vivcs and several of thc others were written under
the pseudonym of Carlos Keith to disguise the fact that Lewton was
churning out novels so quickly.
With the Vanguard contract and a commission to write a thrice-

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weekly radio serial. Lewton left MG-M in 1932. There had been
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HOl11e thc'ltricals. Val Lc,,·tnll with his l110ther (right) and Alb Nazil11(lv3
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good times. He had once cookeclup a scheme to project stereopticon

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started work. Nina traineci her son in story analysis and synopsis
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to the side of the New Paramount Building several blocks down

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writing so that he was well prepared for the news features. radio
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Broadway. He had met Greta Garbo at the pier upon her arrival in
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dramas and serialisations of new productions which he turned out

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America. Returning to the office. he announced that the new Swedish
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during his six years at M G 1\1.;\ number of these serialisations were

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plI hlished in book form ullder Lewton's naille. actress was a mess with big feet and rumpled clothes, but that the
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=.2 man who accompanied her. director Mauritz Stiller, was extremely
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Lewton's first book. privately published in a small edition in 1923.
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im pressive. But by 1932 Lewton had accepted so many writing

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was a collection of highly romantic poems sOlllewhat prophetically

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commitments that he had to quit his full time job in order to meet
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titled l'allt/7er Skill alld Grapcs. The first of his novels. IlIlprOl'cd
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them. The radio programme. Thc LlIck q( Jo'on Christopher. was
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Road. was published in Edinburgh two years later. By his thirtieth

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quite successful but it bored Lewton. who found the task of writing
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birthday he iJad published nine novels and five non fiction books on
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three scripts each week increasingly difficult. By the end of the run h~

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such topics as Casanova. the history of cosmetics. and the fate of

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was writing the second half of the programme while the first was
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working WOJ11en in the Depression. Tn addition he turned out 50.000

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being broadcast. often handing actors sheets of dialogue moments

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words each weck for M C; M puhlicity. and had published two

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before they were due to read them.

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pornographic novels for under the counter sales in New York City.
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The best known of Lewton's novels is No Bcd of'!fer 011'11. one of ;.ar In the early Thirties the Lewtons were living in Riverside.
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Connecticut. in a small house on the water. It was there that Lewton
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the first books about the Depression. Socially conscious and with
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first fell in love with sailing, an addictive distraction which prevented

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strong overtones of Zola and Dreiser. it teils of Rose Mahoney. a girl

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\ictimised by Depression poverty. (When the hook was in manu- him from writing and sometimes forced him to take cheap hotel
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rooms to meet deadlines. A daughter. Nina, was born in 1930. It was

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script. Ruth Lewton observed. 'That girl seems to have no heel of her
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a difficult delivery which endangered Ruth's life. Lewton was forced

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OWIl.' and thc title stllek.) It sold quite well. and was bour-ilt by
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to give a direct transfusion to save her. Perhaps for this reason,

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Paramount. who decided to use onlv the title. which then ran into
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perhaps for others - Nina proved to be as proud and dramatic and

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vulnerable as her father Lewton seldom got along with her and

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exploit anyone who worked for him to achieve his goals. Selznick

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was totally devoted to the high quality of his work. After the Taras

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Lewton's quick. violent temper, and once bad a glass of water thrown

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in her face while guests were present at dinner. lIer youth proved a

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on as Selznick's story editor at a SO per cent reduction in salary. He

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prolonged battle. with neither father nor daughter budging an inch.

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became Selznick's Man Friday, advising on properties and the selec-

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(Like Lewton, Nina craved a pony. She did not, however, get a tion of actors, patching up rough places in screenplays and checking

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school. Shortly before her father's death she married Lee Druckman, suaded Selznick to purchase the rights and bring the star, Ingrid

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an engineer. and now lives in Point Dumc, California. the mother of

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Bergman, to Hollywood. It was he who stopped Victor Fleming from

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five children. shooting a dinner table set-up in Gone Wilh Ihe Wind in which he

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In 1933 Lewton's mother was approached by David Selznick.

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had framed Vivien Leigh with two large grapefruit just below and in

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whose films were being releascd through M G-M, to discover a

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front of her breasts. It was he who. according to his own account.

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Russian-horn writer who could do a script of Taras 1J1I1ba. Selznick, wrote several scenes for Gone Wilh Ihe Wind. including the famous

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whose policy it was to keep writers at work on public domain

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properties in order to secure them for his production company,

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scene had been written by three or four different teams of writers but
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not a full scenario- a joh which was expected to take two to three could ever afford to shoot such a scene. Lewton wrote it to end with

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months at a weekly salary of S200. Mrs Lewton sent Selznick a list

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the elaborate elevator shot of hundreds of wounded soldiers. Selznick
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of five well known writers of Russian extraction and. as a sixth,

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liked it and it went into the film.) And it was he whom Selznick

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been puhlished in 192 6. The other writers rejected the job for with a stop-watch to time how long it took men to relieve themselves

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various reasons. and Lewton was hired. He set off by train for so that the length of the intermission could be determined.
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California. Ruth was left to close the house and to follow with Nina That last. demeaning task was not untypical. Lewton. like all of
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in a month. Never having heen to California. the Lewtons had no

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idea whether they would like living there or even whether there

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would be sufficient work to allow them to stay. They rented a little called Lewton at home and asked how well he knew Olil'er TlI'isl.

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white washed Mexican house in Pacific Palisades, complete with

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Lewton said he knew the novel fairly well and was told to be at
patio. fountain and a swarm of hummingbirds. They were enchanted Selznick's home at ten the next morning. Feeling sure it would be just
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by the climate and decided that. whatever happened, they would try Se1znick's style to trip him up on some obscure piece of information.

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to stay. Lewton spent the night poring over Dickens. He drove twenty miles

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v;\ (in a letter to Leone Scott): My ncphclI' is 28,
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room where Selznick was seated on the toilet. 'How old is Oliver
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married 4 1'ears, has a bab)'. Fell in IOI'c al 16 11';lh a schoolfriend Twist when the story opens?' Selznick asked. Lewton told him.
i

alld lI1i1rri;d her. KIlOII'S 1l0ihinJ.; I1h01l1 'Itfe'. Wriles 'hoi' booksfor a 'Freddie Bartholomew's too old for that: Selznick responded and
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lil'illJ.;. That's lifi: 100, isn'l it? told Lewton to go home. Ruth Lewton feels that her husband's
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inability to stand up to such authority was, perhaps. a carry-over

David Selznick proved to he the most important influence upon ;s'.
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from his years at military academy.

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Still. Lewton had a great deal of fun during his eight years as
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as much. Fearing that his slip would get him in trouble , the

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film and could

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Finally , he suggest ed that Lewton , a great raconte ur, go and

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al the departin g produc er request ing a
story to Samuel Goldwy n. In the middle of Lewton 's emotion Lewton received a memo from

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had list of the twelve best comedy -drama propert ies that the story

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conclus ion

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and by the

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telling of the story, Goldwy n began to soh,
a sale. the memo to Peter Viertel, his
dissolv ed into a fit of weeping . Lewton was sure he had made ment had on file. Lewton showed

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'That son of-a-bit ch is going off to

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to utter his time, and said,
He waited until Goldwy n could collect himself enough assistan t at the
himself a
k and told him what he's going to steal from our files to make

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verdict ~ 'It stinks!' Lewton returne d to Selznic another studio and
to be stopped , but he
had happen ed. Selznic k couldn' t believe the story and instruct
ed big shot there.' Lewton felt that the man had
Lewton to perform for him exactly as he had for Goldwy n. At the had promis ed the agent to keep silent about the matter.

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Finally Lewton carne up with the perfect solution . He and Viertel

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long
end of Lewton 's renditio n, Selznic k could barely still his tears

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tales inventio n. That night they made up twelve deliciou

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The writer produc er William Wright rememb ers several

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about Lewton during their days togethe r
he er \vas sent the list the next mornin g.

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which show more of the playfuL parodic side of the man. While titi llating adjectiv es. The produc

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constan tly underpa id, and Lewton received a request for twelve melodr ama titles.
was with MG-M publici ty Lewton was A few days later

7z5: :;:;:
could
one day promise d Ruth that he would ask for a raise. When he
got to and shortly after that a request for a dozen propert ies which

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each request that came
the office he was afraid to ask Howard Dietz, so instead he con- serve as strong star vehicles for actresse s. For

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their inventio ns

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novel for a 5500 cash advanc e and added in, Lewton an:l Viertel sent off another list of fakes,

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had got g wilder and wilder. After receiv-

'125 to his pay envelop e each week to convinc e Ruth that he and elabora tions each time growin

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Man set in Indo- ing still another request , this time for costum e picture propert

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The Squaw

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his raise. The book, a fast rewrite of

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drunk, the only time Ruth
Where the Cobra Sings and \vas publish ed under Lewton and Viertel arrived home roaring

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China, was called just
Lewton recalls seeing her husban d in that conditio n. They had

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with
the pseudo nym of Cosmo Forbes. In 1936, while Lewton was

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to sell him the where, prior to making up their final

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Selznic k, a husband -anel-w ife team of agents tried been to Don the Beachc omber's
F

list
agents had used the last lisL they had each downed three or four zombie s. The finished
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screen rights to the Forbes novel. (The

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synopse s that
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and to contain ed sllch improb able titles and such outrage ous
pennies of their savings to rent an office on Sunset Boulev ard

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simply
buy an impress ive mink coat to indicate their prosper ity.) Lewton they felt sure they would be found out. But the produc er
Forbes few days later announ ced that he would be
said that Selznic k wanted the book but insisted on meeting accepte d the list. and a
agent promise d to fly to New leaving Selznic k to start his new job.
himself before closing the deal. The
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York and bring back studio
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The be~t known story about Lewton 's years at Sclznic k centres

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of integrit y and devotio n to his employ er. informa tion on a list of titles. No record could be found of
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readers, had read and filed. In reply, the head of the story department Faulkner from a chicken coop after the novelist had taken off on one

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because you have obviously heen made the victim of a hoax.' The encouragement from Lewton. published The Callyon. his first novel.

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dislikc of Miss Brown's brashncss. Wright knew of Lcwton's anti- NINA LFWTON llIUJCKMAN: As a/alher, he I\'(/S (I strangc COlli

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gardenias was only exceeded by the banality of the card's inscription, book. Bul he ncpcr liked Ihe people he ll'orked/()r. He ne)'CI' kOll'loIl'ed

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and that if Miss Brown had any intelligence at all she would know to Ihcl/l, hili he ll'(/S aFoid (iF Ihem, ali'aid of being ll'it/rOIlI a/oh.

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that he had no respect for her. Then he removed his coat and showed I rC'lIlel/lher him Slaying lip /lIlIil all hOllrs oj'the nighl ll'orking 011

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'dog puke' tie: O'Shea liked the story and said he'd ask Lewton about redo Iheir \\'ork. Ue IIsed to I\.,.ilc on a Royal IljJC\\'rilcr; he l/sed

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clasped behind her back. slowly and slinkily manoeuvred herself after completing that film. Tournellf was assigned to direct the

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well schooled in film technique. was expected to advise Lewton on any
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with strawberry jam. exchanging theories about film suspense and Negotiations had begun for the purchase of the screen rights when Val
visual beauty, and awaiting word from Koerner's office as to what suddenly changed his mind.

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dy had heen living in them alone at night. In all
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never explicit ly shown, Lewton felt that the absence of
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of clothing connec tions with the fears of his own
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which called for r\!;mha tlan locales, notably several of

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of RKO films

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g hasis in \';1et.

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some terrifvin

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or had

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comedy . The mag Irl'lla"s rears wcre il11agin ;)n'
the Astairc Rogcrs films and a (linger Rogcrs

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in the
Ostro\I .. Iwwe\'C r. decided that a \1\;1ck kllpard h;;d t;) appe;1I"

2
;
house was
nilieent staircas e huilt hy Orsol1 Wclles for the Ambers on

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drau!'htl l1l'. room seljlJl'IlCe. and aner seeing the rushes t(lld

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where Irena had her apartme nt. These sets
used in the hrowns t(lne

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stanciin!.'.
to reshoot the scene with ;1 cat \Ihile the set \Ias still

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\\ith Lewton 's meticul ous attcntio n to detail and period

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\1 ere dl'essed t (;;1

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was hmugh

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\copard

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d: ;1 drugged

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cotlsiste nc\·. As BoLieen puints out. feline ref'crell ces were \\",l~ d

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l sequenc e: t() the .set and the sequenc e redoJle.
throuEl lOut the sets: 'the qatuc or Bubasti s in the llluseUIl

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to slwot thc scene so Cll1lhi!'uously (the onlv li"ht in the

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shop window : the cat's claws on the hase
the tigcr lilies in the !lorist could
atin!, fmll1 the top surface s (11' the ,ksignin g.·lal;le s) that vicwers

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(11' th~ \);1tht\l\) when SinH1ne tries to c\c;mse herself of guilt

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of

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traces

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all ohviolls

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still n(lt he sllre what thev were secing. Almost
ction hanL~ing over
Illurder in" the lambs: the cats in the Cioya reprodu

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ted by iZ(lbs(ln in the Clilting room. so the

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her past.' Ollce, while the sets the kopard were ohliter;1
her mantle \\'hell she tells the hero oj'

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fl'nlll "mel' was, for the fir~;t (1r what w(luld be many
times. out
ur did a .sketch (If a very small. inl1occn t-
\\cre hcin!, prcp;nc d, Tonrnc ag;~in

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instruct ed

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smark(\ . In thc swimm tng p(lo1 seqlJenc e, Tourne

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l(lI'ed the skelch ,mel had it set in the middle

lookilll: k ittell. l.ewton

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that the eat's presence had to he clearly indicated, came up with

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another solution. The menacing shadows on the walls around the

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indoor pool. suggestive forms reinforced by growling noi~es on the
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soundtrack. were made hy the director's fist 1l10V1l1g III front of a

diffused spotlight.

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Sho()tinlC ended on Co/ Pcople on 21 August 1942. The film had

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been col11p"leted ahead of schedule at a total cost of S 134,000. While
the post production work of editing and scoring contlnu~d, the
Lewton unit scarcelv had time to worry ahout the success of Its first

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effort. The next pro:iect. I Wci/l,ed With a Zomhie. was due to hegin

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production in less than two months, and the third, Leo{Ja.rd Man: two

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Illonths after that. There were story conferences, castlllg seSSIons,

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and set and costume designs to approve. Working hard at their pre
established schedule. Lewton and his associates had little reason to
suspect. evcn drcam. that Call'colilc. approaching the time of its first
previews. would provc to be one of the least expected, most astonIsh·
-;

ing popldar successcs in American film making.

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Ilis \I'IIS a e/ide/cd characlcr. Oil OIlC halld, he \\'as

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all illseClire 111011 \\'110 lender//o ChOI) himself" dOWIl, alld Jcl he was a

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ll/('odillg Il()\·eO.'". The Slorics or his pirtllrcs arc 1101 hal! so llIlllorlanl deadlinc on his head. His IlCI"l'()lfSIlCSS und his need 10 flllsh himse((

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(IS the c.Y/1Crill1('lIts (lnd illnO\'ati\'c c!ll'CIS he Iricd alld his ideas ahoul 100hard conlrihllied to Ihe dec/inc of"his heallh.
slwck alld hea//t\' ill motion 11iCllires. fie loved hcolily hili disliked
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Everyone in the Lewton unit attended the first preview of Cal Pcople,

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(] 1111111 or C\'CIl grcatcr lomllY to his Ileoille; in his eres, they coliid do held at the Hillstreet Theatre. a downtown Los Angeles movie house
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no \IT(lllf;. frequented by a distinctly roughneck clientele. Lewton was extremely
apprehensive. Several weeks before. he and Tournellr had run th~
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In 11;(' (,()lIrsc or his Ii/i', he lransformcd hill1sc(r illlO an Old

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Greenwich gcntlcll;all - Ih~It'S \rhal he rea/lr \\'(Jllled 10 be. Hc tried completed film for their studio bosses. and after the screening
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10 /irc Ill) 10 all or Ihc grclli ;J lI1e!"icon mrlhs - Ihe sailor, thc athlele, nobody would speak to them. Only Lew Ostrow stayed behind, to
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the hllnler. i\1\' imof;c or him \I'US 011(' or a I'CIY lolcrallt hilI/IOn bCll1g criticise the film for its lack of horrific content. For a man who was
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\1"110 \ras the 1l1OS~ h;lIl1iin Protestanl cre!" dCl'iscd lir man. His terrified of being without a job. this was an extremely important
srm/1alhr./iJl· Ihe IIllderdog \ms /Jollndless and he \'eIT ojien crealed evening. DeWitt Bolleen recalls what happened at that first public
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johs in his /ihlls .lCJI actors lind \ITiters \I'ho had ./allen 11/1011 hard
lim ('S. The preview was preceded hI' a Disney cal·toon about a little pussy cat and
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In a \I·II\,. I think hc \ms (/ mal1 \rho nceded all enemy. IIc \I'llS
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Val's spirits sank lower and lower as the audience hegan to catcall and make
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oj/en lI/l\'//;'(' or himselr and tended /0 he scl{-dcs/mc/ire. In difflcull

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loud mewing sounds. 'Oh God l ' he kept Illurmuring. as he wiped the per
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sitllalions, he had (J nCiTOliS Iwhit or stammering. He \\'(Js/ed /1I11C

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spiration from his forehead. The picture's title was greeted with whoops of
c

IIlld seldom cOllld accoll1lllish onrthing \ritlum/ the Ilressurc o( (] derision and louder meows. but when the credits were over and the film
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36 37
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Bodeen says S4.000.000: almost every published estimate exceeds

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alld \Ias ellci1:lIlted, Lewton and his stalT were suddenly thc talk of the studio. \3odeell's

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The track papel' reviC\ls. appearing appropriately enough on

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Frida\'. I,~ Nrl\'Clllber 1942. were all mildly favourahle: there was

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reasOl~ to SIIPl'ose that CUI I'('o/,Ie would do all right, but no hint of his promotion to A pictures as soon as he had completed three films

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for Lewton. plus a bonus of S5.000. There was no salarv boost for

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the trel1lendou:; popular response it would receive, The New York

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Lewton. but doors hegan to open to him that had heen clr~sed before.

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newspaper reviews \\'CI'C not particularly encouraging when Cal

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1'(,Ofi le opened at the Rialto Theatre, a famous chiller showcase, on Of all the plaudits. nOlle pleased Lewton more than a telegram from

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his old boss. David ScI/nick. whieh read: 'I !'eel that CIII Peo/Jie

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7 [)ecemher. backed up by a partieui:lrly lurid advertising campaign,

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I~evic\\ers for the lilllcs. !fC/'illli Trih//lil'. S'//I/(iar NCII'S and World dcllnitely and at one stroke establishes you as a producer of great

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competence and I know no man in recent years who has made so

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/'eil'gU/l1/ all went tl1umbs down: the .','/111. S'lIndol' ;\firror . ./ollrnal

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milch out of so little as a lirst picture,'

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Iflllel'ic(/i/ and I'il/ were more positive. if not really enthusiastic. The

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Los Angeles re\iews were :;ol1lewhat better when the film opened Oil After this success. the LewlollS decided that the time had fillall\'

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come to put dOl'm roots in Los Angeles and buy a house, In 194,1.

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1"1 January at the I hl\\'aii Theatre on Hollyw(lod Boulevard. sup

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real estate prices. particularly along the ocean where they wanted to

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p\)J'ter! lw a \'v'arner Brothers' dud called TIl" (lorillil Mall, But a

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live. were incredibly low. Many coastal home oWllers C[llite seriously

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believed that they would awaken one morning to lilld the Japanese

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leelinl's ,1i1(lLIt ('II/ 1'{'(I/lle, 'hllltastic and unhealthy: said the

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. =_E entrenched in their front yards. Actor .lack Holt. who had appeared

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liniver,itv \Vomcn: '\Vcinl and unbelievable,' said the Business and

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in CUi People. was one of those \\'ho were frightened of a .Iapanese

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ary fraternity. c()ndclllned the lilm as 'a horrible idea. unethically Corsica Drive between Brentwood and Pacific Palisades. Ilnlt had

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built the hOUSl: himsclf'. and it was s()mcthing of a showplacc with its

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delighted in theJll, pine-panelled living room. suite or maids' room~, four car ~ara[!e,
and acres of surrounding land rich with fruit trces and one h~lI1dl~ed
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rose bushes, The actor was so anxious to unload the house that he

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audiences !lOCKed to sec Cal /'1'11/111' wherever it played. The film that
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threw in most of the furnishings, china. crystal. linens. even black

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theatre honKers had expected would run no longer than a few days

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nut curtains all for the selling price of S 15.000, Lewton. \\hose

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\\as held (lVCr week aner week, It played so long at the Rialto that a
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numher oj' newspaper reviewers went back for a second. Illore salary at RKO was quite modest. was able to raisc "5.000 as a dowll
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payment and moved in imlllediately. Friends who used to visit

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relllcmhl:r the house. where the pruducer livcd IJnlil the time or his

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wcek en~agement at thl: I I;l\\'aii. where Cili::el/ t-:lIIle's first run lasted

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(Jill\' t\\'l'lve weeKs. Ih the time the film's general release was COIll death. as a particularly warm and charming place. where the conyer
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plcted. it had earncd ~tl()ugh motley to save I~ KO which. in deeper sation was always livelv and amusing.

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The Lewtons never reallv lived a Ilollv\\'ood social life: the\'

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seldom went out and almost t;ever to the bigger parties or nightelub~.

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At home. they preferred small dinner parties and sailing excursions

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to larger gatherings. ,md yet the house was ,llways filled with friends.

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The Tourneurs were frequent guests. and Ring Lardner. and Fred

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Zinnemann, and eeonomist Josef Mischel, who would shortly her association with Lewton on what is perhars his most flnishcd,

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most haunting film, I Walked With a ZOll1hie. Even before shooting

;
become one of Lewton's writers, and Mark Robson, who sometimes

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commenced on Cal People, Koerner told Lewton that his second

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hrought over a friend from the RKO editing department, Robert

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Wise, Alan Napier, the British character actor, who appeared in Cal

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Jlfoject would be based on an article called 'I Walked With a Zombie'

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f'eo/)Ie and three suhsequent Lewton pictures, was a special friend, by columnist Inez Wallace, which had appeared in the Amcrican

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and his cohorts had completed two more fllms and several new irritable mooel. His associates dreaded his arrival the next morning,

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devoted young woman, who served as Lewton's secretary alm.ost incurable mental illness. Curt Siodrnak, brother of the director

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until the time of his death, Verna had come from Iowa to attend

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assisting a contract writer at the studio. Like Jessie, Verna felt that Zombie:
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Lewton was not really aprreciated or respected by his superiors:

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His film, Cal Pco/) Ie, sa\Td RKO when it was practically bankrupt. bUl they subject Val could find. Ilc was an addictive researchcr, drawing out of it the
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didn't show Illllch appreciation. Charlcs Koerncr kept on drcaming up those ovcrall fcc!' mood and quality he wanted, as well as details for actual

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outrage'ous titles to stick him with. Thcy didn't understand this man at all or production. J Ic got hold of a rcal calypso singcr, Sir Lancelot hc was called

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what it was he was trying to do. But his movics cost practically nothing to {; - i:I== lEuiZ=E=2 a charming, litcratc, articulatc man. IIc, in turn, found some genuine

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make. so they Ict him go ahead, although they rcally wanted more conven- voodoo musicians. I remcmber they had a 'papa drum' and a 'mama drum',

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Koerncr's dccisions b\ insisting that his Ca/I'eople had bccn a big success. sccne in which a doll 'walks' in a voodoo ritual. They managcd a concealed
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Wild script. hc got a phone call from Sid Rogel!. who rcplaccd Lew Ostrow Val - a low budget was a challenge to him, a spur to inventiveness, and
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\\ould gi\'C the picture more class. After that call. Mr Lcwton couldn't write soft grey robe, and hcr hair had been combed out to the appropriate 'lost

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another \\·ord. That was the kind of Illcntality he was forced to deal with. girl' look, shc, too, was somehow transformcd.
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not dear to me) that Val managed then. You can't call it teamwork, becausc
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woman who had been involved in a Young Writers' Project at RKO that implies a kind of hcarty I'll be quiet while-you talk andthcn you'll bc
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and whose work had attractcd Lewton's attention. Miss Wray started quiet while I talk situation- all wrong. It wasn't cosy. J can't spcak for the

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others. hut ecrt:1inll' I lIent hOTlle to Tlly (1wn life cI'Cry ni)!ht. though
S(lTlletilllcs prettI late. (\\/c\1 lI'mk Iate.!!(l to dinner at the ~lcll'(]se (irotto.
h;lck t(l the studio. lIork sOllle more. then w;i1k out cnj(1vin)! and talking
ahout the eerlc. half sinister lJllality of an empty lot ;It ni)!hLl And it wasn't a
Illeetin!! nf the minds. in the sense that everyone :1)!rccd ahollt everything.
Therc were some prettI' ru)!)!ed disa)!rcCTllcnts. But it lI';lS togethcl"Jlcss. all
ri)!ht realll' ideally. in a \lork sense ... more like theatre. It was a small.
close unit. cOTllparahle to (()day's independcnt. Thnc wasn't too much
l l pstairs interil-rcncc. except ()n the cverlasting huJi!!ct problem. And. if I'm
not l'CmcTllhnin)! falsely. somc Upstairs fears that sock it to them was hein)!
silcrilieed for 'artv stun".
Shooting on I ~f 'a/!,cd Wilh a 7o!7l!Jic started on 26 Octobcr 1942
with a somewhat morc impressive cast than for Cal ['coplc. Frances
Dec. that darkly beautiful and unusually intelligent actress who nevcr
quitc managed to fit into anI' of thc stanclard Hollywood slots. was to
piaI' Betsy. the young Canadian nursc who leavcs hcr home to attcnd
thc sid wife of a piantatinn owncr on San Schastian in thc \Vest
Indies. Tom Conway was thc Rochcster likc Holland. James Ellison.
42
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'The art directioll , ,. magicallv evoked the West Indies,' Frallces Dce. James Ellison
'!lld Tom COIlII:lV ill f II'"I/,('d With (I /"IIIl>i('
filling out his last obligati(1tl as an RKO contract playcr. was top
hilled as Conway's brothcr. and Fdith Harrctt was cast as the mothcr.
Sir Lancclot made a strong imprcssion. singing a calvpso ballad of
his own devising which was woven into thc story. and Christinc
Gordon. as Ifolland's amicted wife. lVas cspecially cffcetive in her
non speaking role. (The wii'e lVas callcd Jessica. Lcwton's fa r'CI\'C II
tribute to the departing Mrs Ponitz.) Dar'by J(1neS madc an equally
silent and iconographically efTective contributiotl as a zombie. Thc
art dircction by Albert [)'Agostino and Walter Kcller magically
cvo~cd tlte West Indies. and Roy Hunt's photography was supcrb.
Shooting endcd on IlJ Novcmber and the tradc revicws. appcaring in
earll' 1\1arch. wcre cnthusiastic.
In late April. whcn I W{///,J'd Wilh a /olllfJic had its first public 1
screenings. the ncwspaper reviewcrs wcrc unanimous in thcir praise.
Perlwps Lewton's masterpicce. it is onc of thosc exceedingly rarc
rnolics which manage to summarise cverything that is artistically
lalid about a llollywood genre and thcn go on to transccnd thc genrc
itself. I Walked IVilh (f /oilihil' docs for horrt1r movies what Sam
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pre-production work as well. '[,co/)ord Mal1 had a New Mexico

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background. There was no hope of location sllOotinl', or even a

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them to a shop for development. then waited a couple of days.

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Brooks and IS;lhcl .Jewell. whom Lewton was to usc again.

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knew we were right from the start. It took only one more picture to
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other t\\O films. The /.COIJlIU/ ,\fUll had a shooting: schedule of less
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RKO broke up the Lewtol1 Tourneur partnership after the co III pic·
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tiPI1 of rhe tCOI)(/u/ ;\1011, on the dlIhious prcmise that since the
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twice as well separated. As promised. Tourneur was promoted to

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;\ pictures. the first being f)urs C;/()}"r. a war story set in Russia or
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which featured CJregory Peck in his first film role. Today. regretting
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and not iust horror movies.'

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shouldn't get mad at the New York reviewers. Actually, it's very

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One trick under mv belt is that I'm going to sneak over a comed:v on them.

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They've given me 'a silly title. The Amorous Ghost. anel [ plan to make a
comedy of it. a comedy in which Casanova. because he never madc any
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\\0111<11; unhappy. is allowed to rcturn to earth for a twelve hour visit. [n this
time he QOCS to; masquerade. meets a lovely but very forthright modern girl
and is ,:, desirous (If her that much to his and her amazement when he is
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sna tched back to the other world. he finds that he has brought her with hi m.
lIis worlel is an eiQhtecnth century conception of heaven, a little Fragonard Producer and directors: Robert Wise. Mark Robson and Val Lewton in 1945
masterpiecc. as ch;rming and as unreal as it can be. From then on. the story working himself up through the system from set director to assistant
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takes ,c\'eral directions: the comedy theme. which is a sort of Yankee in
King Arthur's Court affair. with a' young modern girl shooing away the
eighteenth century wolves. and the dramatic story, which is concerned With
the modus operandi of the girl's return to this world, a sort of Orpheus and
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cutter to cutter. He and Lewton had something more than a working
friendship; Robson was a constant guest at the Lewton home, and at
one time, as Nina Druckman recalls, was so under hcr father's spell

that he talked and gestured exactly like him. Lewton treated Robson
Eurvdice theme. [ know this sounds mad. but I've been rehashing the plot so
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l11u;h today with the writer. a German refugee and formerly director of the with thc tenderness reserved for a son and felt pleased to be able to
Dresden State Theatre. Leo Mittler. that 1'111 weary of it. I've given you help him advance his career. As he observed in a note to his mother.
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enDllgh of the plot to give Y01l the central idea. Tnm Conway. who played ;z 'I gave the direction of SCI'cnth Victim to the young cutter who did
Ilnlland in Zomhie. will play Casanova. and I'm looking for a girl. (In a the editorial work on the other pictures. Mark Robson. and he's
letter to his mother and sister. 11 1\1ay 1943.) doing a beautiful job·- almost as well as Jacques. This makes me
very happy as I'm extremely fond of him.'

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With Tourneur gone. Lewton was forced to find a director for the
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next picture on his schedule, a suspense original called The Seventh than screenplay form, dealt with an orphaned girl in Los Angeles
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who had been working with him since he arrived at RKO and had
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his identity to save herself. While Bodeen was in New York enjoying
been plumping for acl\:ancement from the cutting roo III to directing. a studio-paid bonus vacation and researching Washington Irving and
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at U.C.L.A.: he continued in films while studying law in the evenings,
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orphaned schoolgirl who goes to Ncw York in search of hcr older depended upon his remaining with the B unit where the lilms were so

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sister. onlv to discover that the sister is a member <1n(1 intended inexpensive that the front office seldom felt the need to meddle. Later

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first three productions and told that a promotion would he forthcolll- 1101''' eut out for him. 'I II'afkeri Wilh (/ /ulllhic was the hcst of Val's

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agent Leon Lance at the Pasadena Playhouse, was selected to play demands. RKO had built a huge ship set for a film directed by Lew

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musical score. It opened to indifferent reviews, and had just managed to play out

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masterpiece. The bizarre tale is told with tiny. impressionistic strokes months before. two men had dropped off an unsolicited story and

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superb illustration of the Donne epigraph, 'I run to Death. and Death procedure, returned the manuscripts to the writers. Shortly after the

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meets me as fast. and all my Pleasures are like Yesterdays.' A Ghost Ship premiere, the men brought a law suit claiming that
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comparison with Roman Polanski's recent and over-praised Rose- Lewton had appropriated crucial clements of thei r work. A !though

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vided his fledgling director with an extensively annotated screenplay. claimants were able to prove that Lewton could have had access to
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own bachelor days on Perry Street. (The sequence in which two men sister, dated 26 August 1945:

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prop up a dead man in a subway car. attempting to pass him off as a

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drunk. stems from a similar incident which Lewton once observed in

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the plaintiffs are obviously wrong and have no merit in their case. it is the
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be very much on our toes in the cnurt rOOI11 or the case may go against us
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be promoted, Example: 'On a small table in your lobby. display a feeling that such persons should not be allowed to get away with their little
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practices. even if it is mllch more convenient to let them get away with it. It

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statue. a bust and head of a woman. Wherever the skin shows on the
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settle. but I feel it is a small price to pay for a really clear name.
resemble goose pimples. Place a card nearby reading "Even
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which was scheduled for production in early August 1943, This new he did not commit. As part of the judgment. The Ghost Ship was
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band. now remarried to his sympathetic coworker. Jane Randolph.

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and llloved to Tarrytown suburbia. Of course. the relationship of

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sufficient to free Lewton to make this unusually sensitive and delicate

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unusual and uncommercial theme. stems from his own insecure.

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repressive and highly romantic childhood at Who Torok, geographi-

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cally close to the film's Tarrytown setting. Ruth Lewton has de-

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scribed her husband as a man who. as a youngster. was forced to

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retreat from reality into an insubstantial world of his own creation

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sequences in the film arc based upon events from his own life. Early

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\,·ithdrawn frotll the[ltrieal exhibition. and has since been secn only in placed the invitations in the cleft of a trce. which her father had once

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infrequent and presumably illegal televisioll airings. told hcr was a magic mailbox. Lewton himself had once been in.]

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Shooting on The (Jho.l/ ,)'hi/J had ended on 2R August 1943. Two qructcd to mail invitations to his sister Lucy's hirthday party and

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had made the same mistake. unable to separate fact from fantasy.

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days earlier. shootini'- commenced on one of the producer's greatest

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popular and critical successes. The C/lrse or
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aeain Charlcs Koerner had come up with a tllwdry title desipled to uses the courtly. enchanting numherstories that Lewton had in

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\-ented to educate his own children. One was a tall princess: two. a

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c:lsh in on the Cat /'eopie success. and once again Lewton was

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frOill usine the title as a cover for his attcmpt to make a film quite

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beyond th~ scope of the thrillers he had previollsly produced. After frequently screened for students of child psyeholoi!.Y. was created by

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we'eks of fii'-hting and resisting the idea of a Cat I'eo!)!c sequel. a man who was almost totally incapable of recognising and handling

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L.ewton finally sat down and wrote his own story. a fascinating study the needs of his own sensitive. insecure little daughter.

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in child psychology. about a lonely little girl who invcnts an imagin· Other Lewton regulars. including Elizabeth Russell and Sir

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ary friend to supply her with the love and understanding that her Lancelot. were cast. along with ./ulia Dcan. who was especially

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charming as a senile actress. Six year old Ann Carter turned in

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deHloped Lewton's idea. adding clements frolll his Tarrytown an astonishingly prccise and decidedly unmoppety performance as

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rese;trch. and Lewton reassembled the key members of his Cal the child. Amy. Nicholas Musuraca was director or photography,

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1'co/,ic cast to convince the studio that they were going to get another and Robert Wise was signed on to cut the fjl111. Because Robson's

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of Ihe Cal Pcople, Lewton had chosen a second new directo

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young man with docume ntary film training named Gunthe

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to be his first
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up for eighteen

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days but he fell so far behind that after the eighteen days

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and tried to get

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Gunther to pick up the tempo, but it was his first bigjoh and

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he wasjust too
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with him under
those c(lnciitio ns and I called Val to ask his advice. 'Look:
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vou. it will be somebod y else. You're not pushing Gunther The C/ll'Se n( Ihe Cal Peo!'!e: Julia Dean and Ann Carter

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early October .

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or proved to be one of Lewton 's most highly acclaim ed films.

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A 1'1 «f' Rehearsal which I've kept with l11e ever sincC'. named it, along with Lewton 's subsequ ent YOllih Runs Wild,

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the best

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fiction film of 1944, Joseph Foster in The Nel\' !l.Iasses found

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that charmin g picture and remark ed that he could not 'for the life

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the studio had' expecte d. Some retakes were ordered , like the of me

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inser- underst and why RKO should have present ed the film under

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tion of a shot of two boys chasing a black cat up a tree, and a sllch

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number discour aging auspice s' - i.e. the mislead ing title and showca

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of slllall but artistica lly crucial details were cut. The most damagi sing in

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ng horror theatres like New York's Rialto. (Lewton had tried

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Amy looking at a picture book

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suade the studio to change the title to A 117.1' (lnd lIer Fricnd, but

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illustra tion of' a Sleepin g Beauty princes s dressed in a medieva to no

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he conside red 'one of the nicest movies ever made'.

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upon even the most sceptica l critics and movieg oers that Lewton

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from
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it merited a great deal of attentio n and applaus e. Probab

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best productions: it is probably more worth doing than any of the

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invited to appear with his film. this time by Dr Fearing. head of the

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others. but it is not done half so well as / ~Valkcd With a Zomhie or

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Thc S'cI'c!1fh Victim. Manny Farber. writing in Thc Nell' Republic, the picture and discuss with Lewton some of the problems it raised.

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provided a fair appraisal of the film's weaknesses and its special At one point. Dr Fearing praised Lewton's use of Amy's tight lipped

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significance of its insights into reality. and the playing. which is on emotional problems, the same reticent smile appeared again and

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worker. refused to take credit for this particular touch. Little Ann

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sterility with enough vitality to make it an artistic dream movie. But

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replaced, she was instructed to act with her mouth shut for the rest of

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studio's publicity department had ever bothered to take a look at
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what they were promoting. Once again there were the bizarre sug
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Cat People and Youth Runs Wild. lrerc made h.1' Val Lell'ton and his
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people'I" Schedule their routes so that they appear before the gates of
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defense factorics when the various shifts arc changing.'

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()j'these/ilms, under the hest oj'circull1stonccs, lI'ould be eqlli!)pcd to

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chiller trappings as a work of sensitivity and gracc, and this time not "i'-
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only by film critics. On 7 September 1944 the film was used by the
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l'I'I'olutionarl' pictllres that arc so des/wrotc/r necded. Indeed, /

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suspect thai theirl'llthcr gcntle, plcasing. resollrce/ill kind oj'talent is
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ment of children in films. Lewton and Wise appeared and were

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praised not only for the soundness of the film's psychological content
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but also for the 'intelligent and unselfconscious' handling of the

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Negro servant. Such usc of Negro characters was a distinguishing
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in the Thirtics and Forties, and the patronising special pleading of

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morc recent pictures like The nc/ianl Ones and Gucss Who's
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the laughter. The office was always filled with writers and dir'cctors laughing
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else. respected the human dimensions of the materials he handled.

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and talking over Russian tca and cookies. With all of the fun we had. it's
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almost impossible to believe that we managed to make cleven movies in

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A merican films which treat the black man with individuality and
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those three years. and pretty good movies at that. Val was a wonderful
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dignity. Shortly after the Los Angeles seminar. Lewton was again person. kine!. sensitivc. and sweet. The only timc he evcr scolded me was
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when he came into the office early one morning and found me reading one of

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his novels. He blushed and then became quite angry. 'Don't evcr Ict me cia Is in the State Department. These men set about trying to talk

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Axis powers with fuel for their argument that dcmocracics did not

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and sill' up a person after one short meeting. But he wasn't equipped to

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and its possible solutions to the attention of the public was all to the
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shoestring budget. hut he took things much too seriously. lie didn't know

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while another one was bcing preparcd. Val didn't work vcry much in the plex a problem. I keep thinking of one of the juvenile cases to whom 1
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around cleven. Once \\e worked all day. all night and all of the next day

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without sleep and had such fun that nobody ever mentioned going home. to find that his young brother in law is in trouble with the juvenile
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juvenile delinquency. He assigned writers John Fante and Herbert ;' under Mark Robson's direction. The producer and director were

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youth centres in her hometown of Moline. Illinois, had brought her subject proved too inflammatory. and failure to receive the licence
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to national attention. It should not be supposed, however, that

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Lewton stock company, like Kent Smith, Jean Brooks and Ben Bard.
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picture to cash in on the news value of the delinquency topic. Lewton A re These Ollr Childrcn? had an un usually long shooting schedu Ie

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shown with Danny Kaye's elaborate musical Up in A rillS, and did not

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immensely. Very interesting all the way through.' '[ am in a teenage

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group and meet the very same problems'), but some of the comments

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audience. noticing his antics. began to howl with glee. The studio

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what had caused the laughtcr. they held fast to their decision. So
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until miclSeptember.
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writing in Timc. said. 'Youth RUlls Wild, for <111 its clumsiness, is
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rem<1rkably full of w<1rmth. of life and of real cinematic sensitive- side of their problems and on the mild. c~ns~rvative side of tech-
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ness.' He concluded with an interesting comparison of Lewton and

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nique . " In another set-up. I think Lewton would probably make

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Preston Sturgcs. 'Youth RUlls Wild is not a very competent Rim, nor, extremely good movies; he may eventuallv do that even in
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<1S cntertainmcnt. is it likely to be very successful. But it contains Hollywood.' . .

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elements which are far superior to competence or success. Indeed, Lewton hilllself was less than enthusiastic about the film. Just after
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the hope for great films in Hollywood seems just now to be shared shooting was completed hc thought there might be somc hope for it.

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about evcnly by Val Lewton and by Preston Sturges. with the odds,
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perhaps. on Lewton. Lewton wholly lacks the Sturges brilliance. be an cxploitation picture. pure and simple. appealing only to the
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adroitness and comic gift; he probably hasn't it in him to make a sensational. [ just went ahead and did what [ thought was riuht. I
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wow. But his fceling for eincma is quite as deep and spontaneous as have made an' honcst picture. It may not be popul<;r. but at I~ast I
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that of Sturges. and his feeling for human beings, and how to bring don't have it on my conscience that [ was party to using <1 bad
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them to life on the screen. is deeper.' situation for mere entertainment purposes.' But a few months later,
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after all the editing and re shooting. Lewton was ciisgusted with the
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Wild with an <1nalvsis of Lewton's position <1S a commercial Rlm- film. 'From the first. it was an ill advised venture, which I undertook
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maker: . LcwtoJl escapcs the corruption of I [ollyw(lod by his own only to be a nice fellow as far as the studio was concerned. The
integrity and by skilful practicality such as making horror films or picture turned out rather well. all things considered. We had a good
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Then, lAW/( magazine. a reactionary and Republican organ, with

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charge for them . .Iosef Mischel was selected to write the screenplay.

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United States knowing only a few words of English: he learned to

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speak by sitting through movies over and over again until he knew

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the lines by heart. Lewton took an immediate liking to this modest,

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really no problem at all. for Lewton had been awaiting an oppor

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frequently dining with Mischel and his wife Florence, a reader at the

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tunity to employ his detailed knowledge of period styles, manners,

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costumes, decor and military lore. In their research into the period,

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of the opening Tarrytown school picnic sequence in The Curse o//he

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grammatic plan for the construction of a diligence or stagecoach

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work that the desire for approval became something of an inhibition.

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there was not enough money to think about building new sets for the

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further developments in studio politics. He discllssed his problems in
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happened to them before the beginning of the story and what would

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head of the studio, as a special favor to me, had taken me out of the which Wise could develop characterisations and direct the actors.

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as his imlllediate superior, things were bad enough. Then Charles behind -- go goose him up." I managed to come in two or three days

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picturc's subdued. leisurely pace. but the majority loathed it, sub-

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magnanimous man. would almost certainly have saluted this film. He

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S200.000: it is by far the least expensive costull1e picture that has taken care to conceal the purity of their hope and intentions.'

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script in a pathetic race against schedule: and now and then its ALAN NAPII':R: For all his lol'c orthe sea, Val II 'liS 1lL'1'('/' Il'holl\' at

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poverty results in make shift of a rather stagy, or even musty, sort ('(]se all the Nina. lie lra,m'l parliclIlar/]' good al alhlelics, blil/E'II

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too. that some of the pictu re 's inadequacies arc inadequacies of depth licisill. f{e liked 10 scc hilllse!ras a lumhcrjack'culling dOl\'ll Irces or

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characters, from the script on out. ever fully identify themselves as IlCrl'OIiS Il'hen Il'e II'ere on Ihe hoo!. Gne had Ihe ji'e!illg Ihal his

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of any American film which has tried to say as much, as pointedly. thaI his oliiside didn'l malch his inside. 011 Ihe sllr/ace, he appeared

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about the performance of the middle class in war. There is a gallant, 10 be a Ills 1.1', !Jhysicallllan, but insidc he IWIS (Ivery sellsilil'C, creatil'c

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fCrI'CTlt quality about the whole picture, faults and aiL which gives it a mall, 1'('1'), lighlly slmng, wilh a capacitl' Fir exirelll£, anxictl' alld
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peclliiar kind of life and Iikeableness. and which signifies that there is slrain,
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There lI'as one dread/ill lime when we made a night Irip to child again. flis eyes \I'ould/las/z lI'ithjilIl or sllspense am/yoll cOllld

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Catalina on the Nina. There lms no li'ind, so we were using the motor actually see the story. I Ihink he was a stOlyteller a 1/(/, hcC{Jusc his
ll'hen somehow, about 2 a.m .. the propeller got tangled up in some· imagination \I'as so intcnsely visual, his mediulll \l'as films. Though

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thing or other. Val l\'asjitrious at having to remove all o.lhis yachtsman some (!l his /lo)'cls arc Rood, I don't SllpJ)(JSe any 0./ thclll arc real/I'
gear and go splashing into Ihe icy \I'aters to.fix Ihings. He always firstratc. His lIaluraltalent was.!!)!' lelling a StOlY in Icrll1s otvisllal

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paid a great deal ol allention to protocol, like raiSing and 101l'ering Ihe iII/aRCS. and a nlll1lha o/hisjilms, ll'ilhin their scope, arc absollltel\'

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.flag al Ihe proper tim!!: he \I'as as melielllous aholtl yachtsmanship as firs/ralc. There's simply no way of con)'eying the.fllll o.(l17e m(ll/. fie
he \I'OS in his siudies ol hislorr and medi!!l'al armOllrs, and so h!! had a ll'Ondel:!itll}' mocking sense o.l hllmollr ll'hich didnll particu-
lrould gel qllite ongrr \I'hen som!!Olle did something which was lar~l' help hillZ ill the movie /Jllsiness lI'her!! Iher!! arc so many sacred

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improper form. My \I'tte and I lI'ent sll'imming the next a/lernoon cows. I suppose womcn S(IlI' more ()t his lortZ/redness and IIlcn sail'

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and, a.fler lI'e \I'ere back Oil hoard and dressed, lI'e hung Ollt Ollr more o.l his fllll.

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bathing suits to d':r on a railing. Val spoiled them and \I'as.!llrious

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Mark Robson recalls how Isle of the f)!!ad. the fourth picture he

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for a moment unti!\I'e thollghl 10 r!!move them. It \I'as very important

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directed for Lewton. got started. '.Jack Gross called Val into his

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to /'al, Ihis American IIpper·middle-class FpisCOI)alian !!Ihic o/things
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that arc don!' alld things Ihat are nOI. lie \I'as romantic ('no ugh 10 office for a conference. Gross had come to RKO from Universal.

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adore Ihe st(fT IIpper lip Ihing I hat 1 had knoll'l1, and rather Iza ted, as where the prevailing idea of horror was a werewolf chasing a girl in a

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a child ill FnglCJIzd. lie \I'ould try to pilI on a good ShOll' lVith the pipe nightgown up a tree. With him in the office was a man from

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and yachting cap and the /ill!!r in hand, bill then il would all go Exhibition named Holt who seldom. if ever. spoke. "O.K .. " said
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\lTong alld he'd hm'e to go jumping into the cold It'ater. Almost Gross. "We've just signed Boris Karloff to a three·picture contract
anyhoc/y else lrollle! hme something ()la scnse oj"hllmollr about it, hilt and you're going to use him in your next film." Val was not pleased.

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it me{lnt so milch more thanjllst sport to Val. He liked his films to be very naturalistic and here they were sticking
him with the man whose name was synonymous with flamboyant

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Alter ollr slrim and dillllcr, it was cllstomary /or yachtsmen to

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come hr and visit lritlz each olher. Jacques Tournellr, who also had (J horror. Gross didn't say a word about the story-line becaus~ he

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hoat, IJIllled orer 10 I'isit us. He \I'as carrying a porlahle radio and didn't have one. But as Val turned to leave, Holt. shaking his finger.
lI'as ohsolute/\' plastered, so lrhen he Iried to come ahoard the Nina, added, "Remember- no messages!" Furious, Val returned to his
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he fell into the Catalina \l'alas. 1 rememher he kept hobbing Ill) with office and telephoned Holt: ''I'm sorry but we do have a message. M r
his radio and going dOll'n again lIntif \I'e could reSClie him. These Holt," Val told him angrily. "And our message is that d~ath is
olltings lrollld make Val rerJ' nervolls; he lms rather tilllid and a bil good." .
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Fighlcned (!/people he didn'l kno\\', but he expccted qllite a 101 o.lhis Still. a fl1m had to be invented and Lewton set about his work with

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Fiends. the help of Ardel Wray, .Josef Mischel. Robson and the new unit
Val had (liZ ({flectionate, almost sloppy heart and was total~\' editor. Lyle Boyer. In the early stages. everyone contributed ideas
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generolls and loyal 10 his/riends. Yet he had a kind ofnatfl'e artistic until a general format was agreed upon. The picture was to be based
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integrity which prohihited him Fom any emotional se!findlllgence in upon the Boecklin painting 'Isle of the Dead'. a work which Lewton
his lmrk. He avoided the corny HollYlI'ood h!!arltllgging that dis- had known and made up stories about in his childhood at Who·
figures Ihefilms ofpeopl!! like Frank Capra. Valnel'er expressed anJ Torok. Increasingly, Lewton had come to employ paintings as
desire to make a great mastcrpiece. IIlSI!!(]d he'djust sa)" 'There's (] inspiration, a method of working which had a rather mixed effect
Imnder/itt story ... ' and o.!fhe'd go. He wanted 10 tell stories because upon the tone of his films. His pictures became more and more

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they were good talcs, not for their ef/ect IIpon the /lI!(]rlstrings or striking in their composition. an aesthetic advance somewhat vitiated
mora! III)l(tt. When he told stories, he s!!ellled to becollle velT yOllng, a by a certain static quality which seemed to creep in at times, robbing
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his later films of some of the graccful movcment of the earlier ones.

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of 1912, rrovided him with another orrortunity to explore rerioel

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four a.l11. the three of us were in hysterics. We had come up with the

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idea of situating the heroine's house so that every time she had to go
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Shooting on Isle o/"thc Dead began in midJuly 1944. Ellen Drew

and Katherine Emery were featured, along with Alan Napier and
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Jason Robards Sr in smaller roles. Karloff. a gentleman of culture
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who had several times tried to shake off his horrific screen image,
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was quite taken with Lewton. He had never before, especially at

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Universal. worked with a man of such taste and refinement. and in a

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short time the two men were close friends. In a newsraper interview

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from the living dead and restored his soul.
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After a few days work, Karloff suffered a flare up of an old hack

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plaint. He managed to be wryly humorous about it .. not falsely in

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that ohnoxious see-how hrave-I'm being way. Everyone liked and

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respected him' Still. after a week of suffering, the hack injury proved
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too severe to allow Karloff to continue working and the Isle (1/ {he
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twelve days of shooting were completed.

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by turning to Goya's sketches and some very inexpensive materials.
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couldn't afford to build anything. But we managed to get our hands

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the hori70n. We kept dressing the small set with different trees and
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dirt and the muslin met we took as the horizon.' Boris Karloff on the battlefield. after

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but you can't be too sure, for she was subject to cataleptic trances.

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wagon wheels to disguise the fact that, while we were trying to

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able. When the shriek of the prematurely buried woman finally

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with a total of thirty extras, basing their groupings upon Goya's

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comes, it releases the rest of the show into a free-for-all masterpiece

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Disasters of the War 1808: the Iberian Campaign. Through each

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Goyaesque layout. we'd shoot tracks of Karloff wandering about the of increasing terror. The wild laughs, blown leaves, scrawks and
battlefield.' tongue swallowing of jittery night birds, and darkness in an empty

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Lewton was not at all pleased with Isle Q{ the Dead, an assignment

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self. For all the film's gently dawdling beginning. horror specialist

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he had accepted on the promise that he would be graduated from
Producer Val Lewton and his colleagues have turned Isle q/the Dead

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horror films. During the production he wrote to his mother and

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or into one of the best horror movies ever made.' This verdict was

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sister: 'Isle the Dead, which we are shooting now, is a complete

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mess. I'm th~nkful that it is my last horror picture and, at the same

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hardly shared by the NCII' York Tillles reviewer. who dismissed the

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time, sorry that I couldn't depart from that field with a final success.'
Then several weeks later: 'Isle qt the Dead, which we just finished
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,.;7;e Lewton's next picture, filmed during the break in production of

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Isle of thl' Dead (and released before it) was another horror film: the
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shooting, looks pretty hopeless, but we're going to apply to it the
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promise to let Lewton move on to more important subjects was

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methods of despair, and go absolutely, madly radical in our treat-

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ment of the film itself. It is the only thing that could possibly make it broken by the studio. This time Lewton was again assigned a literary

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interesting.' A few months later, he issued his final verdict: 'It started property in the public domain -- Robert Louis Stevenson's story The

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out as a rather poetic and quite beautiful story of how people, fleeing Body Snatcher, which was based upon news stories of the so called

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from the battles of the Greek War of 1912, are caught on this island 'Resurrectionists' of Edinburgh in the 1830s, whose trade was dig-

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by plague and through their sufferings come to an acceptance of ging up reasonably fresh corpses and selling thern to medical schools.

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death as being good -- the fitting end - Shakespeare's "little sleep". It Specifically, Stevenson told of the notorious team of Burke and Hare,

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who saved a lot of troublesome spadework by Illurdering their own

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ended up as a hodge-podge of horror ... This has been a horrible and
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unfortunate film froIll the beginning --largely my stupid supervisor's merchandise. For the first time, Lewton took a screenplay credit
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fault - but it has turned out so that it won't be too bad.' along with Philip MacDonald, but with characteristic reticence he
Public response to Isle at the Dead, when it was finally released in

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lIsed his old pseudonym from the pulp novel days, Carlos Keith.

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September 1945, was extremely mixed. Varicl), felt that the film 'tops Lewton proved as skilful at reconstructing J 83 I Edinburgh as he

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had been with the France of Mademoiselle Fill, again using existing
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sets and working on a very tight budget. Flra Goodman, a columnist

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papers were as critical as Motion Pictllre Rel'ielt', which thought that,

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for The IHoming Telegraph. gave his readers a view of what tran-

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in spite of moments of true terror, 'it is not a well-made picture and

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spired on The nod)' Snatcher set:

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has manv faults, and all of the creators concerned in its making are at

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fault.' [n' a capsule notice in The Nation, Agee accurately summed up

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the film's uneven quality: 'Tedious, overloaded, diffuse, and at
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where a blonde damsel of I';, Donna Lee. who is RKO's corporatc ehal
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moments arty, yet in many ways to be respected, up to its last half-

Icngc to Deanna Durbin, was recording an old Scotch song 1'01' Lewton's

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hour or so: then it becomes as brutally frightening and gratifying a latest prodllction ... Lewton was supervising the sound recording. fie then

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horror movie as I can remember.' went with Miss Lee to make-up where he saw to it that the make-up people
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In his Time review, Agee amplifled these remarks. 'About 30

77e

put a period mouth on her. instead of a modern. lipstick)' mouth.

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minutes short of the end, an iJl1provised coffin is borne solemnly to This will give you an idea of the details Lewton attends to personally. We

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proceeded then to sound stage four at the studio. where The Bodr Sllatcher
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rest in a resonant stone vault. Its occupant has died before your eyes,

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74 75
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Fhl' Ilurir Sl/u/l'hCl: Ru"cll Wade. \loris KarlofTand Bela Lllf'Osi
was shooting. with sllch veteran hody snatchers as Boris KarlofT. Bela
Lugosi and Henry Daniell. running allluck in an anatollly room among
C
ske lctons. corpses' and candles. Lewton fondly examined one of the skele-
tons and then turned his attention to the candle holder, It was not precisely
to his liking. hecause it was a miner's candle holder instead of a medical
student's candlc holder, , ,
After talkinu to assorted agents. writers. directors. cameramen and
players. Lewto';1 finally got ~Hound to expounding his theory of picture
i11~lking, lIe believes that quality can be present in a low budget picture. tilat
dramatic qualities do not need to be sacrificed if ingenuity and imagination
,--rJ
are used. particularly in the writing (lC tile script. Lewton pOinted to the song
i:r,.rsri+*t,*
Donna Lee had been singing as an cxample. Instead of build\llg bIg scts to
suggest the atl110sphere of Edinburgh. Lcwton did it by means of the eyoca
ti\:e' song the girl sang. The anatomy rool11 he used for Ihe Hodr Sl1atcher
\\~S oncc a set for {c,\'{JCr;lI7cllt Peri/oils and Lewton was uSing It for all
rrr,t'rirî ?i
anatonw ChzlIllhcr. a li\'ing. r(1(lT1l and a stable in his picture.,. Lc\\lon says
a pictu~c can nc\'cr he too good for moviegoers and that pictllres fail when
the\' arc not good but pretentious,
Lewton was discouraged when he started work on The Hoil.\"
76
The Rolil' SII({lc/rer' 'Veteran body snatchers' KarlofTand Lugosi
5110/cher. Gross kept forcing him to make the script gruesollle and
then the Ilays Office forced him to remove all of the gore. Ruth
Lewton said. in a note to her husband's mother. 'It breaks my heart
to sec Val corne horne night after night late and so di~couraged. You
know his temperament. It's hard for him to throw off slights. fancied
or otherwise.' Still. by the time the film was finished. Lewton was
more pleased with it: 'It is the picture. I think. from the making of
which I learned most ahout how to put movement and excitement
into a static and talky subject. I don't know what the critics think. but
I think it is a fairly good piece of work. It has a good Ste\'ensonian
feel to it: nice mood and quality.'
Whcn the film was relcased in May 1945. it was immediately
apparent that Lewton had scored his biggest success since the days of
Cal I'coplc. The Hod." Snatcher broke all flrst·week attendance
rccords at the Hawaii Theatre in Hollywood and was almost as
popular at the Rialto in New York. Every New York newspaper
rc\'iew was a rave. and John McManus in I'M offered special praise
for the quality of the dialogue. the sets and the evocative use of street
77
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 = :: t-< '5 È; tËEÉ ?s+i =>7

ti:'ê:,i, Eii:V=; € : ltli:=|i'ï v=lzi z z=iZ: ; i i È

i gt?t: t7 ie iÈ'"<2E7
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Z=:
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=

EEU=E!t'ïZËz= = 3 E 1'::89: " ËËË = 1o

:iii
ballads. 'After watching the sorry parade of penny dreadfuls stream·

i É : ti,iei1ri;:ei! 1 i É i'=l7,zi,t
=ï17ZiZ1

:=a=
Just before the film went into production in July 1945, Lewton

i7'-=.îi7

'teE : :zzt-

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tît:ïÊ: ëÉ EEÉZ'zi.Êïl=Za ii ilziïle:?È lfZZï=
1îa;1=i7Zi=r==?iy1=rii=;

F
tl t: ; : t +:lt iiE::Zz=ti : E;r:i j i 118: ; i'ri'=,

,Z:ati:=tti:z:tiz=.a ?zz"iE7 rz; =E:;

=iii

ici,iZ:î=;Ei=a r2Zio-= n !
zËrt?,+:zzZÏtE7 t Ea=,i u; : ! : :i Éi ; i

,;7;Éêt t i=?itli=| ci ç I : iyzE- Ezil?Ër i

Ëit i:: t22i:2.àa;r=rÈ =1Ë

Ë
ing in from Universal and RKO studios through the gory portals of

:::

: z= ; : -- 2 =il=rz iiÈ ; ; i"aÈtz EaËtJ E=Ez=zE:=a

managed to talk the studio into changing the title to' the simpler and

E
the Rialto Theatre, I am compelled to the conclusion that The Body more effective Hedlam, which was in fact the title on the Hogarth

E trs=ËE

z3=oEiii? t::; E;?

Snatcher is much too good for the lot of them. It is as much out of illustration. The Bedlam company included many people who had

::ù
place in that company as Barnaby might be between the lurid covers worked with Lewton on Cat People: Mark Robson, Nicholas

i
Ë: =2:ïiE-v':i7,=

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of Action Comics, or The Ill/orlller in a Third Ave. saloon.'

?ti'=i!
Musuraca, Roy Webb, art directors Albert D'Agostino and Walter

jz+?E=7:: iË
But .lames Agee, Lewton's champion almost from the beginning, Keller, and actress Elizabeth Russell. Boris Ka~loff starred in his

lV

:i

:Ë
saw signs of a dangerous literariness creeping into his work. 'Like all

i7
i2 ?.,=+-.4:
third Lewton production, and featured were Anna Lee, former come-

z7t1=È a=ç7É2'
Val Lewton productions, The Body Snatcher shows a humane sin- dian Billy House, Jason Robards Sr and Glenn Vernon. Although the

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cerity and a dcvotion to good cincma unfortunately rather rare in U.S.

!* b çiyiE:?E
increased budget gave Lewton added resources to realise his vision of
movies. In this case, however, much of the picture is more literary a foul 18th century madhouse, he and Robson were still forced to cut

?= z=;EÈ
z=:
than lively and neglects its crass possibilities as melodrama. The corners wherever possible. The St Mary of Bethlehem Hospital main
exceptions provide an anthology of eminently nasty creeps and jolts. set was, ironically, a renovation of the church built for Leo

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i : ttli.,=:?z
î
The sudden snort of a horse is timed to scare the daylights out of McCarey's The Bells oj'St Mary's. and even the dress worn by Anna

ËÈ

s
you: there is a grisly shot of Lugosi's slaughtered hear], distorted Lee as the high-spirited girl investigating asylum conditions was a

liËzz;:,-aii

Ë É! 4EË
beneath brine: and the last passage in the picture is as all-out hair- Vivien Leigh hand me down from GailI' With the Wind. As Mark

; ; É ZEÉ:tî ?êrri:Ê'_,1:ir Z; ç
;
raisin!" a climax to a horror film as you arc ever likely to sec.' In Robson recalls, a great deal of the fun and satisfaction of doing the
selecting the best films of 1945, Agee named both Isle oj'the Dead

e=,2:Z==i t!;="1==r;zE7Et
Ï ErÉ+ 27 +? tÉ E; ç7 çi Z:7:
picture came from dreaming up ways to stretch the budget: 'We used
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and The Hod)' S/1(/tcher, adding that they were 'too pedagogical and paintings, sketches, anything we could get our hands on. At the RKO

=
verbal at times, but still showing some of the most sensitive movie

EàÈ 3É' 3s g= E:2?21=* E

ranch in Malibu, we came upon an old barber shop set with a leaded

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intelligence in HollywClod.' glass front window made up of dozens of tiny panes. Using a

ziEt
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A journalist on assignment from 10 iii' magazine came out to

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lt i Éi=;-7i7Ézz1i+, E S
Hogarth picture of an 18th century barber shop as a model, we made

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observe Lewton during the preparation of whnt was to be his last film

gl
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up a design by placing a single canelle in the centre of each of the

z Ë i i :tËrj,i: ci;:
at RKO. Chamher (Ir Horrors, as the picture was originally titled. panes. The clTect was magnificent and cost liS only the price of the

+ :?r: I I Éi îi : a S i
would require all of Lewton's talents, for its subject, the infamous candles.'

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EéY.3oÉpi2çtiV,
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18th century London asylum St Mary of Bethlehem Hospital, drew

:
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At one point during shooting, Robson was forced to return un-

a;
upon his interests in horror, historical detail and social conditions. expectedly to the RKO HollywClod studio and had to come up with a

ê
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As in Isle o/the Dead, Lewton based the film on a work of art -

i E\zzrlz=E
set in a hurry - something that could be used as a Quaker council

t ?elz
Plate Eight of Hogarth's The Rake's Progress series. For once,

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tn.eeting-room. He searched the studio and finally came upon a
i : :Ë-uit-=E z7

everything seemed in his favour. The studio allowed him a full eight dmmg-room used by Edgar Kennedy in one of his 'Average Man'
=
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months to prepare the production and, pleased with the success of

;
comedies. By replacing the chairs with wooden benches and hanging
The Hodl' Snatcher, upped the budget to S350,OOO. Lewton and a few drapes, the set was transformed in minutes. All that ~wa~
Robson based their screenplay for Chamher or
Horrors, which was missing was the door through which the Quakers were to enter the
: ;i=z ;=

-t==iT:4
subtitled A Talc oj' Redlam ('bedlam' being the contraction of room. Robson hung a door from a two-by-four placed high enough
Bethlehem which became a byword for chaos), upon long and careful to be out of camera range. This proved sufficient, from the audience
?
=

study of Hogarth's work, amplified by materials about the treatment p~rspective, to suggest the door through which the camera, along
+u

g
of the insane at St Mary of Bethlehem Hospital as found in the WIth the Quakers, entered at the beginning of the sequence.
=1i

ËÈ
memoirs and letters of Casanova, Boswell, Lord Chesterfield, Bedlam was trade·screened in mid-April 1946 and received the
Nicholas de la Bretonne and Benjamin franklin.

Z
best reviews ever given to a Lewton production. !lfotion Pictllre
=i

R
78 79
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Herald. along with the praise. realised that there might be problem

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hard core horror showca

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movie feeling. as well. There are also some nasty thrills. which

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too often obscure d by the foregoin g. This is a Val Lewton

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tion. I hear I have been accllsed - it has not been done to my

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81
 people niche/o r himse( /at RKO doing the k.ind ojjillll lIIaking he lored. Rut

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actual reason is underha ndedne ss epitomi zed: , think that few

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as pressur e \\'as placed upon him to gel out 0/ n /)icture s and into

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or carc half

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in Hollyw ood show in their work that thcy

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I somethi ng heller, sO/l/eth ing which Valnel' er real/I" 1\"(l/lIed to do. But
much about movies or human beings as he docs. Of such people,

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this he \\'as nol illlill/ille to the pressur es q/ this tOlI'n -~ //lore /IIo//e)", more

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will alwavs write with friendli ness and respect. , am afraid that

i
at slatus, the urgings 0/ his agent. He was pllshed Ollt 0/ his home at

SIÈ iÈ! i=
and somewh

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particu la; film is a careful. pretty failure, and I regret

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demand s
RKO a//d cOlildn' t dealll'i th lI'hal Ize/olln d elsewhe re.' The

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which seem to draw
fear Lewton 's recent interest in costum e movics.

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cost a millio/1 a//(/ a halF al1d

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. ed. Ii is films noll'
on his romant ic literary weakne sses more than on his best abilities and pressur es increas

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Ë; ;:. ;s; z;i t7E i:.i z7iÉLiu-=i

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work - actors, 1I';'iters,

t
would e)'erybo dy tried to get a hand into Val's
which are poetic and cinema tic. But Lewton and his friends

-:

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excelltil 'cs. Val tortured himselF

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this before ' director s, and especia lly studio
have to make much less sincere and pleasing films than

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red that he unahle to cope lrith these ne;I'

i;
discove

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hccallse he lI'US
would review them disresp ectfully .' had gil'en up.
fr0111 pressur es a//d hecal71(, sick lI'ith regret at II'hat he
Lewton had mixed feelings about the article which emerge d

r =il

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'ii-:r>i'==+.E==y
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g. The four·pa ge spread.
FÊê{â-:41tr4*\wr+:ei*.q..ç{trè4r#c*"

Ë
shootin
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.
1945 was an extreme ly hectic and trying time for Lewton

=JÈ++EËÉE!-€

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wl~ich was, and probab ly still is, about the widest exposu re a film July

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his aunt. Alia
ly was Several days before shootin g on Hedla//l was to begin.
maker can have before the general Americ an public. natural

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x. Althoug h
errors and Nazimo va. died of a heart ailment at the age of sixty-si
flatterin g, althoug h the piece contain ed a number of factual
.. ..

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d of the kind of films Lewton was making ,
Lewton she never really approve

t:E?ëE
a bit of sensatio nalising . In a letter to his mother and sister,
z, =
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VISIted him from time to time at his RKO office. Ardel Wray
There she had
...

comme nted upon his publicit y: 'Person ally I pay no attentio n.

z= zZ t- t;Z;i= = ?zÊ;-= ; : i:
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very thin,
d occa rememb ers one of Nazimo va's visits: 'She was very small.
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is no use wasting thought or energy about it. I have proteste

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an extreme ly long cigarett e
as huge eyes in an enamel led old face,

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sionally to the publicit y departm ent about such choice names

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es. and a marvell ous theatric ality of voice

etc., but holder for Russian cigarett
Sultan of Shudde rs, Titan of Terror, Mahara ja of Mayhem ,

a
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can still hear

to do and that these and manner . I don't rememb er a word she said, but I

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even as [ protest I realize that they too have ajob
2

.' her voice and see her vividly. '

u':Eir7s a;
names make it easier for them to get space for my pictures
Throug hout that July the tracle papers were filled with notices

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The final paragra ph of the I"(/c' article, so full of promise for

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. First up
of what about forthco ming Lewton produc tions to follow Hedlall1
s*.,-* .i. " .,.;Ï*.**r*"..:i;..**;;,,i,1i,:-Éà"*,,

produc er's career. seems grimly ironic when seen in the light
:

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Die Gentll' Stmnge r by Russian poet

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weekly was a suspens e thriller called

iEÉtEEZ=ZE: z-',É
happen ed to Lewton after lJedlom : 'At present . Lewton 's
:

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s~ory David Tutaeff . the first work by a modern

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writer

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. and short

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income is a modest S 700. on which he support s a wife, two children
tt1i|"ii,1îi

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the start of
pleasur es as RUSSIan writer to be purchas ed by Hollyw ood since

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such minor

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a dog, some chicken s and
t:i|3 7;=:a s s

two Buicks, interest ing plans for this thriller.

and hi! World War Two. Lewton had some
woodw orking and book buying. Lewton is a great reader

i 't !'t'! != -7a.::t

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ofStoek holm. 'Water is the

in 4~ which was set on and around the beaches

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house is 11 lied with books. He can get through an average novel s fear of the awe-ins piring
be~ter menace. We ~re using the average person'
minutes and lifts many ideas from old plots, which he likcs

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of our
! ocean and of bell1g lost 1ll a fog as a motivat ing force. One

Èî=2t=
than new ones ... Lewton 's bosses like his work. They are plannm
tely cut orffrom everyth ing he

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owing to litigation concerning the film rights to the Molnar play. the . This series .of projects. one after another abandoned, suggests the
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Catholic priest set in Edinburgh. One more project. Blackhcard. A:ter a few weeks back on the lot he seemed as fit as ever. though
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wh ich the producer was given an elegantly bound set of screenplays and proved to be an ordeal for everyone connected with it. For some

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which he. in turn. gave to her. That was Lewton's single victory of arrived at Paramount, Buddy DeSylva was replaced as head of pro-
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Le\~ton's first project was a screenplay of Dickens' The Cric/.:.c/ 0,,'11 True iJ)vC was Lewton's most tormented experience: without
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screenplay took months to overcome, and just when hc felt he had costs mounted higher and higher. At one point Miss Calvert dis-
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to star Betty Hutton and Diana Lynn. The property was taken out of project, he grew more and more excited about it. 'A Mask /or

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his hands and eventually filmed by William Russell with Veronica,

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LUCI'ezia is beginning to become a really great story. with more
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Michael Hogan, who had worked on the screenplay of NOl/c So Blind yards, and which created as much fear, tension and change in the

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the mental processes of murderers and poisoners." be enough: this yarn has lots more to it.' (Letter to his mother and
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story. 'Before he fell prey to his ill-fated intrigues at Paramount, Val Paulette Goddard. then under contract to Paramount. had one

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had influenced producers he knew there to take on his friends as remaining commitment to the studio, and after reading Lewton's

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left. they turned over what we had done to someone else - I honestly' which he had written with Hugo Butler.

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horrihle experience. The only comfort I could find was in signing s É=,; today. called for deferred salaries for the actors. writers and direc-

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account of Renaissance politics. At first. the project was tabled' Crusoe which I am writing and for which we are making arrill1ge-

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antiseptic office and immediately stilrted to work. No one has spoken to me.

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)I'as 10 lise Ihe medillll1 as his illillitional talclIl knl'll' il could alld third of its llsual st<1ff ... The only place where there seel11s to be any hope
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decision the next day. That was four days before the New Year. I'm still

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July 1948, and wcnt to work on a ncw adaptation of Joseph these weeks have been spent in working: the rest waiting. (Letter to his

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out to be Lewton's least interesting film. He hegan work on it hope·

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his screenrlay with a story of Schary's devising. Lewton tried but

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and Verna De.Mots feel contains some of his hest writing, survives, can only do horror stories. But even this script is in danger of

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screenplay onering little in the way of conventional dramatic action, letter. making it a starring vehicle for her and for her alone. Now that

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and at least one line- 'The order of a proper yaeht is far beyond swings a great deal more weight than I do. It may come out all right.'

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to be heavy, overbusy and witless. (Lewton's sensibility, precise and

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have withdrawn from feeling. One of Woolcott's lines conveys some had lost interest in it. However. for a time in the summer of 1949,

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their emotions, feelings their own loneliness.' Wild Orangcs was

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perhaps a bit too ornate and romantic to suit American tastes in the

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At about this time James Agee was in Hollywood, preparing his is to sec if we can't organize some sort of independent producing

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famous piece on John Huston for Lifi' magazine. Huston was direct unit.'

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ing a film at M GM. and as part of his research Agee paid a visit to Work progressed with Aspen Productions. as the unit was named.

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Schary's office. At lunch. Schary talked about the vast creative and but as always seemed to happen in Lewton's last years, each hope led

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technical resources of the studio which he commanded. When he to a new disappointment. Lewton was working with Robson and
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SChary looked puz7.led until Agee revealed that he was referring to abandoning the property and starting on another: Robson disagreed
Lewton. Later in the day. Schary dropped by Lewton's office to and put somebody else to work on it. One morning an agent-lawyer
convey Agee's compliment. which the producer accepted with eon- lllrned up at Lewton's office to announce that Robson and Wise had
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tro lled grace before returning to work on the pointless bit of fluff decided to drop him from Aspen and that he was being replaced by
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Kerr and Robert Walker and directed by Norman Taurog, turned shocked to be so treated by friends whose careers he had been

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instrumental in starting. Lewton felt horelessly betrayed, personally!

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as War Dance and released as Apache Dmll/s, Lewton's last produc-

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and rrofcssionally. and fcll into a dccr dcrrcssion. Vcrna Dc Mots tion. lie was happy at Universal, the happiest he had been since the

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which comes with low budget film making.

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Robert Wise uncomfortably recalls what harrcncd: 'Val was slow

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in coming up with accertablc story material. Mark and I finally

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young producer's assistant who had spent years apprenticing at

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decided that it would be too impractical to keer him on with Aspen various jobs in and around film making. Lewton and Kramer would

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since we could not get any backing without a srecific rroiect in mind. spend hours talking about potential movie properties, and it was, in

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fact. largely Lewton's innuence which led Kramer to film Cyrano de

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him ourselves. I regretted the decision to send an agent ovcr, even

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Bergerac in 1950. Following the success of this and other indepen-

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before it happened. I realised that he would be even more hurt this dent productions like lIome 0./ the Brave and Champioll. all done for

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way and tried to stop it. but it was too late. I did make my peace with United Artists. Kramer signed a contract to produce six films per

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without seriously lowering the standard set by his previous work. He

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happened to him. He grew paranoid: if somebody didn't call for a

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Columhia commitments. He approached Lewton, offering him three

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Lewton had befriended. recalls the effect of the Aspen busincss: 'Val films to produce each year, with Kramer serving only as executive
was trying hard to give the appearance of being his old self. Hc tried
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producer. a supervisory position. The first film would be flfy Six

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to be enthusiastic and ebullient. but the enthusiasm was just a shell. Comic/s, a best-selling novel by and about a prison psychiatrist, and

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and Wise's The Captil'e Citl'. Both were financial failures, though the oj' a Salesman.
latter garnered some critical attention. Lewton stayed on at MG-M ..
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Lewton was tempted by the offer but unsure whether to accept:

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Universal was pleased with A/Jaelle f)I'IIIIIS and had plans to pick up
1949. After two weeks without work, a man who felt wildly insecure his option and grant him greater creative freedom. In a letter to his

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without a iob, he was beside himseIr. 'I thought he'd lose his mind: mother and sister. he described his decision:

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Ruth Lewton remembers. 'Finally I got him to call David Selznick

who gave him some work to do.' Todav arrangements were made for me to accept a Job at a very much better

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with Stanley Kramer's nell' company. It sounds from all that has been said
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like a really ideal set lip I-or me and the kind of thing I know how to do. I am
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interested in producing films of artistic distinction. Universal was

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before me a rather nasty job. [ have to tell the president of Universal that [

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he had been working on at home since his departure from M-G-M.

am leaving. which [ plan to do tomorrow. [ like them. They have heen good
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sec. the picture [ made for them. Apache /)rums. is the cheapest technicolor

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slightly less money. A/)(/c/7c Ihl/lII.1 only cost three hundred ;111<1 ninety five

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thousand dollars. Which is Icss than half the cost or Wyomillg Tcrri/orl' that

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has the same cast and which was made about six months ago, before the last

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success is what makes leaving Ul vcry difficult. I know I shall get a lot of

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argulllents and offers: all of which I shall havc t(l refuse.

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Apache Drullls was previewed in December 1950. The night of the

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preview Lewton had what was diagnosed as a gallstone attack and

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had to be given morphine. He left Universal before the New Year,
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and spent time at home woodworking and sailing the Nilla. But all

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was not welL as Ruth confided in a letter to her Jl1other-in law: 'Val's
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boat is in perfect condition. all newly painted and sweet and clean.

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Unfortunately, he seems to get so tense on it that I lose all pleasure.

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often does them. Also he has an ir/re/ixc that I'm severely sitting and

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fear it is the wrong thing and I'll get yelled at. So all in aiL what

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shoulel be a pleasure no longer is - or else. I've gotten too sensitive to

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all this tension for I know it is so bad for him. My only recourse now .\Ir S'ix COlll'ic/s and II/elllhcr or/he Wedding. The first one. which is

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is not to go for I don't think J should try to make him give it up as = a current best seller. frightens mc a little bit. but I think they will give

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he'd resent that too much. It's truly a dilemma.' me a very good writer and also Hugo rregonese to direct ... and this
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'Ruthie is going to night school to study typing twice a week. And me to do.' (Letter to his mother and sister. .3 February 1951.)

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once a week she goes to a course in lamp shade making. I kid her hy .Just as he was starting work for Kramer. Lewton had a second
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saying that she's making very thorough preparations to be a widow.' heart attack; he was not hospitalised. and after two days in bed was

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There was further gallstone trouble in Ensenada. Upon returning to well enough to screen Red/alii for the young woman who would be

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it hac! been promised. The terms were changed: he was only to

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screening and went back to beel. That evening Ruth Lewton fell on a
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receive assistant producer credit and the financial rewards were loose rug in the living room and her h usbanel rushed in at the sound
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severely reduced. But he was eager to start work: 'On Monday I will of her scream. Several minutes later he suffered another, more
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start work with the Kramer Company. Although it will be. for serious heart attack. Lewton's doctor insisted that he be hospitalised
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various reasons. a very difficult assignment. and with not the money. immediately. but he didn't want to go. claiming that if he wcnt he
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credit and participation they had originally promised, at the same would never return. As Alan Napier recalls. Lewton was placed in an
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time I will be working on wonderful properties and with very con oxygen tent in the hospital; he felt claustrophobic, complained that
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genial people. I hope to be very happy. My first two assignments arc he was suffocating, and begged to be let out. He died about a week
5

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later, on 14 March IllS I, at the age of forty six. His co-workers from

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the great bits of writing but the lack of solid, fundamental work. He

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thing deep within his nature rrevented his full develorment. All of us Tournem. A ssistallt Director: f)oran Cox. SNipt: DeWitt Bodeen. Director or

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Eli7aheth Russell (Cat WOllllln). Dot Farley (.lfr" Agllel\·). Teresa Harris (,lfinllic).

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Filmed in the RKO Studios, IIollywood. 2R .lub;, 21 August 1942. First shown in
l.'.S.A.. December 1942: G.B .. April 194J. Running timc: 71 min.

Irena. a Serbian born fashion artist living in Ncw York. is haunted hy the fear that
she is descended from a race of cat'\\'orncn who. when physically aroused. turn into
panthers. Olivcr Reed falls in love with hcr and tries to convince hcr that her fears
arc groundless. They marry. but Irena is afraid to consummate the marriage and
begs Oliver to be patient. After a time. Oliver persuades her to visit Dr Judd. a
psychiatrist. .Judd proves to be no help. [rcna grows worsc and Oliver finds con sola
tion by telling his problems to Alice. a girl at the ship designing firm which employs
him. Subsequently. Alice is twicc menaced by some unknown heast. Oliver tells
[rena that he is going to divorce her. and later that evening hoth he and Alice are
attacked whilc working late at the office. Dr Judd visits [rena and tries to make love
to her. She turns into a panther and kills him. Wounded by Judd. [rena dies at the
Central Park Zoo while trying to free a caged panther.

Cal Pe()p/e, Lewton's greatest popular success, is not among his best
films: it is seriously weakened by passages of lumpy, strained dia

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logue, uncertain performances and uneven pacing. But, in spite of

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grace and inventiveness, and is distinguished by Jacques Tourneur's

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visually eloquent direction.

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Lewton's sister recalls that the story line was inspired by a series

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of French fashion designs which caught her brother's eye, drawings
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of gowns worn by models with the heads of cats. From this starting

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point, Lewton and DeWitt Bodeen devised a story which manages to

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touch upon a number of common fears - the fear of cats, darkness
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and water. To these are added suggestions of sexual anxiety and
antagonism, the identification of physical passion with destruction,
and overtones of lesbianism. With its persuasive though wholly

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invented mythology of Serbian devil worship, Cat People is, for all
its flaws, remarkably engrossing.

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Lewton and Tourneur enhance our basic interest in the story by

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presenting it in a restrained, highly formalised style. (As Susan
Sontag observes in writing on Robert Bresson, whose work has much
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'Cal People is saturated with feline artifacts ... ' [rena (Simone Simon) in her studio

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any particular subject matter, however passionate, however univer-

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sal. It lies in form.') We are not, for the greatest part of the film,
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asked to feel anything more than a generalised unease. We are never

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and strike up a light flirtation which is deepened by the gift of a

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sure until almost the very end whether or not Irena is a cat woman.

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singing bird. These first reels are purposefully unsuspenseful, sustain

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The original screenplay allowed audiences in on the truth much
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ing and even increasing our sense of anticipation at what is sure to

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earlier, but the final version of the film is the more effective for

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come in a movie called Cat People. The horror sequences, when they

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sustaining our curiosity.
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do arrive, are all the more effective for having been withheld. Sug-
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Cat People is saturated with feline artifacts - statues, flowers, €'-=EEiË;l EE

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gestions as to Irena's true nature mount up. The animals in a pet shop

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paintings, not to mention furnishings, all underscore the heroine's become wildly agitated as soon as she enters the door. She is given

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obsession. Much of the film's effectiveness is achieved by a kind the bird, which she frightens to death in a wonderfully ambiguous

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of symbolic displacement: we never really see much of any-
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seq uence: she appears to be trying to coax the canary out of its cage,
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thing because the 111m's elements of violence and destruction are but the paw-like batting of her hand and her half-crazed little smile

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transferred to inanimate objects or suggested only by shadows. suggest something quite different. Dressed in black, she visits a caged

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The result is, as Manny Farber observed, something very close to panther in Central Park: her anxious prowling outside the cage is

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fetishism. The essential life of the film exists not in the characters
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cross-cut with the panther's similar action within. At her wedding

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or in the way in which they are interpreted but in objects which
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reception, she is 'recognised' by a strikingly feline woman played by

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represent drives and desires presumably too dreadful to be shown Elizabeth Russell (the quintessential Lewton actress) who calls her
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directly. 'my sister'. (The voice, to add to the mystery, is dubbed by Simone
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The opening reels employ delaying tactics surprisingly similar to

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those used by Hitchcock in The Birds. The hero and heroine meet
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When the set-pieces of horror fInally come, well past the film's

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102 103
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never really shows us anything, thus affording us that greatest indul-

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gence of terror - the freedom to frighten ourselves.

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Although Cat People moves by fits and starts and never quite

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manages to find its own rhythm, its mode of development - a series

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of short, elliptical sequences - suggests the poetic style which
Lewton and Tourneur brought to perfection in their next film. There

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are many characteristic Lewton touches: the use of quotations from
Donne and Freud (the lines from Freud, which open the film, are
ascribed to an apocryphal book by Dr Judd called The Anatomy of

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Atavism), references to Goya and other artists interested in cats, a
wealth of odd, detailed props like the wastebasket in the shape of a

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tree trunk in the opening scene, and the choice of ship-designing as a
profession for Oliver and Alice. There is a Negro waitress (called

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Minnie after Lewton's housekeeper) who is the first of a series of
black characters in Lewton films to be depicted with an intelligence

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and sensitivity rare in his period of American film-making.

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Throughout, the film is tinged with the kind of moral and

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intellectual ambiguity which characterises Lewton's best work. Alice
is not a sweet, innocent rival for Oliver's affections, but a woman

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whose sexual hostility towards Irena is made obvious at several

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Cat People: Kent Smith, Jack Holt, Alan Napier and Jane Randolph in the ship

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designers' office points. Oliver is a thoughtless dolt whose stolidity generally serves to
increase his wife's fear about herself. Dr Judd is a lecher pure and

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midpoint, they are so well executed that most of the sluggish patches

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are quickly forgotten. Alice, Irena's romantic rival, is stalked by simple who has little interest in Irena's mental state. Irena, fighting
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what turns out to be an actual curse, is more sympathetic than any

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something ghastly and unseen as she walks along a Central Park -
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tra verse. (That same night, a sheep is killed in the park and the othe:- character in the film, and is certainly more sinned against than
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camera follows large cat-tracks away from the sheep's body until smnmg.
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The film's seemingly rational, calm tone works weE against its

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they suddenly turn into prints of high-heeled shoes.) Later, Alice is
menaced in a darkened indoor swimming-pool, and after she is fantastic content. When Alice warns Dr Judd about visiting Irena
:=l;:lEZcËar
alone, he jokingly replies, 'You want me to carry some means of

ii
rescued, finds that her robe has been clawed to shreds. Still later,
È;r:9g-or.=ô

after Oliver tells Irena that he is leaving her, he and Alice are protection - a gun, perhaps, with a silver bullet ... is that what you
attacked by a cat in the darkened draughting-room of the ship- mean?' In this context, the notion seems absurd, a leftover from
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designing firm. Finally, Dr Judd visits Irena and tries to make love to Alice's having seen too many Universal chillers. There is even a
Ë e iE u ja:

short dream sequence (anticipating the Dali creation for Spellbound,

E
her, causing her to turn into a panther and kill him. In neither of the
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but less afTected) which docs much to suggest that Irena's problem

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first two sequences arc we shown anything concrete - just shadows

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and footprints. In the third, we do get glimpses of a cat, but these may indeed be a psychic disorder. Only once does Lewton fall prey

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were added at the insistence of the RKO front office. In the last to horror conventions - Oliver wards ofT Irena, in her cat form, by
using aT-square as though it were a cross.

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sequence we again only see shadows: Judd's death is revealed in
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shadows cast by a lamp which gets overturned in his struggle with There are some problems with the performers. Visually, Simone
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Irena. Cat People is, in its best moments, so frightening because it Simon is perfect, and her wordless sequences, like the marvellous

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104 105
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2: I Walked With a Zombie (1943)

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Production Company: RKO-Radio. Producer: Val Lewton. Director: Jacques

çË{s=:;'â Ë;is:ÈÈ 5: ii"Éiiî:1Ë

i:;;;;ôi *çÊi!îi ?Ë :'€zz:i!i:
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Tourneur. Assistant Director: William Dorfman. Script: Curt Siodmak, Ardel
Wray. Based on a story by Inez Wallace. Director (!f PhotoKraphy: J. Roy Hunt.
Editor: Mark Robson. Art Directors: Albert S. D'Agostino, Walter E. Keller. Set
Decorators: Darrell Silvera, Al Fields. Music: Roy Webb. Musical Director: C.
Bakaleinikoff. SonKs: '0 Marie Congo' (chant): 'British Grenadiers' (Calypso
~inger); 'Fort Holland Calypso Song' (Calypso singer); '0 Legba' (chant); 'Walee

i:
Nan Guinan' (chant). Also: Chopin's E Minor Etude (piano). Sound Recordist:
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Cat People: the cat woman (Simone Simon)
9
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John C. Grubb.
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moment when she angrily slits the back of a velvet divan with her
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James Ellison (Wesley Rand), Frances Dee (Betsy), Tom Conway (Paul lIolland).

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fingernails, could not possibly be improved. But her acting range is

esË;:;i :I ËËÊiËrE|i
J g-Ê )':: cr+;(.)-

Edith Barrett (Mrs Rand), Christine Gordon (.Jessica Hol/al/d), James Bell (Dr
too narrow for the film's more dramatic moments, a problem
Maxwell), Richard Abrams (Clemellt), Teresa Harris (Alma), Sir Lancelot (Calypso
heightened by her difficulties with American pronunciation. Kent Singt'l'), Darby Jones (Carre-Follr), Martin Wilkins (Hollllgan), Jeni LeGan
Smith is terribly stiff most of the time, and Jane Randolph, though (Dancer), Jieno Moxzer (Sabrellr), Arthur Walker (Ti Joseph). Kathleen Hartfield
somewhat hetter than Smith, is not fully convincing. Only Tom (Dallcer), Clinton Rosemond (Coachman), Alan Edmiston (!HI' Wilkens), Norman
g+*sÈEË

E 7 i;=+E|l"li i
Conway, of the principals, turns in a fully realised, persuasive Mayes (Bayard). Melvin Williams (Baby), Vivian Dandridge (Melisse).
performance. The real stars of the film, apart from Lewton and

Ë3 É=;Eql€iË
Filmed in the RKO Studios, Hollywood, 26 October--19 November 1942. First
Tourneur, are cameraman Nicholas Musuraca and art directors
shown in U.S.A., April 1943; G.B., September 1943. Running time: 68 min.
D'Agostino and Keller. The photography, low-keyed with shadowy
interiors and misty exteriors, is magnificent; and the sets, stuffed with
Ë

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Ëii*:;iÊt
Betsy, a Canadian nurse. comes to St Sebastian in the West Indies to care for Jessica

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evocative details, have life enough to help the performers through
Ë;

Holland, an invalid who seems to be sufTering from a rare form of mental paralysis.
i

their more awkward moments. She falls in love with Paul, Jessica's husband, although she is courted by Wesley
Rand, his half-brother. Believing Paul to be still in love with his wife, Betsy selflessly
takes Jessica to a voodoo ceremony in the hope of restoring her to him, Her effort
fails but forces Mrs Rand, a missionary's widow and mother of Paul and Wesley,
to reveal that she had employed voodoo to turn Jessica into a zombie when
she announced that she was going to leave St Sebastian with Wesley. Wesley kills
Jessica in order to free her from the curse of death-in·life, and then dies in the sea
himself.
\o

106 107
 Ë3

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sË;ËËîi3!ËÉËËi*Ë;

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There are two Lewton masterworks: I Walked With a Zomhie

sËËEËËËËE;E;Ë!Ë
ËËit:Ë Ë:;ËEf ËËËiË :ËË l:Ëë iieË;Er :Ë;:
driven human characters leads us outward. gradually to accept the

iËi;ÈuË u==izil;

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(visually the more eloquent and elegant) and The Seventh Victim (the film's supernatural elements without disbelief. The film's central

ËË
more poetic and profound). Neither film employs a conventional image, an emblematic crystallisation of all this ambiguity, is the
narrative structure although the subjects, voodoo and devil worship. figurehead of St Sebastian which came to the island on a slave ship
are the stutT of traditional horror movies. For both these films, and now stands in the Holland garden. St Sebastian, who exists at the

H!

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Lewton devised a fragmented, mosaic-like structure, a series of tiny, meeting point of paganism and Christianity, is a fit deity for the film,
r; l;
precise vignettes which do not so much tell the story as sketch in its a mixture of the elemental and the tamed, the fleshly and the divine.

EriË:ËEÈIËi;i zizl.lizilgË
borders and possibilities. This technique, in some ways similar to the The figurehead. which at times serves as a quick transition between

Iti
way in which Bresson 'tells' Au Hasan/, Balthazar, transcends scenes, is an emblem of the blending of love and hatred, beauty and
terror, reason and superstition, at the heart of this complex. remark

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conventional narrative by establishing a number of tensions and
possibi lities which the audience must connect and interpret for itself. able film.
â= EË;

In all of Lewton's best films he treats the same theme - the Much of the success of 1 Walked With a Zomhie stems from

s ;ÈÈ: ÉËlË
conflict of the powers of reason struggling against the powers of the Jacques Tourneur's extraordinarily sensitive direction. Of the
unknown. These duelling forces are always carefully balanced, but Lewton directors, only Tourneur was of the first rank, able to realise
with a formal stress on the rational: after all, Lewton's methods are the writer-producer's intricate vision. I Walked With a Zombie is

Ëe!;: E#:â5 iiE;:Ë:Ë:É

probably the apex of Tourneur's career to date: certainly he never
;Ée;= Ës;F âËç;:Ê|IËEC=,:E;

so measured and deliberate that the very style of the film seems to

EÊi
indicate that the shadows will finally be cast otT and the darkness surpassed the visual poetry of the film's wordless sequences. Betsy's
lifted. It therefore comes as a surprise when, at the film's conclu- first, silent encounter with Jessica is a rather conventional scene

siiËËii ËËgiil
sion. the supernatural and the diabolical have prevailed. which is more than redeemed by Tourneur's skilful handling. But the
Lewton's strongest abilities are, as Agee observed, poetic and supreme visual achievement is the walk which the two women take to

ËË;Ë ËËË;
cinematic and not literary or romantic. A very free adaptation of the Houmfort. the voodoo outpost where Betsy hopes to have .Jessica

Jalle 1:)'/'(', I Walked With a Zombie is particularly poetic in its
equivocal, often inexplicable, interrelationships between characters.
Paul Holland, the Rochester figure (he is described as Byronic at one
point), is wholly ambiguous: we are never told whether his dark,
brooding nature was caused by the infidelity of his wife Jessica, or
whether it was this bleak, joyless temperament which drove her into
iz;z*
cured. The episode begins with Alma, a servant, drawing a map for
Betsy in cornmeal on a stone floor. From that point. the film becomes
a symphony of graceful movement as the women, armed only with
voodoo patches for identification, begin their journey through the
reeds and the sugar cane.
Like the pneumatic postal sequence in TrutTaut's Stolen Kisses.

the arms of his half-brother Wesley. Indeed, we have no way
of determining whether Jessica, now a zombie, was culpable or
innocent. Wesley. an alcoholic and bitterly jealous of his brother.
gives no further clue to the actual nature of these relationships. Mrs
I
EËÉËiiËii
IiiiiiiiiËri;
the walk to the Houmfort exists in the film for the sake of its own
:âiË3 Ë;' ' Ë grace of movement. In long. slow tracking shots. the camera moves
with the women in their black and white robes. They glide past the
skull of a horse decorated with a garland of faded flowers. an odd

Rand, who appears to be a woman of science and also a Christian. Caribbean version of an Aeolian harp, a human skull, and t1nally
tii:llË

turns out to be the one whose voodoo spell transformed Jessica into a Carre-Four, the gaunt. giant black zombie who guards the Houmfort.
zombie. Even Betsy, the least complex of the characters, has some The effect -- lateral tracking shots melting into one another while the

llliii
unusual kinks: her love for Paul is so great that she risks her life to wind whistles through the reeds- is hypnotic and quite the best
restore Jessica's health through voodoo. At no time in the film, even argument for studio shooting of certain kinds of films. Everything in
sË

the sequence is artificial and arranged; everything is perfect. Tour

=Eti
at its conclusion, do we have any idea of strong, single motivations
determining the action and characters. Lewton cleverly sets up a neur's visual gifts are evident throughout the film, particularly in the
Ë+

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series of perplexing relationships; the mystery of his complexly closing sequence of the spear fishermen discovering the bodies of

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108 109

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Ë; ;ËiËËri= i;Éi:5 ;2rr!

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full flower. Attention to, even obsession with precise detail is the

êtÉ;siË:É *s+É::f*ii EË€È;; EZ;8111; ;iiË

:Ë;€ r ÈâE: r?zi;='EÉË €;Ë;ztrg

iii È; Ë ËË iËsË Ë ii E : i çI;ï i ; Ëi;' ï=at: i iËË

i ; Ë I t;: Ëirillt; : Ë ; ;',Ë;Ë ËË',ilEîii ; iË i :

Ë:;iE;É;;i î: ;;iËË; sirÊ ;:iE:*;Ëz;=ËFF

=ag;
::É zt;ËE *EEE|:cizzi Ë;i ËË Ë

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mark of certain kinds of genius: Nabokov, when he taught at Cornell

E ! Ë i r; a ç
University, asked such examination questions as, 'What colour was
the bottle containing the arsenic with which Emma Bovary poisoned

EE;g:Fi#Ei !;ÉiË|,I;JI;€ËË
herself'!' Lewton's screenplays reveal an obsession with detail that

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the completed films can only approximate. (Some of these elegant
screenplays should be published; none of the dozens of scripts issued
in the past few years read so well or are half so instructive.) A few

g,
examples will convey a sense of Lewton's preoccupation with exact

lÈ
detail. (The best example, his three page description of the Houmfort

*';=se=;
ÉÊËËÉ
voodoo ceremony, is simply too long for in,clusion here.)
The Fountain with the Figure of St Sebastian (Ti Misery): 'The

ËËi
most outstanding feature of this spring or fountain, which flows from
a crevice in the stones of the tower, is that instead of falling directly
into the cistern, it falls first onto the shoulders of an enormous

gËË

;E=:Zï -iËi
ri:itf::-

teak wood figurehead of St Sebastian. From the shoulders of the saint,

j
it drips down in two runnels over his breast. The wooden breast of

;ii
the statue is pierced with six long iron arrows. The face is weathered

l- if;lr !:i:
and black. Only a few bits of white paint still cling to the halo above

i
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4
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I Walked With a Zombie: Christine Gordon and Frances Dee meet the zombie

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his head.'
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guard (Darby Jones)

Jessica Holland's bedroom, which anticipates Minnelli, Losey and

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=oÉ*=3=E-J=t.t=:Ë;èÈ
=3Eri:Ei;e:lit=Ë*Ë
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islEË;;:îe-.isiïPES
Ë ;S;a*g:ËE;!ûE
; ;iËËËËË'e;Ë;;i
" 7 9 I i7 3 { ù = - - ï i {
c!c::i/_

ùE ;,-É,.9 ;€ ;Be :,Ë E H'c.ïËô

:i Ë85:ÊEiÈ5,;sËâ:Ë
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Antonioni in its use of characterisation by decor (we never meet
F --
Jessica and Wesley and bearing them back to Fort Holland in a

= 7€"iY;=jË:,ÈZÈû

:
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formalised torchlight cortege. ./essica in her pre zombie state, so the room must tell us everything
i =

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.:-.nY =-3?a="r?.
about her earlier life): 'It is a beautiful woman's room, feminine but
ieSsiqE:EËlSs Ë:
ùos-àu=itEi:;o

Lewton and Tourneur are ably served by the rest of their com
r;3:eiËe*eËi:
lE

pany, notably by the cinematography of J. Roy Hunt and the art with no suggestion of the bagnio; elegant rather than seductive, and

*"Ë

i: *i:_ii_rzv, . ?
reflecting a playful yet sophisticated taste. The furniture is
- â5 J; ;

direction of Albert D'Agostino and Walter Keller. Roy Webb's score

Ë;E€;;

is alleged to be the first to employ Calypso music in an American Biedermeier. There is a large bcd, a trim chaise longue, a little slipper

=Eels;ïi
film, and whether or not that claim can be justified, the music. chair and, in one corner of the room, that hallmark of great vanity, a

==!
especially the songs of Sir Lancelot, caused considerable stir among triple-screen, full length mirror, also in Bicderrneier style. Before it is

Ë: ;;li!5:Ë
I iE;igs:i:É
êÉEiI ,ÊÉ:;Ë
audiences. (Sir Lancelot's Holland family song, which serves as a a tab0uret, the surface of which is literally covered with expensive
kind of commentary through the film - 'Ah, woe/Woe is me/Shame looking perfume bottles and cosmetic jars. Mrs Holland had evidently

cz;EÊizi o
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and sorrow for the family' - was recorded by the folk-singer Odella taken the tasks of beauty seriously enough to stand up to them.

: ; I :, ËE
Ê

in the Fifties.) The acting is far, far better than was the case with Cal There is one picture in the room. It is Boecklin's "The Isle of the
sË â;s

People. Frances Dee, Tom Conway and Edith Barrett set a new Dead", framed in a narrow frame of dark wood. Near the open
standard for performances in American horror films, and the silent, window stands a beautiful gilt parlor harp (Size 22). Behind it,

i= E r
iconographical presences of Christine Gordon and Darby Jones arranged conveniently for playing, is a small Empire chair. There is
could not be more deeply felt. no other furniture near this arrangement, and the harp, the empty
EÈ
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Fs

ss

Cat People demonstrated something of Lewton's preoccupation chair and the windstirred glass curtains give a dual effect of elegance
i;
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5s

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with fine detail; in I Walked With a Zombie that concern comes to and loneliness.'

110 111

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;ië ËË'14,;iirr!;1li=,c1
gt:
ËiiÊEi:iiEË;;ËiÊz;111Ë141t3Ëi,;iÉllgË
opening line is spoken by Betsy (off-screen over a shot of her and

lifi: ËË!?ËËiî
ËË
:Ë Ë ;ÉzêEËi1ËËti'sliËiË
Carre-Four walking along the beach): 'I walked with a zombie.
(Laughs a little. selfconsciously) It does seem an odd thing to say.'

iË
This valiant attempt to dismiss the title doesn't work. and the failure

7E; zz
is compounded by the first shot. It has nothing to do with any event

i ËËËË!€ËËîÉE3Ëii ËÊi ;zë!Ëi!ËËsË: !;

in the forthcoming story, and is therefore a cheat.
After this opening, however, the mood builds splendidly. On the
boat to St Sebastian, Betsy is interrupted in her contemplation of the
ocean by Paul's Byronic musing. He tells her that the sea only seems
beautiful because she does not understand it; that the flying fish are
not leaping in joy but in terror, escaping from their predators: that
the glittering water 'takes its gleam from millions of tiny dead bodies.
It's the glitter of putrescence. There's no beauty here - only death
and decay.' Then the coachman who drives Betsy to Fort Holland
tells her of the St Sebastian figurehead which the natives call Ti-
Misery and of the inhuman conditions on the slave ship. Betsy,

Ëî?âii EËâi
caught up in the spell of the island, says, 'Rut they came to a beautiful
place, didn't they?' To which the coachman enigmatically replies, 'If
you say so, Miss, if you say.' Paul subsequently returns to the subject
:
Ë ËËiËHfÉËi3ËiÊËr
s s ââÈ ËË:;;ËsâËËË âEË :
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/ Walked Wilh ZUlli hie: the final sequence of St Sebastian and the slave ship, telling of the natives who view
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existence as misery, who weep when a child is born and make merry
at burials.

iE:EÈÊE:;EsiiIg
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Even the map for Paul Holland's study is specified. 'For 75 ¢ we
t;i:àEzilâiicI:
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This blending of beauty and misery is soon fused with the film's

z?iÉ É:; ïi ;=l-ËËËî

lË;
can purchase the U.S. Geodetic chart of Anacapa Island, engraved
by Whistler, possibly the most beautiful map ever drawn. We can use curious mixture of Christian rationalism and paganism, particularly
this for the map of our fictitious island.' At times, Lewton's direc with the introduction of Mrs Rand. She explains to Betsy that she
tions are sclfsalirically arcane: 'Outside the nightjars whistle softly, could not find any way to persuade the natives to follow such basic

rîgE: ;à
rules of hygiene as the boiling of drinking water for infants until she

3Ë:î; tilii sËi

the cicadas twitter, and the Hammer tree frogs make drowsy, somno
lent littll: croaks: it is a tropic lullaby of bird, batrachian and insect hit upon the idea of telling mothers that Shango, a voodoo god,
sound.' (The stlldio set decorators did not have the foggiest notion of would be pleased with them if they boiled the water. For a time, Mrs
what a nightjar was, so they brought Lewton a chamber pot.) Each of Rand seems to represent a balancing of the story's opposing forces,
the characters is likewise a source of special bits of knowledge and especially when, after Betsy and Jessica reach the Houmfort, they
lore appropriate to his profession and experience. Alma awakens discover Mrs Rand secretly working with the voodoo doctor. But.
near the end of the film, it is revealed that it was Mrs Rand who had

:;:;i
Betsy by touching her toe, explaining, 'I didn't want to frighten you
out of your sleep, Miss. That's why I touched you farthest from your cast the spell which turned Jessica into a zombie: 'I entered into their
heart.' Betsy knows exactly how much alcohol Wesley has drunk in a ceremonies - pretended to be possessed by their gods ... I kept
cafe because she's a nurse and 'always watches people when they seeing Jessica's face - smiling because she was beautiful enough to
;

pour something.' take my family in her hands and break it apart. The drums - the

ËE
chanting - the lights - everything blurred together. And then I heard
EË
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et

The title of the film embarrassed Lewton from the outset, and
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since he was stuck with it, the screenplay tries to apologise for it. The a voice, speaking in a sudden silence. My voice. I was speaking to the

113

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Houngan. I was possessed. I said that the woman at Fort Holland

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3: The Leopard Man (1943)

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was evil and that he must make her into a zombie.'

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After Mrs Rand's confession, the film is almost wordless through

? ô - u,i t= ô -- l.9 t -' ? :

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iË Ë; iË=Ë ËËË;* Ë;
its conclusion. In a superb piece of crosscutting, shots of the voodoo
worshippers at the Houmfort attempting to cast a spell over a doll
representing Jessica, in order to lure her to them, are intercut with

q).,=.=e:=Ë;3.9
shots of Wesley allowing Jessica to escape from the Fort Holland
gate and then withdrawing an iron arrow from the side of St
Sebastian. This sequence ends when a needle is stuck into the Jessica

.-^*?.c-Ê,
doll, followed by a jump~cut to Wesley, who has just killed the real
Jessica with the arrow. After Carre-Four leads Wesley to his death in

- .Ea)(€-1"'
the ocean and the spear fishermen find the two bodies, we are shown
the procession taking the bodies back to Fort Holland, while on the
soundtrack we hear the Christian funeral service. There is no ques Prodllction Company: RKO~Radio. Prodllcer: Val Lewton. Director: Jacques

i:iÈfi i:3ii;iiiiiÈi

ïitiËi i:ËÈisigE;sii i: €;iË

=;=iIi ::Ë;g;!àiÈ;:S
ll;;;i
È::e;: Ë.::i=sS??:Sr ii ËË;Ë ;;
iEisÈi :s::i;Éi:g;ËË ËË ïÉiÈ Ei
ii:!aj :Ei=si.:s:iîs *Ë Ë;;i Êt
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ç:ËÉ:: €É!;ËiÈÈ"g5IFS i, :7tz =

iri:;; !=È;a:,ls:ts r:: ;;Ë:
tion which of the film's conflicting forces has prevailed. The last Tourncur. Assistant DireclVr: William Dorfman. Script: Ardcl Wray. Based on

j:.E
>;oo
the novel Black Alibi by Cornell Woolrich. Additional iJialogllt': Edwart.l Dein.
shot - Lewton wrote a cheery epilogue which he wisely discarded -~
/)ir!'ctor of Photography: Robert t.le Grasse. Editor: Mark Robwn. if rt {Jireetor.\':

$ç; 55Ë
is a close-up of the facc of St Sebastian, 'the glistening sad face of the

=
Albert S. D'Agostino. Walter E. Keller. Set Dc{'orators: Darrell Silvera. AI Fields.
Saint'. ,\Ill sic: Roy Webb. Mllsical Director: C. BakaleinikofT. Sound Recordist: John C.
Grubb.
Dennis O'Keefe (Jerry Manning), Margo (Clo~Clo), Jean Brooks (Kiki Walker).

s;:1:=:;rs€z= Ej
Isabel Jewell (Maria). James Bell (IJr Galhraith). Margaret Lant.lry (Teresa
Delgado), Abner Biherman (Charlie /lOll' Come). Richart.l Martin (Rauullle/monte),
Tula Parma (Consllelo Contreras), Ben Bard (Chief Ruhies), Ariel Heath (/:'ioise),
rely Franquelli (Rosita), Rohert Ant.lerson (Dwight), Jacqueline De Witt (Helene),
Bobby Spindola (Pedro), William Halligan (Brunton). Kate Lawson (Senora
Delgado), Russell Wade (Man in Car), Jacques Lory (Philippe), Tola Nesmith
(Senora COl/treras). Margaret Sylva (Marta), Charles Lung (Manue/), John Dilson
(Coroner), Mary Maclaren (Nun), Tom Orosco (WindoH' Cleal/er), Eliso Gamboa
(Senor Delgado), Joe Dominguez (Cop), Betty Roadman (Clo Clo's Mother), Rosa
Rita Varella (Cia Clo's Sister), John Pi me (Flol\'er Vendor), Rene Pedrini
(Frightened Waiter), Brandon Hurst (Gatekeeper), Rose Higgins (Indian Weaver),
George Sherwood (Police Lieutenant), John Tettemer (Minister).
Ëï Filmed in the RKO Studios, Hollywood, 9 February-8 March 1943. First shown in

==
U.S.A., May 1943; G.B., January t 944. Running time: 66 min.
iÏtli il
A nightclub entertainer accidentally releases a black leopard, part of a publicity

:;Éî
Èici s î

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stunt, in a small New Mexico town. The leopard kills a young girl out buying
groceries for her mother. Two more girls are killed, but this turns out to be the work
of a deranged killer. The murderer is apprehended, and shot by the lover of one of
the dead girls.

The Leopard Man is a mixed effort, superb in its individual

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seq uences and its general ambience but uncertain in structure and

5
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114 115
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lacking any deep thematic resonance. Never approaching the ex-

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the killer is unmasked. The three deaths are depicted with an obses-

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quisite style and poetry of I Walked With a Zombie, it at least sive, rather unsavoury relish; one is reminded of Polanski's skilled,
manages to avoid the gaucheries of dialogue and performance which heartless Repulsion. In the first death, the bloodiest and most terrify-
disfigure Cat People, while remaining every bit as inventive and ing in all of Lewton's work, a Mexican girl in her early teens is

! éoÈ
frightening in the suspense sequences. forced by her mother to go out into the darkness to buy flour for the

i: :iztEZZ:iln,t-7.'-"2- c.E; uF: i; riç2E r a

1
Both Lewton and Tourneur later disclaimed The Leopard Man, evening meal. The child is frightened by the stories of an escaped

i3;-

+tËiï1;:i;:i
and with some justice: it is a rather straightforward mystery thriller, leopard but her mother forces her outside and bolts the door. The

=Z+2=sÏi€
based on Cornell Woolrich's Black A libi, and has little more to offer
E?:: E
girl goes to a neighbourhood store but it is closed, so she must cross

=
than most other works in that genre. The film's central image is, a dried riverbed and go under a railroad overpass to get to the only

n|elti|li
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: o5
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again, a fountain -- this time with a jet of water supporting a hollow open grocery. After being scared by what turns out to be a chunk of

Eëi
ball. Although an attempt is made to give the fountain metaphorical tumbleweed, the girl arrives at the distant store, buys the flour and
ilttii
significance (one character remarks, 'We know as little about the ; starts home. This time at the overpass she sees the eyes of a cat

'
821'i? :=4='iizi
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forces that move us and move the world around us as that empty glowing in the darkness. The eyes vanish only to be followed by a

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ball ... ') it never assumes the highly packed, allusive presence of the great Lewton 'bus' - the sudden crossing of a train above the child's

"i77
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St Sebastian figurehead. The Woolrich novel was probably too con- head. Once through the tunnel, she confronts the leopard, falls spill-

E:e;€ I Ë ;E;==E;i
?Zi

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ventional to please Lewton and Tourneur, too heavy in explicit ing the flour, and tries to run home. The rest of the sequence is shot

;2

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bloodshed, and lacking the kind of poetic suspense they favoured in from within the girl's home. We hear her pounding at the door,

é-
their first two efTorts. screaming for her mother to let her in. The mother, angry that the

Éïst:EÉE=;>'
z=
However conventional the story may be, Lewton tells it in a girl has taken so long, decides to make her wait as a punishment.

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3;ÉâE;i
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curious, fragmented fashion which, though not fully successful here, When at last she is convinced that her daughter is in real danger, she
a:==?Ez

7
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anticipates the mosaic narrative style of his next feature, The Seventh finds herself unable to move the rusted bolt. She looks down, to see
i - i!-cË==-
a=' ;'

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Victilll. The Leopard Man is unconventionally structured; it has no her daughter's blood flow under the door and spread out along the

ï
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cracks between the floorboards.
=Ee= isË 4=iÉirtzÀ=ËÉ

central protagonists but moves from person to person, action to

=Ë Ë ; i:e à7r.= z=1

action, in a free flowing manner. One character is committed to The second murder is less horrifying but in some ways more

t te tC;=.u,E;=;ÉÉ;3

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prison where he hears castanets clicking outside his window. The gratuitously sadistic. A young girl is awakened on the morning of her

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camera picks up a castanet dancer and follows her story until another birthday by servants and her mother bearing gifts of flowers. She also
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transitional device takes us to yet another character. This method

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of story-telling, odd when employed in a thriller, tends to distance cemetery by her father's grave at an appointed time; thei r love is new
our responses; we aren't sure why we are watching any particular and secret and the girl's mother is not to know_ The girl is detained,
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character at any given time. Lewton once told Florence Mischel that and by the time she arrives her lover has gone. She is upset and
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transitions are no problem, that one simply needs a story hook - an misses the signal announcing the closing of the graveyard. Too late,

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image or sound or object - with which to 'hook into' the following she discovers that she has been locked in for the night. Her screams
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scene. (Mrs Mischel sees this as a key to Lewton's stylistic modernism- attract the attention of a motorist, who promises to bring help. As
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his 'hook' is an anticipation of the jump-cut.) Unfortunately, she waits, something falls from the branch of a tree overhanging the
the Woolrich material hardly merits the highly sophisticated cemetery wall; we witness her fear and hear her scream. As we later
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Lewton narrative technique. learn, this death is not the work of the leopard, but it is filmed with

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leopard escapes, three women are killed (one by the leopard, two by a
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pathological killer using the leopard to obscure his actions), and then
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derful warmth and vitality by Margo. Throughout, CloClo has been

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recelvillg signs from a fortune teller that she will meet a rich man,

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accept money and die. One night she goes out looking for a man and

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meets a rich, elderly Easterner who treats her kindly. After hearing
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Clo-Clo walks home through the midnight streets (the film is filled
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home safely only to find that she has lost the money. She goes back
into the darkness and meets her doom. The film ends with Dennis

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of monks hooded in black like Klansmen; the presence of these

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The Leopard Man lacks sufficient unity and meaning to satisfy as

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fully as some other Lewton films, but it is none the less a superb

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production, stylish and richly detailed. From the opening shot - the

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clatter of castanets as the camera prowls the backstage corridor of a

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night club - we know that we are in the hands of a master. All that

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Tourneur attempts is flawlessly executed, although some of Lewton's
screenplay effects - like reflection shots of Clo-Clo dancing around

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the fountain - are not attempted, probably owing to a shortage of

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time and money. The cast could not be better: Margo dominates the

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film, but Isabel Jewell and beautiful Jean Brooks, the co-stars of The

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One can understand why Lewton and Tourneur repudiated the

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film. It amounts, in the long run, to little more than an exercise in

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sadistic voyeurism - three innocent women dying like trapped

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animals. But movies, like the rest of the arts, are sometimes most
memorable when they arc least responsible. I saw The Leopard Man

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years later, I discovered that almost every shot was fixed in my

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memory. The death of the frightened child, the young girl alone in

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the dark streets - these are artful images of fear that will long haunt

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Varieties of menace in The Leopard Mall: Margaret Landry and a Lewton 'bus' (a
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passing train); Tula Parma in the cemetery; and the cause of it all
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much of the screenplay draws upon the writer producer's own ex-

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perience. It was also Mark Robson's first job of direction, and

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tf Lewton left nothing to chance: all of the film's nuances are carefully

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Death and Death meets me as fast. and all my Pleasures are like

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forces - suicide. diabolism. witchcraft. The SCl'enth Victim is his
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Prodl/c[iOI1 Compal1l': RKO·Radio. Prodl/cer: Val Lewton. Direc[or: Mark Robson.

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Assislal11 Oirec[or: William Dorfman. Seripl: Charles O·Neal. DeWitt Bodeen. most forthright negation, a film in which existence is portrayed as a

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hellish void from which all souls yearn for the sweet release of death.

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Albert S. IYA~ostino. Walter L Keller. Sci [)"mral'Jls: Darrell Silvera. Harlel'

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Lewton was a man haunted at times by his own demons. and The

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Miller . .\I/(sic: Roy Webb. ,HI/simi Direclor: C. BakalcinikofT. Cosi/(lIIes: Renie.

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So/(nd Rccordis[: John C. Grubb. Sel'enth Victim allows free expression to this morbidly romantic side

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of his nature. In an epilogue. which was wisely cut from the release

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Tom Conway (1)1' IJJ/lis JI/dd). Jean Brooks (.Iaeq/(elil1c Gihsol1). Isabel Jewell

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print of the film, a Lewtonesque character called Jason Haag (a poet

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(Fral1ces Fallol1). Kim Hunter (Afary Gihsol1). Evelyn Brent (Na/alic Cortez). Erford
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(Jaf!c (Jasol1 Iloag). Ben Bard (llml1s). Hugh Beaumont (Gregory Ward). Chef living in Greenwich Village who, like Lewton, sees himself as
Milani (,\11' Homari). Marguerita Sylva Clfrs Romari). Mary Newton (Mrs Redi).
E b Cyrano) has a speech which more directly (and more clumsily) than
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Wally Brown (1)/(1'1;). Feodor Chaliapin (I,co). Eve March (Miss Gilchrist). Tola
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Nesmith (Mrs LOI\·ood). Edythe Elliott (Mrs SI\·ifi). Milton Kibbee (Joseph).

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concerns. 'I am alive yet every hope I had is dead. Death can

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Marianne Mosner (,\lis5 Ro",al1). Elizabcth Russell (Mimi). Joan Barclay (Gladys).
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William Halligan (liadca/(). Lou Lubin (lll'in): /I/(}:USI). Kernan Cripps (Cop). be good. Death can be happy. If I could speak like Cyrano - "My
courage like a white plume" -- and all the other lovely words with

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Dewey Robinson (Col1dl/c[or). Lloyd Ingraham (Walchmal1). Ann Summers (Miss
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which he greeted death, then perhaps you might understand.' The

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Sumlllers). Tiny Jones (/\'cl\·5I'cl1dor). Sara Selby (Miss (JO/lschalk). Betty Roadman

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Filmed in the RKO Studios. Hollywoocl. 529 May 1943. First shown in U.S.A ..
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September 1943: G.B .. March 1944. Running time: 71 min.
Tennyson tries to be hearty and affirmative in a poem like Ulysses,

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Mary Gibson. an orphan. comes to Manhattan to find her sister Jacqueline, who has
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disappe<lretL Her investigation. made with the help of Gregory Ward. Jacqueline's
but the true Tennysonian sensibility. morbid, passive and despairing,
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husband. leads her to the Palladists. a diabolist cult of which Jacqueline was a
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lyrics. Likewise. there was a component in Lewton which strove to

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member. Tbe Palladists attempt to kill Jacqueline for revealing the secrets of their
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order. but fail. Jacqueline finally takes her own life. leaving Mary and Gregory. who
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be as positive and optimistic as the Boy Scout implements which he

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have fallen in love. to console olle another.

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habitually carried. but the poet in him was hardly an affirmer. The
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The Serenth Victim is Lewton's most personal and radical produc- '5
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tion: the fi 1m which, more than any other, reveals the man. (After a becomes the total content of The SCl'cnth Victim. Each of the charac-
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ters in the film is, in his own way, trying not to be. Jacqueline Gibson

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recent screening, members of the Lewton family 'felt him in the

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In New York, Mary VISIts La Sagesse, the cosmetic company

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tially, that 'life isn't worth anything unless you can end it'. Dr Judd is which Jacqueline owned, and speaks with Mrs Redi, the new owner,

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a nearly hardened cynic, Jason Hoag a failed, destructively romantic and her employee Frances Fallon. She is directed to the Dante

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nothing for him, even after their marriage. Even Mary Gibson, the room. When the door lock is broken open, Mary sees that the total

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her sister were dead so that her search might be ended.) There are the panions) and the morgue, Mary is led to Gregory Ward, a lawyer

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devil worshippers - the lesbianish Mrs Redi, the lost, passive who was in love with Jacqueline. It was he who helped her rent the

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memorably. there is the consumptive Mimi. who brings together all way I couldn't understand. She lived in a world of her own fancy. She
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have been reading histories of old religious societies. In one volume

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to Highcliffe -- that Jacqueline. out of fright, stahhed Irving August

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almost without change for 1'hc Third Man). Then she is chased

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through the streets by a Palladist with a switchblade until she is only two exceptions, the performances are excellent. Tom Conway.
rescued by a troupe of actors on their way for a snack. Meanwhile Jean Brooks. Lou Lubin, Isabel Jewell, Lli/abeth Russell and Mary
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way up to Mary's room when she stops in front of her own room. the I plished, and the latter. as Jason Iloag, has lost a key scene which

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is revealed to be a sorry. pathetic failure has been cut. Without

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ing little scene which crystallises all the themes the film has been - this piece of information, we cannot determine whether or not we

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Gregory confess their hopeless love for one another. In the film's - that if good exists, evil exists, and one is free to choose - is
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by necessity. ignores many of the film's subtleties and nuances. The now staying with Mary at the rooming house. This is a crucial piece
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to kidnap her. (As things stand. one suspects that Gregory Ward may.

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pitifully and ironically standing before the restaurant's mural of

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insight into the despairing side or Lewton's nature. Assisralll JJirrclor: Ruby Rosenbcrg. SerljJl: Donald Henderson Clarke. Based on a

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story by Lco Mittler. Direclor (i( Pholograph!': Nicholas Musuraca. Fdilor: John

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touches of dark humour - the one armed Mrs Cortez. is forever Webb.l!lIsicol Direclor: C. BakaleinikofT. Songs: 'Blow the Man Down' (sung by

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playing the piano and shuming cards; the Palladists, with their tea the Blind Beggar and Billy Radd); 'Home Dearie Home'. 'Come to San Sebastian'.

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parties and lapel pins. could easily be mistaken for a social c\ub- the 'I'm Billv Radd from La Trinidad' (all sung by Billy Radd). Coslllmes: Edward
Stevenson. SOllnd Recordisl: Francis M. Sarver.

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film is. at base. absolutely serious. When Mary goes to La Sagesse to

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gather information from Frances about Mrs Redi, she observes that

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which Frances replies. 'I guess most people are.' The resignation and Tierney (Lollie). Dewey Robinson (lioals). Charles Lung (.lim). George De

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with such intelligence. eloquence and grace. Lallv and Charles Regan (Cr"II' Mcmhcrs). Nolan Leary (Slellographer). Herbert
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Tom \!crriam. the young Third Officer on the A Ilair. is greatly impressed with his

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.:D~mander. the authoritarian Captain Stone. Gradually Tom becomes aware of the

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hesitates in making it sound too appetising. for The Ghost Ship is

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virtually a lost film. After Lewton and RKO lost the plagiarism suit.

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moth fluttering about the light. Captain Stone restrains him. saying.

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heing hurriedly ground out in a South American laboratory, a few you: a remark which puules Tom. I Ie then departs to settle in his

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prints of The Ghosl Ship were struck and distributed to American cabin. after discovering that the previous occupant died while suffer-

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in the late Fifties. but is seldom. if ever, shown today. It took me oYer i

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than the projector I was using burst into flames. The print was spared i

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to land again.' Tom strikes up a friendship with Sparks. the Latin-

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serious damage. but 1 did get the distinct feeling that some power I

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somewhere didn't want to have The Ghosl Shill seen. Tom's questions about the presence of death aboard the A Itair. Later.

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thriller. so rich in atmosphere and detail that one hares the legal ~

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pended to dry above the deck. Tom tells the Captain that the hook is

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snarls can be untangled to allow a revival. The charges of plagiarism I

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dangerous and should be secured. That night. the sea grows rough.

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against Lewton. Mittler and Clarke are absurd: surely their tale. like
I and in an extraordinary sequence the hook goes wild. smashing the

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the yarn in The immorlal Siory. has been told since men first began

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sailing the seas. tÉ=:E3 . sequence. shot with a single spotlight illuminating the darkness and
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accompanied only by the squeaking of the hook and the shouts of the

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ing the action of the film in some detai I. It begins with a blind beggar

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singing sea shanties in front of a San Pedro shop window filled with terror. During the struggle there is a shot of the Cartain watching

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knives. Tom Merriam. a young Third Offlcer on his way to board his the activity with an oddly calm concentration. and when the hook is
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fi rst ship. the If Ilair. is stopped by the beggar and warned against the
ship. Ignoring him. Tom mounts the gangplank, where he first sees
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finally secured. his order to Tom seems designed to suggest to the
crew that the incident was Tom's fault rather than his own. When
the Finn. a mute. gnome·like man sharpening a knife. We hear the l Tom subsequently asks the Captain about his actions. Stone refers to
mute's thoughts at several points in the film. functioning as a kind of the incident of the moth: 'I told you that you had no right to
Greek chorus on the destiny of the ship and its crew. (Had] nol I;ill that moth. That its safety did not depend on you. But] have the
been told that Lewton greatly disliked the works of his former neigh right to do what I want with the men because their safety docs dcpend
bour Faulkner. I would have supposed that Benjy of The Soulld and upon me. I stand ready any hour of the day or night to give my life
Ihe FUr)' had something to do with the creation of the Finn.) As he for their safety and the safety of this vessel. Because I do. I have
works (;n his knife. the Finn muses. 'I see the white steel thirsting far certain rights of risk over them. Do you understand? ... It's the first
blood and the blood running to meet it. 1 am a Finn and my soul is in thing you must learn about authority.'
mv hand here. white and cold and knowing all things.' I' A Greek sailor is stricken with arpendicitis. The Captain is to
°Tom meets Captain Stone of the Allair, a man whose motto WHO .'
DOES Nor HEED THE RUDDER SHALL MI'ET THE ROCK is can-
spicuously hung in his cabin. The Captain sees something of himself
I ~rform the operation by following radio instructions sent from
Panama: but he freezes at the moment of incision. forcing Tom to

in Tom. and Tom finds something forceful to respect in the Captain. i take over. Afterwards, the Cartain asks Tom not to tell anyone
about his failure and Tom agrees. remarking that some people are
perhaps a glimpse of the father he never knew. (Both men are ~ squeamish about blood. The Captain interrupts. saying that be isn't
orphans strongly driven to make something of their lives.) As Tom is afraid of anything except failure. He then praises Tom: '] knew the
about to leave for his own quarters. he automatically tries to kill a first clay that you were the man for me. a man who'd think as ] think.'

130 131
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to the Captain. who receives them very coldly. Later, Louie is

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scrubbing the inside of the chain lock, a compartment in which the

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heavy chain to be fed back into the lock. Captain Stone jams the

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manhole door through which Louie is to make his escape from the

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the clanking of the massive steel links. Tom, who has been watching
the Captain. finds the body and realises Louie has been murdered. ft

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When the ship docks in San Sebastian, Tom complains to the head II.,'

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of the shipping office there. An investigation is held at which all the

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board the A Ilair again. After the investigation. the Captain confesses ~.

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On the dock in San Sebastian. Tom meets Ellen Roberts. the to learn ... men arc worth less cattle. and a few men are given

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Captain's fiancee. She has heard favourable things about him in the authority to drive them.' Tom replies: 'I know people aren't that way.

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Captain's letters, and is disturbed by what Tom has done. She sees They're usually good and kind. willing to help other people. It's only

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friends or family. condemning yourself to the heights ... heights Released by the Captain, Tom asks Sparks and the others for help.
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which you call authority.' She promises to have her younger sister but as the Captain had predicted. all refuse. Only the Finn senses that
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iook Tom up when he returns to San Pedro. Later that evening. Tom Tom is telling the truth about the Captain's madness: '\ know this
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aids a fellow-crewman in a street brawl and is knocked unconscious.. man. I know his trouble, and I believe him. But I cannot tell him. I
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Not knowing that he has decided to leave the ship, the sailors carry can only watch. watch and guard him.' When the Captain hands
him back on board the Allair. which sails at midnight. Sparks a wireless message reading TOM MFlmlAM NOT ABOARD THF
f; .... l T-\IR. Sparks finally realises that Tom is in real danger: but the
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night: he is not permitted to make any wireless calls. He tries to find accuses the Captain of murder, but the crew members think him mad
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arms to defend himself in the Captain's cabin, but is caught by the

Captain. who threatens him for failing to learn 'the great lesson I had ~. Captain's handwritten wireless message and brings it to the Skipper,
taught you '" that authority cannot be questioned or clefied.' He l ll·ho is convinced that there may be truth to Tom's story after all.
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too cowardly or too disinterested, Merriam. That's what I want you m enters the cabin where Tom lies drugged. As he approaches the bed
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132 133
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with a drawn dagger, the Finn appears, and after a partieularl}'

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graphic bout of mutual blood-letting, the Captain is killed. The film
ends where it began, on the San Pedro dock, where Tom is met by

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People (1944)

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Ellen's sister. seen only in silhouette.

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The Ghost Shirl is an extremely handsome production. Le\\100

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Robson's direction is a decided improvement over The Sel"cnlk

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Victim. A number of low-angled, steam-and mist filled set-ups re-

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call his early days with Orson Welles, and throughout the film is
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subsequent efrorts. As is the case with Lewton's best films, the story
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P'''xi-.Jclion Compal1Y: RKORadio. Producer: Val Lewton. Directors: Gunther Von

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is told in a series of carefully asscmbled small. pointed scenes. From Frit~h. Robert Wise. Assistal1t Director: Harry D'Arcy. Script: DeWitt Bodeen.
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time to time, shots of the Finn arc used as transitional images, lilt DU'i.-ror or Photography: Nicholas Musuraca. f,'ditor: J. R. Whittredge. Art

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Dtrit-ror5.' Albert S. D'Agostino, Walter E. Keller. Set Decorators: Darrell Silvera.

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Armrt from Edmund Glover, a bit stiff delivering some admittedly

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-itlltr-m Ranzo (sung by Edward): 'It Came upon a Midnight Clear' (sung by

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stilted lines, the cast performs beautifully. Richard Dix and RusseD
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Ca:u!.ers): 'Shepherds Shake OtT Your Drowsy Slecp' (sung by Carolers. and by

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Wade are well matched, even looking alike enough to amplify the L--ena in a counterpoint French version). Costumes: Eclward Stcvenson. Soul1d

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rather llitchcockian transfer of guilt clements in the screenplay. Aoo /l{a;.rdisl: Francis M. Sarver. Soul1d Re rccouiisl: James G. Stewart.

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as usual. the faces of Lewton regulars like Sir Lancelot and Ben Bard Sinrooe Simon (Irena). Kent Smith (Olil'{'/' Reed) . .lane Randolph (A lice Reed), Ann

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Ca.ru:r (A mI'). Elizabeth Russell (Barbara). Julia Dean (Julia Farren). Eve March

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appear at the edges of the film.
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l"in Callahan). Erford Gage (Caplain of Cuard). Sir Lancelot (Edll·ard). Joel
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Only the absence of Lewton's characteristically bleak meta-
DlTis (Donald). Juanita AlvarC7 (I,ois). Charley Batcs (.lack). Gloria Donovan.
physical touches prevents The Ghost Ship from rivalling his finest
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G\Il:n~' Wren and Linda Ann Bieber (Lillie Girls). Sarah Selby (Miss I'lumelt). Mel
productions. llowever. it is a strong, chilling, wonderfully made ~rn!ig.ht (Slate Trooper).
thriller which connects with some very personal concerns of !be
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Ftb.ed in the RKO Studios. Hollywood. 26 August--4 October 1943. First shown

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produccr. When Captain Stone says that he fears only failure, r cauk! in CSA .. March 1944: CUI .. October 1944. Running time: 70 min.
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not help hut think of something Jacques Tourneur told me. herr
~r Reed is upset because his

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little daughter, Amy. lives in a dream world. Amy's
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time the phone rang in Lewton's office, he would say 'I'm fired!'
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[lI('(her attributes this to childish

imagination, but Oliver suspects the influence of his
before answering the call. One could takc The Ghost Ship's
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ifrn ...ife. Irena. who died believing herself to be descended from a race of cat
ambivalent attitude towards authority -- scenes are carefully included
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.00lIm. Amy frequently visits a dilapidated mansion occupied by Barbara Farren

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to ensure that we view the Captain sympathetically, in spite of his :md her mother, Julia. an elderly actress of another era. Julia loves six-year-old

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madness - as some sign of Lewton's own complex feelings about tbe
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~ Amy chances upon a photograph of her father's first wife: yearning for a friend
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dangers and powers of being a movie producer. m.:! inspired by the photograph. Amy imagines Irena to be her playmate. When Amy
iImi.·su that her 'friend' is real, Oliver grows impatient and punishes the child. She
rw:u 3way to the Farren home. unaware that Barbara has threatened to kill her. Julia

ËÈ=ËÉ
!T.n to hide Amy but collapses. Barbara menaces Amy, but is disarmed by the
.:fti:li's innocence just as Oliver arrives with the police. Oliver is resolved to indulge
A.n~'s fancies. whieh in turn leads to Irena's banishment from the little girl's world.
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Of all Lewton's films, Thc Cllrse ((/lhe Cal Pcople poses the greatest

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critical prohlem. Its subject the difficulties ora sensitive, parentally

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repressed child who creates an imaginary friend .~ is probably the

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most worthwhile or any Lewton ever treated. The studio had

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requested another Cat People: Lewton cleverly evaded their instruc-

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tions and gave them what may well he the most poetically coneeived

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movie ahout the world of the child ever attempted in Hollywood. Too

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spots of dead writing in the screenplay, some lifeless performances. ~

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(lver idealised sets. Many of these shortcomings are the result of

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demanded revisions and retakes. YeL in spite of these flaws and scars. "

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one cannot help but be deeply moved by the film's sensitivity and

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integrity, by its essential goodness and generosity. This is not to sa}"

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standards set by some of Lewton's earlier productions that parts of
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Lewton's screenplay (Bodeen's contribution this time is small) is

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extremely personal. The story is set in Tarrytown, not too far from T;,€ Curse of" Ihe Cal Pco[1/c: Eii7aheth Russell ancl.luiia Dean

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Port Chester and Who Torok'fand the prohlems of the little gdirl are

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rather like his own the di ficulties of an over senSItIve, eeply " Amy's life by locking a drunken, vindictive Barbara in the basement.

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imaginative child confronted with an unsympathetic, uncomprehend· This was replaced by the scene in which ./ulia dies unsure of her

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ing adult world. Many episodes in the film, such as the lost parI)- ~
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daughter's icientity, and where, as the latter menaces Amy, the child

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invitations and the numerals lesson, come directly from his 0\\11 summons Irena to her aid hy muttering 'My friend ... !', an appeal
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childhood, and one would not be going too far afield in supposin~ which calms Barbara's fury. Other additions are unfortunate: an

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to do with his own Aunt Alia. The screenplay is filled with such offiee attempt to justify the chiller title. As Agee noted, the film is
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actual film. her remain only a creation of Amy's imaginative need. The first

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from King IA'or which fuse the main plot and subplot into a singk both tendencies are evident at difTerent times in the film, which
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seem rather arbitrary until the final scene. Some of the rcyised. The film begins at a Tarrytown grammar school picnic. A school-

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mate accidentally destroys a butterfly which Amy has been consider-

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,iust before she dies. and a ghostly bit of husiness with Irena savill! dissolves to one of Amy's parents talking to her teacher. The scene
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The ClirIC Ihe Cal I'e()!'!c: the 'urDisney' set, and, according to Manny Farbc:.

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is stimy played hy all three actors, although Kent Smith's stolidity Amy's parents instruct her to return the ring, and in one of the
is quite cfTectivc in conveying the idea that Oliver Reed, shaken r:1.ost successful sequences, she meets Julia and Barbara Farren.
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by his experience with his lirst wife, fears and resents his child's "Jperbly played by .Julia Dean and Elizabeth Russell. (It is here that
imaginative life. The next section treats the childhood problem oi the !.car references were to come: Julia lost her memory many years
distinguishing between untruth and socially acceptable fancy. (Dal'id r:-.efore in an accident and refuses to believe that the somewhat faded
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Reisman devotes several pages to The Curse (d'llze Cal Pcople in his
consideration of this problem in The LOl1c(l' Crowd.)
No one attends Amy's party because she has mailed the invitations
in a hollow tree trunk which her father had told her was a 'magic
mailbox'. Again Amy promises her father to stop living in her world
of make believe. and then cannot understand why she is encouraged
to wish on a birthday cake. Later. she is confused by the sen'ant
hlward's explanation that the ring which .Julia throws her from the
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B:lrhara is really her daughter.) Julia entertains Amy by acting out
Washington Irving's Legend o/Sleep), lIo/loll'. That night Amy has a
nightmare about the Headless Horseman and calls for her friend. We
xe shadows and hear Irena's song again. Shortly after this incident,
Amy stumblcs llrOn an old photograph of Irena and is told her name.
:lll c.xperience which provides both a face and a name for her imagin
ary friend. In the next scene. we are finally shown Irena playing ball
';1.ith Amy.

upstairs window of her house is a Jamaican wishing ring. In a On Christmas Eve. Amy gives a present to Irena, who in turn
strange. extremely elTective moment. Amy places her han(!. with the ~i\cs Amy the gift of transforming the landscape into an enchanted
;l1iy" . '

ring. into a pool of water and wishes for a friend. The light and the fJiryland - a bit of badly flufTed ur~Disney by the set designers.
wind change and we hear Irena singing a little French song. although La:cr. Amy identifies the photograph of I rena as being of her friend.
1,,';

lIe do not actually sec her until the film's midpoint. ''\hich upsets and frightens Oliver, who has been afraid to tell his

138 139
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daughter about his first wife. Miss Callahan, Amy's teacher, tries to

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explain the child to Oliver, who has come to wonder whether Amy is

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image of this woman anc! make her an imaginary friend. That image of flaws through the nobility of its imperfectly achieved intentions. In

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While this discussion is taking place. an upset Amy has run off
into the night. In the Farren house, Julia has refused to accept her
daughter's Christmas gift. and Barbara vows to kill Amy for alienat-
ing her mother's love if she ever enters the house again. Amy shows
up after a night of terrified wanderings in a blizzard, and Julia
attempts to hide the child upstairs. The effort to climb the stairs
proves too much for her, and she dies in Amy's arms. Barbara places
her hands on Amy's neck as though to strangle her, but just before
Oliver arrives with the police, Barbara is calmed when Amy. sum-
moning Irena to her aid and confusing her with Barbara. calls her
'M Y friend'. Baek on the Reed lawn. Oliver tells Amy that he too ean
see her 'friend'. whereupon the imaginary Irena vanishes.
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lives and experiences of ordinary people. Because of the extraordin-

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ary circumstances of his own life. Lewton had little idea of the
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content and rhythms of everyday speech; too much of his dialog~

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consists of people telling one another how 'nice' they arc. Apart from
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Street and. with his young wife. opens a day care centre for children and a job-

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go wooden (but they never turn into ivory-soap sculpture): too often

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all concerned with what happens inside real and particular people

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Prodllction Com/Jallr: RKO Radio. Prodllcer: Val Lewton. Director: Mark Robsoa.

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if ssistallt f)ircctor: Harry f)·Arcy. ScnjJ/: John Fante. Ston': John Fante. Herbe:t I among real and particular objects - not with how a generalised face
K line. Inspired by a Look magazine picture story. if re These Ollr Children.'. can suggest a generalised emotion in a gcneralised light.'

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Additiollal f)ialogllc: Ardel Wray. /)ircctor q( Photography: John .I. Mescall. [duO":
One can appreciate Agee's enthusiasm for Youlh Runs Wild. In

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John Lockert. if rt Directors: Albert S. f)·Agostino. Carroll Clark. Set Decoralo",;:
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Darrell Silvera. Ross Dowel. Special 1011'1'('/.1: Vernon L. Walker. Mllsic: Pd the midst of Hollywood's wartime fantasies of heroism and romance.
Sawtell. .\1I1siml Director: C. Baka1cinikoff. CostllIllCS: Edward Stevenson. SOlid Lewton set about making a small. serious film about the efTects of
Pecordist: Frank McWhorter. Techllical Adl'iscr: Ruth Clifton. TO/Jical Researcf.:
I war and how they were altering, even shattering, the social order of

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Madeleine Dnwtryk. ~ the United States. His means were simple - a series of connected

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Bonita Granville (Toddl'). Kent Smith (Dalllll,), .lean Brooks (Mary). Glenn Verncc J

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an earnest effort surely merited applause and encouragement.

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/{auser). Arthur Shields (,\11 Vlllllol)). Lawrence Tierney (LJllllcall). Dickie Moo~

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Apart from its rather singular view of wartime life in small-town

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America. however. Youlh Runs Wild is barely watchable today.
Russell pIn TOl'lor). Juanita Alvarez (tllcr). Gloria Donovan (Nallcy Taylor). ]ad;
Lewton himself despised the film. which the studio had heavily cut

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Carring.ton (Elm:t). Ida Shoemaker (Card l'layf'/} Claire Carleton (Taxi Drirer). Art

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Smith (;\1r J{allser). Harold Barnitz (Stevie). Frank O'Connor (Cop). Rosemary LI ~ and re-shot. and asked to have his name removed from the credits.

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Planche and .loan Barclay (WomclI). Margaret Landry (FIrS/Nicol Girl), Harry Cby ~ (The request was denied.) One of the major plot-lines ..- a brutalised

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(Good Humour ,\fall). George De Normand (Firc/lw/I). Danny Desmond (EddJ! teenage boy is forced to kill his sadistic father was totally excised.

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WilsolI). Fritz Lieber (.Iudge), Robert Strong (./ul'<'lIile Officer). Tom Burton (Sold"",
and most of the film's careful distinguishing touches were removed.

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l\'iti! SalOhl. Russell Hopton (J)ickclIs). Chris Drake (Usher). Edmund Glo'':lr
What is left ~ a series of cliched dialogues and situations shot in an

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undisguisable studio back lot cannot be recommended.

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(Watchll1all), Maxwell Hayes (Pricst), Bud Wiser (Al%r Cop).

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The cast is virtually a Lewton stock company - Jean Brooks, Kent

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Filmed in the RKO Studios. Hollywood. 3 November-21 December 1943. Fin:.

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Smith. Glenn Vernon, Ben BarlL Arthur Shields and Elizabeth

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shown in U.S.A .. September 1944; G.B .. May 1945. Running time: 67 min.

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Russell. Lewton's screenplay. written with John Fante and Ardc1

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A series of interlocking events. all concerning juvenile delinquency. which tate
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place on Euclid Street. a working class section of a small American town durin! less below his usual standard. His sensibility was probably too

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plants have disrupted normal family life. A young man gets involved with car

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a problem as delinquency. This is not to say that the film is not, as
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PrOdllc/ion CompolIY: RKO-Radio. Prodllcer: Val Lewton. Direc/or: Robert Wise.

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>tories. Bailie de SlIif and Madell/niscl/e Fiji. by Guy de Maupassant. Director of

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PilOlOeraphl': Harry Wild. Edilnr: .I. R. Whittredge. Art /)irectors: Albert S.

D·.·\gostino. Walter E. Keller. Sct Decomtors: Darrell Silvera. AI Fields. Special

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E.(?~'ct): Vernon 1.. Walker. Mllsic: Werner Heymann. Mllsical Director: C. Baka-
~i:1ikofT. Songs: 'Three Captains' (sung in French by Eli7abeth); 'Drinking Song'

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','lng hv men. in German). Cos/lll11es: Edward Stevenson. SOlilld Recordist: Francis
Small town America in rOIl/h P,iI" Wild \{ S:lrv·cr. SOlilld /{('recordist: James C;. Stewart.

Al(ce indicated. likeahle and deeply felt, hut amiahility and sinceri!,.

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S'-:10ne Simon (Flizaheth /{0IlS5I't). John Emery (.lean Cornlldet). Kurt Krcuger (Lt.
ca~l onlv carrv a fllm so far. By the fllm's conclusion - a studlOadde-.: ,,~~ Errick, cal/ed' Fiji'). Alan Napier (COlillt de nrcl'il/c). Helen Freeman (Cnllntess

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!£ Brn·Ule). Jason Robards Sr (Wholesala ill Willcs). Norma Varden (/F/zolesal('r's

d(]cut1l~ntary'montage demonstnlting the success of a youth recre2
a~i![). Romaine Callender (,\[allll/clctllrer). Fay Helm (MOIII(/actllrcr's Wife).

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tion centre programme in Illinois - one's generosity and good natur~ f-:::nund Glover (YOllllg Pricst). Charles Waldron (Om; of Clerest'i1/c). 1\Iayo

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or
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W;llenz (The Captain). Marc Cralller (The Liclltellollt). John Good (Fritz). Allan

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with vouth verv successfully when ililowed to treat children of h:;

L.~e (lfn,/Icr). Frank Mayo (Sgt. at 11111). Margaret Landry (F\'(/). Rosemary La

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own ~Iass and ~xpericncc ill a tllorc literary form. But the w(]Oder

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of life. however nobic the producer's intentions. Indecd,. the only ,hI::: -\I'e~ (Soldier). Richard Drumm «(lnmoll S(,IlIlT). Victor Cutler (Soldier II·oiter).

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of vouthful feeling in the film is Lewton's Joke on hllllself. \\ he~

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f,:red in the RKO Studios. Hollywood, 23 March--22 April 1944. First shown in
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C.S ..·\ .. August 1944: G.B .. not shown. Running time: 69 min.
lit~rall)~ plastered with posters advertising past Lewton pr()ductlon~

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D'lring the Franco~Prussian War. Elizabeth Roussel. a fiercely patriotic laundress,

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by the companions she had attempted to save. When they arrive in Cleresville. am!

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the Prussian attempts to degrade her even further. Elizabeth murders him and is ,-.

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patriotic. outcast heroines of the two tales - the plump prostitute.

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played by Simone Simon. (The censors managed to interfere with the
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intentions of Lewton and his scriptwritcrs: the character was made a

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laundress instead of a prostitute. and the Prussian officer's demand to

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private supper. But in both cases, the intentions come through un-

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credits were to be superimposed upon a reproduction of Detaille's

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born. more affluent countrymen.

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which eventually accompanied them. Lewton and his writers had

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real
the coach humilia ted and scorned the only person who had any

EY-eL1.-/,
5I - --
-UoCaÊL,
;ce"" to tnil ,long with tho mmy thythm 01

=
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fiiË;Ë:zl,EeËËE:gF=eit:,lËÉËi;Ëg1llllçîl;E

=- / - €-.--
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ç=utr-à.i-'-
c 9 '; o
VL---rv,v

ULV-.
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ll"'orbë9o
=taLo;:tr
;i;,ii;Ê5:.EliEEz"'.xrZ4Er?ttizlt*1Élizzinitt
== elin'zt=,
i? i-ziËE eZ? i',=v? i ; Ê12=EE; ii z : z E iEÉ îv, t Ei i -l
,t"m "d ',iling mow

E'r!i'rV="* !7E ç e z 3 E'

Ë='
=*!E:ri=!, I ; Ë i ;

i z zr Ë E t1z? i1?,Ëi :rz E7

i?t?;-ëiia;iiz1*,Etr2=zzi:il:ZEuïztËZ'<z€Ë,i;i
ué t:iEi-â É /? !a=;:E;2=:i?ZÉ
3zs EE z z*;:?
: 'They are the only rrench
concern about her country 's honour

|
d,5.i >.t.,-
Norma ,','.
the music.' Except for one stunnin g shot craning up to

=
ns
people I've seen since I left the seminar y. You tell me these Prussia

> a v u !J =

q
r
L
>' o Ë
very tight

c a,v
champa gne on a circula r staircas e, the

s + e.7-"i.e = ÊE E' :

.!-r---=
Varden drunk on

Zi a=it

=
Why should

.-
the hell.

.-
to ring

=;
desire

^E
in their

FJaè<
A:. ''X I = ===-:E g
L
es violent

Lu-.wâ,
budget of the film seems to have prevent ed Lewton and his associat more

--LÀ
u;
are growing

E
'thev
I risk my life for people like these'?' Father Morin argues that

lr

i'b "iÉ
(t--
f \
from giving the film their custom ary visual finish.
It is for he-r

ë
r told me ahout.

Lr-
girl you

L
are not France. rranee is that

a
=
d,
The first half of the film is a renderi ng, comple te to very fine detail.

o .g= o
o"-'
,t*&'@

-
s that 'if the bell is rung,

-
cxplain

L
He

- :j o
t bell.'

-
the

u *
F i"
who that I ask you not to ring

^
of BOlile de SlIif, Maupas sant's talc of an honour able whore

lZ
accept
if life goes on in the way it always has gone on, the people will

U
O
-
û e -=
L
to
compro mises her princip les and sleeps with a German officer
1:,"_.

conques t as the ordinar y course of life.'

L
û
c)
c 5 i.i
L

o É.= L I * Ë'i 1 3=
c
of her

L
O
d
spare her fellow passeng ers, only to be despise d for the nature

Êi'
iÉ È

.-n,'t.É à y.t.Ê".,Ë.! [ =È

b'i,ç J J'!? F-: r,7 2 t É.2''zzu-"i=:'

Ë;E;+Èiz2EE:7t3;=7ei
of

y+
: =ç!; ËË:atBl zl"=7=zË8,o.
'E è.=

<.:B?È= aV I ;z z?. i
As the film ends, the bell does in fact ring. After her murder

;ÈE!
a.-: ;. ,Ee
Ër
1 : : r.E:''e
€=

*- -

: sÈ+ 5- tL-'=.:- Z= \2"

' i 7EË B' i' E; E

;EuiizTë A;ëe i t;"E22i==

=
!P:zÉ*;3È
?-z É - Ê. ûÊ=1e -= : -tn É=
" ?F p=,
a:-
; p-..|y';
it with
sacrific e. The story is probab ly improv ed by combin ing who finds in her courage
et.

u
just a shade too harsh in the otherwis e Fifi. Elizabe th is rescucd by Cornud
t

u*E=,t
Madem oisclle Fi(i; the ironies,

- =J-
radical
inspirat ion to go to Totes and act upon his often profess ed

;--'.
; iiiï1=3Ê i= i ùËtËËÊ

-
il'û-V
d Maupas sant long story, are lightene d. In the second portion
splendi

g
a place
ideals. The new priest tells Elizabe th that he can hide her in

=
= ë')=
=

=
S
Fifi 0( !
of the film, the girl, Elizabe th, goes on to kill the officer (the
t
12x:!=*7=- E itiZ;l1rt
=i;
zEEè-É7;î'EEaEZE&tZz;z e
where the Prussia ns will never track her down. The last sequenc

-i-'2,, i.2z.Z:
lt.Js+È=?=?==1z ÉZVlaZZ'
)
ed by his fellow·s oldiers for his
the title. a cruel Prussia n so nicknam

=
accomp anied by the

zC
begins with a shot of rifi's funeral cortege

=l
he attempt s to debase her

;EZ
manner of saying 'Fi, fi donc!') after
of
ringing of the bell of Cleresv ille. Then there is a dissolve to a series

ù' -. ; t :.8
2i=:IS 7==tz?
of the

-
;"
further. The combin ed stories are framed by the tale
E=tr

smiling at hearing , once again, the peal

çrq

ltii-.Ë'tSVÉç
Ç
ilk eople

._Â
t7_."-1E
1-
Cleresv ille bell. As an act of defiance , the old priest of Cleresv shots of various townsp
of the
of 'their' bell. But it is really for Elizabe th, hiding at the top

==2 *=. È t t zÈ.Ë 3 ;=

=s 7 ?.:S; i;.2- | |
are

i
Prussia ns

:
bell as long as the

ta i "z v E ï |1r"Eiz+rill :i2 zz

refuses to sound the town's famous

VÊE vÉ=EtEEiE:3: VE;ÊE 7t

7i É== v pz;V;7iiu,+F7îàt=
fabricat ed set.

ËEi !=;:taEÉ
i
poorly

= 1=l* a Ë; _ .= i ..:,
do church tower, that the bell rings. Tn spite of the

a=-c
Fifi could ring the bell himself but refuses to
occupy ing the town.
=oe i ? ? Ez'

t; all who hear the bell feel satisfied

=
momen

r
lent

EI
As
towns· it is a superbl y ambiva

=E'"'
the

7."-
until he has humble d the priest and

z: ;
so. preferri ng to wait
in the
that it is ringing again, but only Elizabe th and the young priest

Zi,

7'L.a
=

; -y.-==i
people enough for them to do it themsel ves.
only tower are left with their honour .
From the early sequenc es of the film, we see Elizabe th as the

:= j :.= ;-_.!
,\fadcm oiscl/e F{/i was not a popular success . The title and adver-

È g,Ëi,='. E7'e

c..a
; i.==?zç-
other

;8.7 l:1 Z'Z' ;

remnan t of French honour ; in spite of their protesta tions, the
='
that
tising campai gn made those unfamil iar with Maupas sant think

s: ô1.:

+:?',,
and the

ZË t É r E e

=
charact ers, even the better ones like the radical Cornud et a. StilL for its
of Simone Simon ooh-Ial

l.a u =-*-
to slice

u
ZF=-Z=;
courage

E, È: Ù -
Count de Breville , live without honour or, at best, lack the the film was another
z?
nation to tell a
ists. artistie honesty , its moral intricac y. and its determi

-- a Y. x
-: È ya--
stand up for their convict ions. It is for these people, material
?

middle classes behave in time of

few unpopu lar truths about how the

= =r./
d.

a ;.i u2
hypocr ites and coward s attempt ing to flee their trouble d homelan
"
2Ë 5 Ë ;r*Z;l=7t?
-î= ç z Ê=zl

of
war. .\fadcm oiscllc Fi(i is. in many importa nt ways, the most noble

i >';
begins in

-E
that Elizabe th sacrific es herself. (Appro priately , the story
çz - ç "É> z

's film has

-,_
nments . Even today, Lewton

u=
the film. e entertai

I Ës
of

=1i
Rouen before a statue of Jeanne d'Arc.) Tn the second half Americ an wartim
?t ?

seem
which begins when Elizabe th reaches her home, Cleresv ille.
the enough dignity to make such slispect ideals as patrioti sm
ves to possible and even palpabl e again.

u
townsp eople - busines smen and worker s alike - reveal themsel
without conscie nce or honour in their accepta nce of the
be equally
do - re
=r i,

Prussia ns. Her Aunt Marie asks, 'What do you want her to
And finally Elizabe th herseli
the only one who fights the Germa ns?'
Z;e=z
?

singula rity of her patrioti sm: 'The bell

is forced to confron t the
_
'
1E!ËE

anythin g. The people make friends with the Prussian s..

doesn't mean
in
They eat and drink with them. And now, with the young priest
omitted scene, Abbe
charge. even the bell will ring.' In an
i

Chanta voine. the new priest, tells rather Morin how the people
00
---z

$
149
148
'J

ii

:j
._

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. i'J

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iri'{

9
'rl

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l.
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.'.
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E=.*:E Ëqà: =E=ËEE EEtEîaZ?_EàËE

E
i:
?{ Ë; iTatEiË ;p a È. iEEiZË;Ë r Eu; Êç?7=
only to collapse again into a series of oddly unafTecting. conventional

É;

5E

;;El
i: S; =ii;!
É:, g

3.?;:Ê
Fi
;: ËE
is

7;=Z €;r0'È+c:aiÎEiËzsis"Ë 2,>z fr É=z-==

E
$
\a)
9: Isle of the Dead (1945)

o'\

+,E
c,)
horror movie murders. Isle (l/"the Dead is so inefTective, so lacking in

=r+Ci
C)
C)
o
(n

5
1-r{

ËË
Lewton's customary complexity and finish that one is forced to

;i
ËË

:ï ï
Ez
conclude that something went wrong with the film, something beyond

1
â-
ËÏ
!Ëi ; ii:r : ËË ilËEËËË i Ë!Ë Ë i Ëi Ë; Ë: :Ë?:
the producer's controL

EÈ:E
u=

E;Ë:rÉëç:ÊH;j
A reading of the screenplay pinpoints the problem. The shooting

?EE;
127;:: e : Ë= Èr Ë

€
ii r;:SÊ'ii i i;t: ;:lli
+ Ë=
;Ïff ;i ! ËË E âË Éil,;l'i;*Ë I i
snip!. which carries a credit to Josef Mischel as well as Ardel Wray,

i a z;È à Ê:re Ézi?t É!*E zE.:.'

i;
has very little to do with the produced film. Cathy, the screenplay's

s
: g Ë i à E sËlilzt
pivotal character, never appears or is even mentioned in the film.

l:
Several other major characters have been eliminated or unrecognis·

i Ë i : Ë ; È E { z"i?i-ËrlilÉ
: 3;;;=.;-
ably altered, and perhaps half a dozen resonant themes and subplots

Ë
âr: È;s E: pë;ue;;=
have been hacked away. Presumably the shooting script was aban-

âg;;Ëâi scF F+ çÈ iZtE

doned at the last minute and a new one was slapped together which
Productioll COIl1f'onr: RKO Radio. Producer: Val Lewton. Director: Mark Ro~

si:ssr
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&ÈSÉsi
/__.\_u\-1
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->c-.-Ç
attempted to replace Lewton's melancholy poetry with conventional

iË*.^ÈË-= =.1.9 =!
s1-.Èi

S!!rp: è.i ;F
È.,::-

EÈl;*t
"È;ÈZ

L
=j.,-.ai

i-\;=-
^n

;C-_
Vli":;ç
.:9.::-:;6

=-:
oÈE--:ÉÉ ol-; Ga

Èi-1!:È
.È::13=iÊ e.:= r,.:i-iLÏI
: -: Èë iÉ: ?E;t

isÈà::
È::;J:>
r<ti>;l

I\r;.ro-l:o=/
iÈ-:Ë=;=:
;--
':È&â:.ù\
-Yis:=:,ts
Assistollt Dircctor: Harry Scott. Scripl: Ardel Wray. Josef Mischel. DireCfOr rf

2
notions of plotting and action. The Lewton-prepared and approved

i;!=

^
Pholographr: Jack Mackenzie. fo'dilor: Lyle Boyer. Art Direclors: Albert S-

;':*
o<
ài! ;, :j :-: =7

È
S=q
screenplay approaches The Seventh Victim in its formal and thematic

zEË a--
D·Agostino. Walter E. Keller. Set Decoralors: Darrell SIlvera. AI Green.woo!.

u ^--
Music: Leigh "arline. Musical J)ircclor: C. Rakaleinikoff. Song: 'Greek Song (s~ compression, but the realised Isle of the Dead lacks purpose and

ù9
-..
27.r.
by Thea). Coslumcs: Edward Stevenson. Soul1d Recordist: Jean L. Speak. Sound Rt- direction. Stripped of its resonance. its carefully rhymed elements of

;:Ë
1,-,,!i:-s-i::
recordist: James G. Stewart. superstition and enlightenment, its dramatic paralleling of Greek and

=EZ7EË';'"2i, 1i iz:;ielZ
.. -i;=

i-:
?:3
English illegitimate children. the film's central situation is hopelessly

.-a\* ê-
1:;!
Boris Karloff (Gcllcron. Ellen Drew (Thea). Marc Cramer (Oliver). Katherimt

EgË 1ë
s5:ç
-ëiÈ
:
tc:Z Z\

=Éa
izi
l L=
l!=
È:=i

!=;;
,E=a
t9=^
-:-l

222.3È
'i"!->;> T-=

::]i
d< : .=c
:PEa É2, o;3i: *r

Emery (Mrs St A uh\'l1). Helene Thimig (Kyro). Alan Napier (St A uhyn). Ja50II

zÉi;;ÉzE:
static and hardly lends itself to the kind of Universal-style horror-
Rohards Sr (A I/)lwht). Ernst Dorian (Or lJrnssos), Skelton Knaggs (RobblrJ).

"!

z+,a
chills which, one guesses, RKO tried to force Lewton to produce.
Sherry Hall «(;rec/.: Colonc/). Erick Hanson (OIJiccr).

\f;E
Ë
Mark Robson's direction is without distinction, as is the D'Agostino-

Ë= 1:E;Ëy
X
=2
Filmed in the RKO Studios. Hollywood. 14-22 July and 1-12 December 19'"-

ÀJ
^:

;Ë' {Ë€lEE
gl
a=
i-
i,V

ç--
.=
-_-.

Keller art direction. surprisingly tatty for a Lewton production.

Ca
=-
J-'3
=i
li.

-c
i;; <Ëb.9i=t

.=

.a

-
First shown in U.S.A. September 1945; G.B., November 1955. Running tiro::
There is a good performance by Boris KarlofT and a beautifully
71 min.
controlled one by Katherine Emery, one of Lewton's favourite

i
:E:Ê3-e
'ooooq--
=i-É7t
tu7âî'=
_op9aE
A Greek General, an American reporter, a British consul and his wife. and otbcn
=;e:g3=
a=i-^'vL=,

t;*
e.q: A ='c-E.9 ç c:.
=);=u=
!Pl:€<
lzz="Eac

==È9dnÈ

=.ë2=zZ
eFl:SË;
dZûic.-6i
é:.É"Eyz

ayâE;iZ
É-'"È3e; j.æ

?:-gtate

actresses. But Ellen Drew and Marc Cramer are scarcely more than
Ez-té1
ijsià,oisi1
,_11*.la=
rELz z3:t

!!*
a..itrZ=F-
io=-.*:.ï
i="::-:="*
9ié;V
.,L7'..r-.'-.

are trapped on a Greek island during the 1912 war. Plague is discovered among tk
attractive juveniles, and Jason Robards Sr. barely able to stammer

Ë; :-? e F A r.E'
-
group. although an old peasant woman suspects the presence of demons caIW
-ç-, c-l

Ë''t'=;:
out his lines, gives what must surely he the worst performance in a

i
vorvolakas. The Consul's wife is prematurely buried but then resurrected, possesd

e:-:
by some sort of murderous spirit. She kills several of the co:npany before cornmii- Lewton movie.
ting suicide. The danger of plague passes, allowing the American to leave the ISbmii

E
Ë
There are a few Lewton touches which somehow managed to

; ; gË:
a. Ëzi:Eî

ËIiË
with a young Greek serving· girl who has won his love.

;EiïïÊ
; s * ! s EE=r
survive the ravaging of the screenplay .- the use of a statue of

aiÈ,,Ë|iË
'- d)_:
,â<.688Ëd
-OCcn'";9
(JtocËôc

- É(J e 7 a:a
Isle of the Dead is not Lewton's worst RKO production but it is
9.sVP

;ià-cèoÈ:L
Cerberus as a transitional image. some folklore about 'vorvolakas',
&'??Ë<a
-"'--^c,

]73*ûE:t&

c ÈO 9 O e c
/-CàOe:

!;I=aÉ=
o

Ë
Èô-Éd,!C

+.ea-F)
-l
^-.1 r', r, !
,aV

!
-

X:
4=vtJ<-
< ivï.!

OO'û
,'JôJô-:'
V)\È!\L
!
^
" > >: -v-)ô 0')

,. X -O

proh~bly his most confused and surely his most disappointing. A half-dead. vampirish things which 'drain all the life and joy from
E-ou=È
-L

uÇ.-

.ofc^É
E-8
@cjj:!\-
-

E
study of the hehaviour of a group of people stranded on a Gred. those who want to live', and various bits of arcane information.
! >.>

e
:- -ônu ---
i;

i:;Ë
island and threatened by plague. it is potentially a great Le\\10t1 (Plague is transmitted by fleas, the bodies of which are eighty per
t - 6 u

E-
'_i-v
! Ê\
cv
JA:

subject. One might expect an equally bleak and even more abstract cent moisture. When a sirocco or hot south wind blows, it literally
U!

ri
-1ô
:!uù
(/ -t
È\
6'> L

?Ë
The Sel'cllth Victim. but no such luck. After an hour of tIresome burns away the fleas and with them the danger of infection.) In the
(J.
9 ô

exposition. the film comes to life for a premature burial sequen<X. film's only arresting sequence, Katherine Emery, a cataleptic, is
o

=:
P
g
E
.,
v

;
150 151
V'
-
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: $u.,

rél

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, i"'j

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: t,l

r.i1

ari-1

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o'\
a
Fr
10: The Body Snatcher ( 1945)

À
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c)
c)
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"

I
. ._'--------

È
iiË:!gËÉÈ ËËjs
;
i È; ÉËi ?É
s
j;:.sli|;=
iiçt u:Tre
;;
I ?: È; ?# î

i?t^EEÉ:3i : t;; i
:::: Zt=:=nzi iy7?,t iî_ :i;t ?î,-EîSEt,
Èiiiiii ;i: i ;Èli i; titnïiïïriii
Production COl11pony: R K 0- Radio. ExcclIlil'e Prodllcer: JacK J. Gross. Producer:

i iË i z=.tî=Z ii EZ, Z= i li-.',=r;? tEiT:

î; Ë= :"'a
ti:
i; î;
hi Lewton. /)irector: Rohert Wise. Assislont Director: Harry Scott. Script: Philip

=
'l.lacDonald. Carlos Keith (Val Lewton). Based on the story hy Rohert Louis
S~yenson. Dircclor oj' Photography: Robert de Grasse. Editor: .r. R. Whittrcdge. Art

Ë
i i'Ez;i i ; ? ;
[)'rt'ctors: Alhert S. D'Agostino. Walter E. Keller. Set Decorators: Darrell Silvera,

:?
eË
khn Sturtevant. Music: Roy Wcbh. Musical Director: C. Bakaleinikorr. Son;;s:
'We'd Bctter Bide a Wee', 'When Ye Gang Awa', 'Jamie' and 'Will Ye No Come
$aÊrt!*r

eÉ :! È ;
Ehd. Again o' (sung by Street Singer); 'Spit Song' (sung by Boy); 'Bonnie Dundee'

t
;Ë! ;çz:z /:1 zii:t?,!*iîE
È ;;;=È
'l'.:n;: b\' quartet of men). Costllmes: Renie. SOllnd Recordist: Bailey Fesler. SOlllld
[,Ie oj'lhe !Jew/' Katherine Emery with trident. and Jason Robards. Sr
p,.·',-mrdisl: Terry Kellum.

prematurely buried by the others who assume that she has died ci

i ?s ! =
f:
: !; : ! ;T Ét=-rEZ,ÉitE?;

3:;;:
80~i, Karloff (Gray), Bela Lugosi (Joseph). Henry Daniell (MocForlalle), Edith
plague. The camera moves in on her face to show us what everyb0d~' "",water (\leg). Russell Wade (Fel/cs), Rit.~ Corday (Mrs Marsh), Sharyn Marrett

=
else has missed the quiver of her nostrils. Once in the crypt. sh! 'G'(lr~il1al. Donna Lee (Street Sil1ger), Robert Clarke (Richardson), Carl Kent

I:= ;;
,(Ji!cl;riSl). Jack Welch (lIol'). Larry Wheat (Salesman), Mary Gordon (Mrs Marl'
(':ives out with all sorts of dreadful howls while water droplets beat z::

: El;=,8==";VEt.,,
tkllride). Jim i\loran (Horse Trader), Ina Constant (Maid), Bill Williams.
;lgonising tattoo on her coffin top. Unfortunately, when Miss Fme~

E t|iz:t|Z?Zia
È
escapes from the coffin, she is forced to romp about the isle stabhi~~

z=: ;EE ?!zr

li ;z,:?+t=:tî*;
E=E î=,ViiZzeÉtZl
;= i=i;z=VîÉEtr
=1
F:r~ed in the RKO Studios. Hollywood. 25 October 17 November 1944. First

; iiti|Ë i ! t"Erl,
most of the cast with a trident before tossing herself off a cliff. lr-'c"n in U.S.A., May 1945; G.B., December 1945. Running time: 78 min.
I have been unable to discover why Lewton's interesting scrG?:;

play was junked. The talc of how this potentially fascinating m0\~
was sabotaged would probably be more intriguing than what \\"ll
ultimately filmed.
=7;ti?*!t;78
E~;ct-·.!rgh. 183 I. MacFarlane is a gifted doctor who runs a medical school. He is
~.!~~ted by Gray. a cabman who once shielded him in a grave robbing investigation
l:cl «rv'ed a long prison term for his crimes. (Laws of the time severely restricted
!·::-.:e" to cadavers for medical schools: only the bodies of paupers could be used.)
~!,:=,. a voung. idealistic medical student. begs MacFarlane to operate on the
~~3;ed spine of a crippled chi Id. He becomes the Doctor's assistant, and discovers
::-,:;, Grav procures the school's bodies by illegal means and that the grave-robber

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'.~!:l, \!acFarlane in some strange bond. Gray's recent robberies have caused
!-c!rd, to be placed in all the local cemeteries; so in order to come up with more
::!~\ecs. Gray begins a series of murders - first a blind street singer, then a servant
:- \hcFarlane's house. The Doctor, aware of the graverobber's increasing crimes
L- ~ tormentcd by the hold Gray has over him, murders his nemesis. He then
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persuades Fettes to join him on a grave~robbing expedition in preparation for a new:

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scries of anatomy courses at the schooL Returning from the graveyard in a stOfTl'_

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goes over a cliff, killing MacFarlane.
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The Hodr S,zateher is the best of Lewton's last round of RKO

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pictures, a thoughtful period suspense tale, intelligently constructed.

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acted and filmed. However, it is somewhat tainted by the literariness

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and overcareful historicism of those late films, and for all its
effectiveness, lacks the poetry of J Wa/ked With a Zombic and The

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SCl'cllth Victim. The delicacy and suggestiveness of Lewton's

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work have diminished, the ambiguities of character and action ha\'c

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for whom Lewton had little respect.

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One cannot place too heavy a blame upon Gross, however. After

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all. Lewton took his first screenplay credit with Philip MacDonald.
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and in fact wrote all of the final screenplay himself. As he remarked

in a letter, 'In the case of Thc Body Sllatcher, I had rewritten the
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script so completely that Phil MacDonald, who did not trust m\' The Bndl' S,lO/Cit,.,.: Fdinhurgh I R31. according to Lewton

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work, wanted someone to share the blame if it were a flop and afte'r

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crowd round to watch. One of them backs up to a little trundlc cart
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considerable discussion. and recognising the justice of my viewpoinL

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the Screen Writers Guild allowed me to use a pseudonym.' and surreptitiously fllches a piece of the shortbread being sold from
The Edinburgh setting allowed Lewton full range to indulge his this portable store. At the other side of the "Charlie" stands a street
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love of authentic period detail. Although the film was shot on a singer. a beautiful girl of about nineteen, dressed in ragged Highland
budget only a few thousand dollars larger than usual, the producer plaid. She is singing an old border ballad about two crows who sit
managed to make every dol1ar count by using fragments and details waiting to pick the dead eyes of a fallen knight. A shepherd, crook in
to suggest the larger panorama of Edinburgh, 1831. In fact. this part· hand. and faithfully attended by two handsome collies, stops a

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for-whole method grants the film a sense of historical intimacy which moment to hear her song, drops some coppers into the begging bowl
other Hol1ywood films. for all their massive reconstructions, never she holds in her hand. then passes on.'
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begin to approach. A description early in the screenplay shows This description indicates both the strengths and liabilities of
Lewton at work assembling those small details of time and place Lewton's method. His love of accurate detail gives the film a rich
which communicate the flavour of a period: 'LONG SIIOT - a typical tone and atmosphere, but obviously the above description - which is
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street scene of the time. A dog-cart drawn by a smart tandem passes.. only an establishing shot - is too detailed to suit its function. Lew~
It is driven by a young buck of the period: top-hatted, dandified. his ton's scholarly sensibility demanded a strongly visual rather than
whip held at a just-so angle. On the sidewalk, a group of small boys literary or dramatic director, who could select and graphically order
follow a recruiting sergeant of the Seaforth Highlanders. A drummer the screenplay's abundant materials. Tourneur was such a director:
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walks at his heels. He stops at a wooden "Charlie". the rough police Wise and Robson were not. though both always managed to supply
booth of that day, and begins to tack up one of his posters. The boys sound. workmanlike direction.
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schools. The Lewton screenplay considerably improves upon the other courses.' Like the moral pedagogy, the dramatic ironics are
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Stevenson managed to achieve. There is, too, an added sentimental fond of the child's widowed mother. This forces MacFarlane to

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detracts from the source material. Lewton's simultaneous tightenin~ research, which in turn leads to the murder of the street singer.

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more pathetic. The screenplay affords Karloff much better material lines are too heavily drawn and much subtlety is lost in the impulse

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wh ich he explains himself to MacFarlane, whom he has been tor- teristic pattern; despite a 'safe' and 'progressive' final title telling how
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do so much that I did not want to do. But so long as the great Dr reformed, it is the force of darkness which prevails in the film's last,

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witty performance. Bela Lugosi, included for marquee chiller value. all traces of the cabman. Fettes sets out after him with good news -

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has little to do as Joseph, MacFarlane's servant; he is seen sneaki~

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the operation has been successful and the child has walked again.

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Rita Corday. are .iust adequate. a problem with many of the Le\\1oo 1Ioith such reptilian creatures as Gray. We can do our own dirty
films. 1Io-ork, and we must.' Fettes and MacFarlane steal the corpse of a
The Rod)' Snatcher is precise in its details of 19th-century medical newly buried woman and start back to Edinburgh in blinding rain,

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schooling. and after its release was screened for students at a number the body between them, swaddled in cloth, for safe·keeping. As the
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of American medical colleges. The problem of obtaining cadavers fOf

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roach bounces along the rocky road which follows the edge of a cliff,
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study is. obviously. a useful chiller plot mechanism, but it is also the body keeps bumping against MacFarlane. who becomes increas-
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ment. MacFarlane is the man of science who has lost his humanity, 2 and as MacFarlane races along. the cloth loosens from the body. and
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succeeds with a few tOllches of sublimated horror. One scene begins

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coal with a poker. whereupon Meg enters and says, 'Gray's head, is

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a kind of chorus, linking separate episodes and actions with her

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traditional Scottish songs. Gray. in need ofa body and aware that the
graveyards arc being !!uarded against him. goes out to find a likely

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6,k areh and vanishes into the ni!!ht. hcr song drifting back to us.
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Then Gray's cab enters the frame and moves until it too has disap
~ared into the darkness. In the midst of a phrase, the girl's high,

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sweet voice is cut off: the shot of the arch is held a moment longer,
and then the scene dissolves into the next.

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bngaroo court. Sims is judged sane. but at tbe moment of his release. is stabbed by

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m inmate he had mistreated. Nell is rescued and leaves Bedlam with Hannay.

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duction and many of its particulars, falls somewhat short of his best

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k>gical suspense with historical reconstruction (Mademoiselle Fiji) and
~ social concern (Youth Runs Wild), but the elements never quite

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manage to cohere. The film fails to achieve a unified identity or tone;
illacks both the urgency of straightforward narratives like The Body
Snatcher and the cold, fragmented poetry of The Seventh Victim.

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The screenplay was inspired by the William Hogarth painting.
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aristocrats at Vauxhall dissolves into a Hogarth engraving of a

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barber's shop, which holds the screen for barely a second before it,

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around her. On the walls. crouching. rounded shadows can be seca

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moving: almost as if animals were crawling, indistinet and horrible

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pages, I could throw them large as life upon the wall.

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at my littleness, my ugliness and my poverty.

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of post-war love, the kind of intimate, intelligent love story that

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12: My Own True Love (1948)

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denly resolved in a badly written and staged conclusion.

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Curtis Mick, Director: Compton Bennett Assistalll j)lrector:. Oscar Rudo~ 1 and a charming Arthur Shields add flavour in supporting roles.

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Lang, l,ditor: LeRoy Stone, A rt Directors: Hans Dreier. Henry Bumstead.
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and falls'"10 love With Joan Clews. a mem that they. , laugh because of what they have" been through, , ~. addll1g,
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husband, While they wait for Joan's divorce to he granted: Clive S son. ~1rc!J3d. I' would have to be ashamed of sll1ce they were prtsoners and not
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presumed dead in action. returns from Malaya. Michael's natIve WIfe and theIr ~

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have been killed by the Japanese and Michael has lost a leg, Joan. who has sen-rollll ones who did the torturing were human beings.'
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theatrical and literary interests over his stronger poetic
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 13: Please Believe Me (1950)

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Productioll COll1pan.\': M-G-l'v1. Producer: Val Lewton. Director: Norman Taure>?-

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Script: Nathaniel Curtis. Director of Photograph.\': Robert Planck. Fditor: Ferris
Wehster. A rt Directors: Cedric Gihbons, Daniel B. Cathcart. Set Decora/or:
Edwin B. Willis. Music: Hans Salter. SOl/lid: Douglas Shearer.

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Alison Kirbe. an English girl. inherits a ranch and what she fondly imagines to ba
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fortune in America. On the boat going over to claim her inheritance. she meets th=
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desert shack. complications ensue because Matthew imagines that she and Terrnoe
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a nIcely stylised performance. comes ofT best.) Apart from a very few

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her three suitors drifts through its first reels on shipboard steam \eft
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well-made film, and made at the lowest price at which a feature-
(1951)

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length technic olor film has ever been made. This last factor
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a result. the studio is letting me try my hand at a technic olor

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picture on the same operati onal scale, Thc Firc Ship, which
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ProduCli on Company : Universa l-Interna tional. Producer : ,I film is invested with uncomm on delicac y of touch and detail.
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Val Lewton. Director:

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Hugo Fregones e. Script: David Chandler . Based on a novel, Stolid Fregone se's hand, light yet precise. docs much to transfo rm

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at Spanish HOOf the
by Harry Brown. Director of Photogra phy: Charles P. Boyle. routine elemen ts of the screenp lay. (Fregon ese, restrict ed by
Colour Proceu:; the
Technico lor. Editor: Milton Carruth. Art Directors : Bernard
5395,0 00 budget, manage s to suggest actions without showin g

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Herzbrun . Roben
Clatwort hy. SCI Dccorato rs: Russell A. Gausman . A. Roland them

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Fields. Music: Hans - a tonic discreti on for this usually demons trative genre.)
Salter. Coslumc s: Bill Thomas. Sound: Leslie l. Carey. Glenn And

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f'1
E. Anderson .
h even the familia r charact ers are develop ed beyond the usual limits
Stephen McNally (Sall/ Lecds). Co!een Gray (Sally). Willard
of
F:n.i ,fi3i i ?g f p:-r.la
\If convent ion. The gamble r's motives , for instance , are at all

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Parker (.Ioe Maddl'1fl.

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Arthur Shields (RClwcl1 d Gri(JiIl). James Griffith (Lt. Glidden). times
Armando Slh'cstrc ;.• . :. suspect . even to himself ; the upstand ing mayor takes advanta ge

i:
(PcdroP clcr). Georgia Backus (Mrs K('(m). Clarence Muse of his
(.Iehu). Ruthehm position to get rid of Sam, his romant ic rival; the ministe r, basicall
Stevens (Bell), Cordess) . James Best (Bel'l Keoll). Chinto Gusman ya

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(Chacho) . Ray
good man. shows himself to be a bigot.

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Bennett (Mr Keon).
The film is sprinkl ed with a number of persona l details.

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Filmed in the Universa l Studios. Hollywo od. and on location. The
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August-S eptemba' opening sequenc e promin ently features a kitten, and again a

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1950. First shown in U.S.A .. May 1951: G.B .. June 1951. Running
time: 75 min. man has an importa nt role. in this case as the Man Friday of the black
town
Sam Leeds. a gambler forced to shoot a man in self-defen ce. brothel. The trapped townsm en sing an old Welsh song to
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is ordered to l~a\'e!be build

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town of Spanish Boot by Joe Madden. the mayor. Sam's reluctant morale. after which Sam does magic tricks to divert the childre
departure IS hatlt'd
by an attack from Mescaler o Apaches. Joe is killed in the attack. i his girl Sally sings 'The Bells of St Clemen ts' (which Kim Hunter
n and
=.-

and Sam pro.-es

himself a hero hefore the town is rescued by the arrival of the had
Cavalry. J already sung in Thc SCI'cl1th Victim). There are several chilling

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sequenc es reminis cent of Lcwton 's best work: the discove ry

g
Apachc Drums is the best of Lewton 's post-RK O product ions.

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of a
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He
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young scout's body in the town well, the mirage like appeara nce

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was happy working again on a low budget effort w.ith a rather of a
sm~

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unit, and describ ed his experie nce at Univers al 111 a letter party of Apache s from a broad expanse of wastela nd, and especia
to his lly,
mother and sister: 'The little Wester n film I made is almost ready the climact ic sequenc e in which the townsp eople, trapped
in the

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lOr church. are attackc d by Apache s leaping through the high, narrow
preview . The studio is extreme ly well satisfied with it and it was

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a lot window s. (In a lovely, cost-sav ing touch, we are made aware
of fun to make. I enjoyed workin g with the director . that
Hugo ~
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Spanish Boot is burning only by the fireligh t reflectio ns through

ï t:
Fregon ese. who is an extreme ly nice and able young ~an .. We
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tell until we try it out on them whcthe r or not the publIc wIll lIke these window s.)
picture . but we do know that it is, at the very least, an extraord inarily ~,:.
:
a

the Apachc Drums is Lewton 's only colour film, and the use of colour

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iJ is admirab le. The film is colour- styled (rare in low budget Wester
ns)

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170
171

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 in neutral tones - hufT. hluegrey and hrown - with added accents of

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Val Lewton's Credits

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red at crucial moments like the ambush of the dance-hall girls. When

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the Apache warriors break into the church in the final sequence. their
(compiled by Lewton himself in 1937)

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bodies arc painted electric shades of red. yellow and green. an

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efTective expressionist touch.
Unfortunately. the film is vitiated by some uncharacteristically
smug racial preachment. in particular an episode in which Sam
insists on buying an Apache a beer in defiance of frontier law. and by
an absurd delis ex machiI/o cavalry rescue in the worst Hollywood
tradition. (Lewton knew this was awful. but it amused him.) Still.
apart from these flaws and some clumsily written and played lo\'~
scenes. /jpochc f)/'lI/IlS manages to hold lip today quite nicely.

:'i7.
Verse:

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Panlher Skin alld Grapes (Poynton Press. 1923)

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ImprO\'cd Road (Collins and Sons. Edinburgh. 1925. Never published in the
United States)

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The Cossack Sword (Collins and Sons. 1926. Published bv the Mohawk Press in

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the United States in 1931 as Pope ,,(Glory) ,

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The Fale/iil SIal' !lll/rder (Mohawk Press. 193 I. Published under the pseudonym
H. C. Kerkow)

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Whcre Ihe Cohra Sil1r.;s (Macaulay Publishing Co .. 1932. Under pseudonym

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Cosmo Forbes)

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So Bcd of Ifer O"'n (Vanguard Press. I 932. Sold to Paramount: made as No Man

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of Her 0"'11 with Clark Gable and Carole Lombard)

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FOllr Wires (Vanguard Press. 1932. Under pseudonym Carlos Keith)
}'earlr Lease (Vanguard Press. 1933)

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A l.allr.;hing Woman (Vanguard Press. 1933. Under pseudonym Carlos Keith.

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Sold to Phil Goldstone)

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This Fool Passiol1 (Vanguard Press. 1934. Under pseudonym Carlos Keith)

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(~Iy books have been surprisingly sllccessful in foreign countries. ;\11 mv novels
have been published in England by Hutchinson Co. or Collins and Sons.'No lied
of Her 0"'11 was translated into nine languages and published in twelve difTerent

- -
countries. It was particularly popular in Germany. where it appeared as Rosr
.\faholley: Her Depression. It was also included on the list of books burned by
Hitler's order.)

"on·fiction:

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The Greell Fiar.; of .Ie had (John Day and Collins and Sons. 1926)

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The WOl11en of Casanol'Q (;\ John Day pamphlet. 1927)
The Thealre of Casallova (;\ John Day pamphlet, 192 7)

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The ('Ilemployed IVorkillr.; Girl ill l/7e Prese/11 Crisis (;\ John Day pamphlet.
1931)

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172 173
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 (These pamphlets were 40.000 word hook lets which sold for a dollar and W'ert

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issued hy John Day as an experiment which has now been abandoned.)

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Malluol alld lIistorr or C())flletics (McGraw Hill Publishing Co .. 1930. L'n~

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a E E=r:ii't==Z;
pseudonym Sidney Valentine)

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Mal"azine Contributions:

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I have contributed fiction. articles and verse to the following magazines:

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Hears!"s C(lSl11oroliton: "edboo~: Adl'entllrc: ROl11ance (now defunct): BWJ.

Ê-ÈiËË${Ë ë€l{ ÈË}s9TiË Ëir:É:Ëi

grafJhr (now defunct); Little R('riell' (now defunct); A merican MerCUri': T\( I
Melllor: The A I11Nican; Nell' York Tilllcs Magazine Sectiall: ,vel" ro<t
Hornillg World Editoriall'age

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(In aiL I think I have published about a hundred magazine pieces, and would Ii\:.r

EaEïi :i=ziz if:iZ-+? 1:,;i:iâ:;:

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to point out especially a two-part article on Madame Walewska which appeared D

Ë
The Mentor and which was the first written about her for an American magaziDt..

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Sam Behrman told me that these two articles were of more help to him thm
anything clse when he was doing what research he did on the producticllll
Wall'll'ska.) ;;
Radio:
The 1,lIck O(.!OOll Christorhcr

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(This was a program sponsored by the Hocker Flour Company. broadCZll

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three times a week for thirty thrcc consecutive weeks over WOR and fro::m
twenty-six local stations by transcription. Variety listcd this as the second mOlt
popular r('mantic serial of the year 1933. Pauline Lord. Roselyn Green. Hekt:! Isle of the Dead: Katherine Emery. Ellen Drew and Lewton shadow effects
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Brown and Lou Telle~cn were featured.)

was reviewed by the London Times: the first time English review space had been
Newspaper Work: gIven to the novelizatIon of a motion picture. This novelization is mentioned in
t,
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iZ:Eit;zv'==, i;=' z2tEz'

At the agc of sixteen. I worked for one summer on the Darien-Stam(ord Reri<"'_ two English textbooks on the modern novel. in the section dealing with the novel

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The next summer I worked on the Bridgeport Herald. Worked for DOll2lij Il1 Its relation to the cinema.

Henderson Clarke for four months on the Nell' York Mornillg World. \\'or\;~
three weeks on the NClI' York Americal/. Worked two months for King feature-s_H Picture Credits:
È

was fired from each of the papers listed above and acquired a reputation as one cf In collaboration with Mr William 1I. Wright and Mr Jacques Tourneur, J worked
it=:

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the world's worst reporters. Inaccuracy seemed to be my besetting sin a.');f on the hlstoncal sequences of A Tale or /\1'0 Cities.
impudence - which I could nevcr understand ran it a close second. I was fir~ Wrote treatment of Taras Hufba. by' Gogo\.
i=r7

from the World for insulting Henry Ford hy asking him for a million dollars.. I Wrote screen treatment of The 1'rill('e al/d the f'alil'cr (unread. 'unwept.
still think I was right.) unhonored and unsung').

Pornography:
Publicity Work:
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}'asminc
Six years with Howard Dietz at MGM. While working with Dietz. I did the
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Sunday features for the N_ }-. Times. the World and the N. Y. American. (This is said to be one of the most beautifully illustrated books ever published.
and retails for S 75.00 a copy.)
Also. I inaugurated and was in charge of the serialisation and radio depa~·
F 7=Â,è

Crushellskoya
ments for Dietz. This required me to write. with the assistance of a nineteen-y=-
old boy. a fulllcngth serialization of 50.000 words each week of the year and aoo (I edited the translation from the Russian. I have a beautiful picture of this
make a radio dramati7ation of every other film M-G--M produced. About DOt- book t~ken from the Nell' York Dail.!' MirraI'. showing it being shovelled into
tenth of the seriaJi7ations were published in book form by Grossett and Dun\:!l;' the poilce department furnace.)
and other reprint firms.
One of these. the serialization of The Rogue Song. when printed in Eng\.a,~
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F

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174 175
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