Val Lewton: the Reality of Terror"A revered name to all horror film enthusiasts, Val Lewton is remembered chiefly for the magnificent series of low-budget films he produced at RKO between 1942 and 1946. Saddled with titles such as Cat People, I Walked with a Zombie, The Body Snatcher, and Curse of the Cat People, his films were subtle psychological studies, literate elegant, and reliant on suggestion rather than shock effect. They have since come to be regarded as minor classics, and in this biography of Lewton--Russian by origin and a newphew of the great Nazimova--Joel Siegel demonstrates through Lewton's notes and letters, and the testimony of his collaborators, that although they were actually direted by such tyro film-makers as Jacques Tourneur, Robert Wise, and Mark Robson, the inspiration behind these films, which restored its lettres de noblesse to a genre which had fallen into desrepute since the great days of James Whale and Tod Browning in the thirties, was purely Lewton's"--Back cover |
Contents
the haunted eyes of Jean Brooks frontispiece Val Lewton 19041951 page | 7 |
Cat People 1942 | 101 |
Walked With a Zombie 1943 | 107 |
Copyright | |
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actress Agee Alan Napier Apache Drums Ardel Wray Art Directors Bakaleinikoff Bedlam Ben Bard Betsy Body Snatcher Boris Karloff budget Captain characters Curse D'Agostino dark Darrell Silvera Dead death DeWitt Bodeen Director of Photography Dr Judd Elizabeth Russell film-making film's finally frightened Ghost Ship girl Hollywood horror Irena Isle Jacqueline Jacques Tourneur Jason Jean Brooks Jessica John Josef Mischel Julia Kent Smith Koerner Leopard MacFarlane Mademoiselle Fifi managed Mark Robson Mary Miss mother and sister murder Nazimova never Nicholas Musuraca night Nina novel Oliver Palladists Paramount picture play problem Production Company RKO Studios RKO-Radio Robert Wise Roy Webb Ruth Lewton scene screen screenplay script Selznick sequence Set Decorators Seventh Victim shooting shot shown in U.S.A. Simone Simon song St Sebastian story department tell Theatre told Tom Conway Val Lewton visual voodoo Walked woman writers Youth Runs Wild Zombie