Jacques Tourneur: The Cinema of NightfallAt least three of director Jacques Tourneur's films--Cat People, I Walked with a Zombie and The Leopard Man--are recognized as horror classics. Yet his contributions to these films are often minimized by scholars, with most of the credit going to the films' producer, Val Lewton. A detailed examination of the director's full body of work reveals that those elements most evident in the Tourneur-Lewton collaborations--the lack of monsters and the stylized use of suggested violence--are equally apparent in Tourneur's films before and after his work with Lewton. Mystery and sensuality were hallmarks of his style, and he possessed a highly artistic visual and aural style. This insightful critical study examines each of Tourneur's films, as well as his extensive work on MGM shorts (1936-1942) and in television. What emerges is evidence of a highly coherent directorial style that runs throughout Tourneur's works. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Maurice Tourneur | 13 |
I | 20 |
II | 24 |
French Films 19311934 | 32 |
SecondUnit Work 19341938 | 36 |
MGM Shorts 19361942 | 39 |
They All Come Out 1939 | 60 |
The Flame and the Arrow 1950 | 177 |
Circle of Danger 1951 | 183 |
Anne of the Indies 1951 | 189 |
Way of a Gaucho 1952 | 198 |
Appointment in Honduras 1953 | 209 |
Stranger on Horseback 1955 | 218 |
Wichita 1955 | 221 |
Great Day in the Morning 1956 | 229 |
Nick Carter Master Detective 1939 and Phantom Raiders 1940 | 64 |
Doctors Dont Tell 1941 | 70 |
Cat People 1942 | 72 |
I Walked with a Zombie 1943 | 85 |
The Leopard Man 1943 | 98 |
Days of Glory 1944 | 108 |
Experiment Perilous 1944 | 112 |
Reward Unlimited 1944 | 123 |
Canyon Passage 1946 | 125 |
Out of the Past 1947 | 138 |
Berlin Express 1948 | 150 |
Easy Living 1949 | 158 |
Stars in My Crown 1950 | 164 |