The first of seven spare, dreamlike thrillers made by producer Val Lewton for RKO in the 40s. Some of those that followed were I Walked with a Zombie (1943), The Seventh Victim (1943), The Curse of the Cat People (1944) and The Body Snatcher (1945).
Lewton was one of the few producer-auteurs in film history. His films were crafted by him from start to finish and were infused with his personal interests, philosophy and autobiographical details.
As seen in the images below, Lewton's films surely kindled film noir as much as Lang, Welles and pulp novels.
The Russian-born Lewton and the French director of his first three productions, Jacques Tourneur, layered Cat People and its successors with a European sophistication, existential dread, old-world folklore, Freudian theory, and the sobering implications of World War II.
Lewton is the paradigm of the artist functioning in the commercial world. No one expected anything but disposable B programmers from these films, but Lewton seized the opportunity to make something potent and memorable anyway, and succeeded.
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