They say creativity thrives under limitations, and ambitious film producer Val Lewton's genius is a case in point. Given the seemingly impossible mission of matching Universal's high-end horror movie machine with RKO's hand-me-down sets, contractually-obligated lurid movie titles and a severe budget ceiling, Lewton produced a slate of nine pictures in rapidfire succession that forever altered the face of the horror film. He and his trusted collaborators (directors Jacques Tourneur, Robert Wise and Mark Robson) his trusted collaborators (directors Jacques Tourneur, Robert Wise and Mark Robson) reveled in the relative freedom the B-movie milieu fostered, and crafted horror milestones that, in their quiet simplicity, reach a hypnotic level of otherworldliness. In Lewton's world, one is never sure what is dream and what is reality, as his films are the halfway point between darkness and light, the seen and the unseen--the soothing and the terrifying.
10/4 @ 7:30pm / SERIES: val lewton Cat People
Lewton's first film for RKO, and the first to set his signature "less is more" tone (a solution to his problem of meager budgets) was the wildly successful Cat People. The ravishing Simone Simon plays Irena, a young artist infatuated with drawing panthers at the local zoo, who by chance meets naval architect Oliver (Kent Smith). The two form a fast enraptured bond, then marry. He quickly casts doubts on the whole affair, though, when Irena reveals she's descended from an ancient devil-worshipping tribe, and might transform into a deadly panther when sexually awakened-- threatening the future of their amorous efforts. Whether Irena is mentally disturbed or is in fact a cat woman is in constant question, as the film's murderous attacks happen in luxurious shadow, and we never see the cat or a transformation. An amazing milestone in film horror, Cat People was only the beginning of Lewton's legacy.
Dir. Jacques Tourneur, 1942, 35mm, 73 min.
Watch the Cat People trailer!
Tickets - $10
10/11 @ 7pm / SERIES: val lewton The Ghost Ship with
I Walked With a Zombie
Unseen for a period of almost fifty years due to litigation, The Ghost Ship is unique among horror films-- it's a deeply affecting psychological study on the effects of fear in close quarters. Third-mate Merriam (Russell Wade), initially befriended by Captain Stone (a superb Richard Dix), calls to the crew's attention that Stone's deteriorating mental health is a danger to them all--or is it merely a danger to Merriam? The night's second feature, I Walked With A Zombie, is the most hallucinatory work made under Lewton's watch, loosely based on (what else?) "Jane Eyre". The film's elegant, haunting depiction of West Indian voodoo rites, along with its hypnotic pulse-laden score and a Lynchian refusal to give easy explanations, make for a pleasantly unsettling experience. The Ghost Ship Dir. Mark Robson, 1943, 35mm, 69 min. I Walked With A Zombie Dir. Jacques Tourneur, 1943, 35mm, 69 min.
Watch the I Walked With A Zombie trailer!
Tickets - $10
10/18 @ 6:30pm / SERIES: val lewton The Body Snatcher with
Isle of the Dead
At the end of his RKO career, Lewton teamed up with Boris Karloff and made these two excellent period pieces. In The Body Snatcher, Karloff is a conniving graverobber who enters into a Faustian deal with a med school anatomy professor who needs fresh lab materials. Karloff shines supreme as an unscrupulous, sadistic leech in a Lewton film uncharacteristically driven more by plot than by atmospherics. A morbid mood does indeed dominate Isle of the Dead. This time Karloff is a harsh-tempered General stuck in an island quarantine, while the local villagers slowly succumb to what is either plague or the work of a vampiric spirit. Death is routinely invoked throughout the film, as each character works through their own fear of mortality, including an increasingly freaked-out Karloff who lies in wait for his visit from the monster. The Body Snatcher Dir. Robert Wise, 1945, 35mm, 73 min. Isle of the Dead Dir. Mark Robson, 1945, 35mm, 72 min. Tickets - $10
10/25 @ 7pm / SERIES: val lewton Curse of the Cat People with
The Leopard Man
When assigned a quickie Cat People sequel, Lewton characteristically sidestepped RKO's intentions and crafted a continuation of the story in name only, instead crafting a satisfying and charming melodrama centered around the ambitious imagination of a lonely six-year-old girl. First-time director Robert Wise's delicate fairy tale touches perfectly suit the child's visions of her imaginary friend, making Curse of the Cat People a miniature, dreamy classic. Jacques Tourneur teamed up again with Lewton for another feline menace, The Leopard Man. Someone is offing folks in a small town, and everyone thinks the killer is a leopard that's escaped its keepers--but the deaths are too strange to have been committed by a cat, AND they continue once the leopard's remains are also found. A simply and expertly executed visceral proto-slasher film. Curse of the Cat People Dir. Robert Wise, 1944, 35mm, 70 min. The Leopard Man Dir. Jacuqes Tourneur, 1943, 35mm, 66 min.
Cat People
The Ghost Ship
Curse of the Cat People
