OCTOBER 10: Val Lewton & his Legacy - 7.00pm
I Walked with a Zombie
(Jacques Tourneur) 1943 USA 69 mins PG
I Walked with a Zombie
(Jacques Tourneur) 1943 USA 69 mins PG
A young girl in a somnambulistic state is subjected by her dedicated nurse (Frances Dee) to a terrifying voodoo ceremony. Drawn from a meshing of newspaper articles on Haitian Voodoo with an evocative transformation of Jane Eyre, director Jacques Tourneur & master producer Val Lewton's combination of restrained horror & climatic shocks create a terrifying journey into the spine chilling world of voodoo. With Tom Conway. Imported 35mm print.
OCTOBER 10 - Val Lewton & His Legacy - 8:10 pm
Cat People
Jacques Tourneur (1942) 73 mins M
Irena (Simone Simon) has just been married & is terrified of touching her husband because of the ancient Serbian family curse, connecting her with the mysterious mountain cat people. Produced by Val Lewton on a small budget Tourneur's masterpiece became RKO's top grosser for 1942 & an instant horror cult classic. Ravishing noir cinematography by Nicholas Musuraca adds menace to DeWitt Bodeen's thoughtful script. Imported 35mm print.
OCTOBER 10: Val Lewton & His Legacy - 9:35pm
The Leopard Man
Jacques Tourneur (1943) 66 mins
The Leopard Man
Jacques Tourneur (1943) 66 mins
Is it an escaped leopard or something more sinister that is responsible for killings in a Mexican border town? A mystery thriller by Cornell Woolrich is the basis for a disturbingly haunting film noir notable for the expressive use of sound and off-screen space and pools of light in darkness. A fascinating by-product of the embryonic noir genre. As the title of Woolrich's source material suggests (Black Alibi), and although truncated, the film is a faithful adaptation, the leopard is merely a black alibi: not only for the killer, but also for the human greed, ambition & lust that preys on the world.
Note: The Leopard Man is screening in place of The Blood, due to shipping problems from Portugal.