Customer Reviews

The Val Lewton Horror Collection (Cat People / The Curse of the Cat People / I Walked with a Zombie / The Body Snatcher / Isle of the Dead / Bedlam / The Leopard Man / The Ghost Ship / The Seventh Victim / Shadows in the Dark)

5 star:		(49)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Oh, Wow! I just was doing a happy dance over Hammer's release of their films I have long wanted and now here is the ultimate Val Lewton Horror Collection. Jacques Tourneur and Lewton created very special horror films. They were thinking man's horror film. Film in glorious black and white where shadows were long and dark (never achieved in colour films because of the bright lights needed), these films are moody, sinister, dark tales that whisper from the shadows instead of screaming boo!

"The Cat People" is more familiar to most people. This deals with a female who is a marmaluke (in Scotland we call them Greymalkins or Cait Sidhe), a female who can turn into a cat. The sequel "Curse of the Cat People" was slightly oddball. A sequel and yet some of it seems off. In the first film, Kent Smith who plays Oliver Reed (joke there!!) falls for Simone Simon is Irena who is a marmaluke. Later, as her nature reveals itself Smith turns to Jane Randolf (Alice), sending Simone in to a rage. In Curse of the Cat People, Oliver and Jane have married and now have a daughter. She is a little odd and lonely and suddenly starts seeing Irena's ghost. Then an old lady and her daughter come into her life, both recognizing the child as a "cat person" EXCUSE ME? did something get left on the cutting room floor. Irena died. The child is Alice's so WHY is the child touched by the Cat People. This is never explained well. Still, it's a very moody film and is enjoyable.

One of my Fav films of all times is the silly titled "I Walked With a Zombie" This is Tourneur and Lewton adapting Bronte's tale into a modern day version of Jane Eyre! It dark, moody and simply a classic.

The great Karloff turns up in another Lewton adaptation - this time Robert Louis Stevenson's The Body Snatcher", though not directed by Tourneur but another director I really respect Robert Wise. A young doctor needs a body for his medical experiment and Karloff is more than willing to get the - one way or another!

The Leopard Man was again the teaming of Lewton and Tourneur and shows horror can be set in many places. This is in the desert resort town in Mexico. For a publicity stunt, an agent gets his talented star to make an entrance with a leopard on a leash. A jealousy rival scares the cat and it flees. Later a girl is killed. Then another. But it's it the cat or something more sinister?

The Ghost Ship has the mysterious captain who may not have both oars in the water. Not Lewton's best effort, but still very enjoyable.

Karloff is back in "Isle of the Dead" and "Bedlam". In the first, Karloff plays Greek general traveling with others. Soon the plague is following them so Karloff quarantines the house. If that is not enough worries. Karloff becomes convinced one girl is a vampire. St. Mary's of Bethlehem Asylum in 1761 London is the setting for Bedlam. Karloff gives a super performance as the head doctor who controls all.

The Seventh Victim is another great film that is often overlooked. A devil cult is thriving in Greenwich Village. Six people vowed to secrecy. The six are now dead. And now a new member the seventh of the group is missing. A young Kim Hunter comes asearching for her sister the seventh missing member.

Movies for cold, dark nights when the wind howls!

This new set from Warner Home Video will contain the exact same titles as the currently sold Val Lewton Collection except there will be a documentary - "Martin Scorsese Presents Val Lewton Man in the Shadows". The documentary will be available separately for just under twenty dollars for people who already own the other five discs as part of original Val Lewton Collection.

Val Lewton is not a well known name in the horror genre for most people. Everyone knows about Universal's reputation in horror during the 1930's and 1940's even though, today, most of those early monster films have dated rather badly, though they still retain an atmosphere that makes them worth watching. Lewton came to RKO in the 1940's and had a very brief output of high quality films. He was pretty much given ready-made titles and his job was to turn a profit for the studio, not make art. Strangely enough, though, he managed to do both and came up with a series of films that retain an interesting psychological aspect even today. Thus he is often remembered as the producer of "the thinking person's horror films".

If you haven't already bought the Val Lewton Horror Collection, wait and get this expanded one. If you have, you can either pick up the documenary separately, or you can just watch the documentary when it premieres on Turner Classic Movies on January 14th at 8PM (EST). From the Warner Press Release: "Scorsese and writer/director Kent Jones take the viewer on a journey into the life and psyche of the man who left his mark in film history through the creation of such timeless thrillers as I Walked with a Zombie, Cat People and The Body Snatcher, to name but a few. The new documentary features insightful analysis, on-screen interviews with Lewton collaborators, and, best of all, an abundance of classic Lewton film clips."

All of the films in this set are excellent, for reasons described in numerous other reviews on Amazon. The new documentary hosted by Martin Scorsese also provides a nice, atmospheric recap of Lewton's life and career.

But be forewarned -- the documentary contains a LOT of very serious spoilers for almost all of the best films in this set! So, enjoy the documentary by all means, but do so *after* you watch all the films. Happy viewing!

Whereas in the 30s, low-budget studio Universal could only establish any success (with rare exception) with horror films, it was the 1940s when the brilliant producer Val Lewton re-invented the genre with a series of nine modestly budgeted films, most of which remain among the most highly-regarded in the genre.

I was fortunate enough to find an early copy of this boxed set today, and was bowled over by what I've seen so far. The transfers are the best I've ever seen, with wonderful commentaries (the best coming from Greg Mank and Tom Weaver) and
a terrific bonus documentary created especially for this collection.

Not just talking heads and clips, the Lewton documentary is expertly crafted.

DO NOT PASS THIS COLLECTION UP! I'm glad I didn't.

Yeah, compared to the horror movies from the late 50's (Hammer Studio productions and Psycho) to today's in-your-face horror, these films are like strange dreams; but to daydreamers like me they are a wondrous haven from reality and reality-based TV/movies. As long as a picture says a thousand words, and famous art is to be viewed and savored again and again, then that's where you'll find me on restless weekend nights with my provisions and my remote, steeped in the wistful tranquility these classics bring. I'm truly looking forward to these gems. I only hope Warner sticks to its release date. Happy Halloween - 2005!

I am still the proud owner of the Val Lewton box set on Laser. And I approached the DVD release of same with great optimism. Wow-what a let down. Suffice it to say that whatever/whichever was the source for this dvd release--it was/is bizarre. The prints of all these Lewton releases are incredibly inferior to the laser versions. Full of speckles, static, fadings and the like--this is a set that sets a new low for digital re mastering. If any. These are allegedly classic repros from the originals. But they are not. One only has to match the dvd versions against the LASER DISC versions--and the proof is in the pudding. Technically the source material seems to be Grade Z. As if the production team went to the vhs versions of these films. What happened? At any rate--one is supposed to say that WOW how great to have these Lewton films on DVD. Nope. I am waiting for the real digital versions. Anyone who wants to invest in this early set--You are welcome. But be warned. Your memory of Lewton will be destroyed by these prints.

Long awaited Val Lewton collection should be a very welcome arrival on DVD.The nine films that make up Lewton's horror ouvre are a must for any serious fan of the genre, but what about these prints?
Prints used in this collection are uniformly poor. Obviously no restoration was attempted at all on these films. The RKO Collection vhs tape from the nineties of "Bedlam" looks better than the print in this collection. All of the films in the box set show more than their age-they show wear and poor handling to the point of being distracting to the viewer.
I was thrilled when the set was announced, but honestly now I wish I had held off on buying it and just transferred my vhs copies to disc. I would have been no worse off. While the commentaries are always a bonus I could have done without them and spent my money more wisely.
If you haven't seen these films they are definitely a must. But be aware-fancy box set or not-they are evidently still being relegated to the 'spook show' ghetto.

I love the atmospheric work done by Lewton, Robson, Tourneur, Wise, et al. But I'm disappointed in these DVDs.

Worst of all, I cannot even watch 'The Body Snatcher' beyond the first 15 minutes because a defect in the disc prevents it from being played. This has happened on multiple drives, and the disc was never mishandled. Yet fine scratches and pits are visible on this disc, and to a lesser extent on other discs in the set. Plus, all these DVD discs are surprisingly flimsy (like the very cheapest of CD-R discs).

So far I have viewed 3 full movies using these DVDs, and during each one, the drive has "stuck" at least once during playback -- though no intervention was necessary to continue playback. (I'm not counting 'The Body Snatcher' which required that the disc be ejected.)

Aside from the physical defects, I am also disappointed in the quality of the "restoration" -- but I do not believe that all the imaging is of equally poor quality across the discs. As I recall, 'Seventh Victim' and 'Walked with a Zombie' looked quite good. But 'Bedlam' looked and sounded awful, and what little I experienced of the 'Body Snatcher' was also very disappointing in both appearance and sound. In fact, the VHS I viewed years ago might have looked better than this DVD (at least the VHS was playable all the way through).

The trailers look even worse. Perhaps the trailers were damaged because they were circulated and screened more than the actual feature films. Or maybe the feature films were slightly restored -- but I doubt that.

I also doubt if the manufacturer bothered to contact all the possible sources to find the cleanest prints of these films.

This is a terrific collection that I just purchased. I have always considered Cat People and The Body Snatcher to be two of my favorite classic horror movies. I am just getting aquainted with some of the other titles in the collection. The main reason that I'm writing this review is for more technical reasons. The DVD transfer are good for most of the films, but I am disappointed with the transfer of The Body Snatcher. I find it to be too dark compared with the copy I recorded off Turner Classic Movies recently. The Turner Classic Movie copy is superior to the DVD copy. Perhaps my copy is defective, but I find that unlikely. Despite my disappointment with The Body Snatcher, the Val Lewton Collection is an excellent collection, and it is a definite bargain.

Finally, the classic horror of Lewton on DVD! Nine films on five discs. Kudos to Warner Home Video for what will DEFINITELY be one the MUST OWN classic horror DVD sets for 2005!

FILMS:
Cat People (1942)
Ghost Ship (1943)
I Walked With a Zombie (1943)
The Leopard Man (1943)
The Seventh Victim (1943)
Curse of the Cat People (1944)
The Body Snatcher (1945)
Isle of the Dead (1945)
Bedlam (1946)

EXTRAS:
All New Documentary: Shadows in the Dark -The Val Lewton Legacy
Trailers