MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

A Val Lewton Production about a nurse who is hired to treat a voodoo-sick wife on a Caribbean island in I Walked with a Zombie (Frances Dee, Tom Conway. 1943/69 min.), and a 19th-century doctor makes a deal with a sinister character to get bodies for his experiments in Body Snatcher (Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi. 1945/77 min.). B&w/NR/fullscreen.

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 (Pre-1954 Standard)
• Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
• Screen: Black and White
• Subtitle: English, Spanish, French
• Features:
  • Commentary by film historians Kim Newman and Steve Jones on I Walked With a Zombie and film historian Steve Haberman with director Robert Wise on The Body Snatcher

AWARDS

• Telluride Film Festival

•     Film Presented - 1990

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Director:

  Jacques Tourneur, Robert Wise

• Producer:

  Val Lewton

• Screenwriter:

  Curt Siodmak, Ardel Wray, Carlos Keith, Philip MacDonald

• Cinematographer:

  Roy Hunt, Robert de Grasse

• Musical Direction/Supervision:

  Constantin Bakaleinikoff

• Composer (Music Score):

  Roy Webb

• Editor:

  Mark Robson, J.R. Whittredge

• Art Director:

  Albert S. D'Agostino, Al Fields, Walter E. Keller, Darrell Silvera

• Executive Producer:

  Jack J. Gross

• Set Designer:

  Al Fields, Darrell Silvera, John Sturtevant

• Costume Designer:

  Renie

• Sound/Sound Designer:

  John C. Grubb

• First Assistant Director:

  William Dorfman, Harry Scott

• Short Story Author:

  Inez Wallace, Robert Louis Stevenson

REVIEWS:

• Though the earlier Universal horror films of James Whale (Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein) and Tod Browning (Dracula, Freaks) are better-known, RKO's smaller-budgeted horror pictures produced by Val Lewton, including I Walked With a Zombie, have had perhaps a more lasting influence on American cinema. Relying on moody psychological terror rather than special effects, Zombie and its precursor, Cat People, are purely cinematic in building suspense through atmosphere. With these two films, director Jacques Tourneur proved himself most capable of bringing Lewton's vision to the screen. While Cat People is revered more than any other Lewton film, Zombie, despite its garish title, is every bit as mesmerizing. Essentially the story of Jane Eyre with some voodoo thrown in, the film has a remarkably rich, evocative visual style. Lewton would spend a few more successful years making horror films at RKO before breaking away to try his hand (mostly unsuccessfully) at more romantic mainstream movies. ~ Brendon Hanley, Rovi
• The Body Snatcher features one of Boris Karloff's best and most sinister performances, though it is the lesser known and lower credited Henry Daniell who spends more time on screen. Bela Lugosi, billed as Karloff's co-star, has a minor supporting role as Karloff's assistant. Despite (or perhaps because of) his brief screen time, Lugosi's performance is among the best of his career. Though he would continue to make films until his death in 1956, Body Snatcher is the last of Lugosi's "serious" horror films; his subsequent work would mostly devolve into parody. The production values are scant, as was the case with many RKO efforts from the 1940s, but producer Val Lewton (who also wrote the screenplay under the pseudonym Carlos Keith) and director Robert Wise create an eerie atmosphere that enhances the story. The film proved too strong for British censors, who kept Body Snatcher from being available in that country in its original form for more than fifty years. ~ Richard Gilliam, Rovi