The Seventh Victim (1943)

Director:

Mark Robson

Writers:

DeWitt Bodeen (story)
Charles O'Neal (story)

Release Date:

21 agosto 1943 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Mystery

Frase comercial:

ROBBED OF THE WILL TO LOVE! (original half-sheet poster-style A)

Plot:

A woman in search of her missing sister uncovers a Satanic cult in New York's Greenwich Village, and finds that they may have something to do with her sibling's random disappearance.

Plot Keywords:

Cult | Satanic Cult | Cafe | Chase | Dead Body

Awards:

1 nomination

Comentarios de los usuarios:

Moody, atmospheric and unsettling

Cast

Tom Conway	...	Doctor Louis Judd
Jean Brooks	...	Jacqueline Gibson
Isabel Jewell	...	Frances Fallon
Kim Hunter	...	Mary Gibson
Evelyn Brent	...	Natalie Cortez
Erford Gage	...	Jason Hoag, Poet
Ben Bard	...	Mr. Brun
Hugh Beaumont	...	Gregory Ward
Chef Milani	...	Mr. Jacob Romari
Marguerita Sylva	...	Mrs. Bella Romari

También conocida como:

The 7th Victim (USA) (promotional title)

Duración:

71 min

País:

USA

Idioma:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sonido:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Clasificación:

Australia:M | USA:Approved (PCA #9370)

Company:

RKO Radio Pictures

Trivialidades:

The original story for the film (outlined by DeWitt Bodeen) was to be about an orphaned heroine caught in a web of murder against a background of the Signal Hills oil wells. If she didn't find out the killer's identity in time, she would become his seventh victim. Producer Val Lewton wanted the story to go in a different direction and called in a second writer to help reshape it.

Goofs:

Factual errors: In the beginning of the movie we see a quote from John Donne. "I run from death, and death meets me as fast, And all my pleasures are like yesterday." The movie attributes the quote to John Donne's Holy Sonnet #7. But it is actually from Holy Sonnet #1.

Quotes:

Nancy: Jacqueline, you've spoken so often of ending it all I can't understand why this should be so difficult for you. You have only to drink a little.
Esther Redi, Jacqueline's Partner: Yes, Jacqueline. You were always talking suicide; ending your life when you wanted to.
Jacqueline Gibson: Yes, when *I* wanted to.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Val Lewton: The Man in the Shadows (2007)

Moody, atmospheric and unsettling

No surprise that Val Lewton was involved with The Seventh Victim, his fingerprints can be seen on every frame. Like Cat People and I Walked With A Zombie, the atmosphere oozes from the screen, although Tournier was not involved here. Young Kim Hunter tries to find her sister, only to find she has fallen into the clutches of a group of Satanists. Oddly, the Satanists are presented as a gentile bunch, no raving lunatics here, they all seem disturbingly sane. There are some magnificent images here. Hunter breaking into her sisters room to find nothing but a chair and a noose, a creepy shower scene that pre-dates Psycho and the extraordinary downbeat ending. A grim little chiller that remains unsettlingly plausible throughout.