The Seventh Victim (1943) User Reviews

Nice movie, shame about the script

[keith-moyes · 8/10 · 30 August 2006]

This is sometimes cited as Lewton's best movie. It has some of his best scenes and is his darkest and most despairing work. It is undoubtedly haunting, but exemplifies his one slight weakness: his poor story sense. He doesn't always tell a story coherently and doesn't always tell a coherent story.

I appreciate that scenes have been cut and that the screenplay makes slightly more sense than the movie, but it is still poorly constructed and needed a complete re-write to realise its full potential. There are a number of problems.

Firstly, whose story is this supposed to be? Initially there is no doubt. It is Mary's story.

It starts with her trying to trace her missing sister, Jacqueline. We follow her from school to New York. She meets her sister's business parter, whose assistant directs Mary to a restaurant where Jacqueline has been seen. Mary goes there and learns that Jacqueline took a room but has never lived in it. She enters the room and sees the noose. She goes to the missing persons bureau, where she is accosted by a private detective, August, who offers to help. She declines, but his suggestions lead her to check the morgue. There she learns that Gregory Ward has already asked after Jacqueline. This leads her to his office and their first meeting. Next, August turns up again and takes Mary to the perfume factory, where he is killed. She runs off but sees August's body being carried away on a subway train.

At this point we have followed Mary for about twenty five minutes and the movie has been told almost entirely from her viewpoint. We only know what she knows. However, we then cut to Louis Judd in Ward's office who says that Jacqueline is alive and under his protection. The perspective has abruptly changed and for the first time the audience is getting ahead of Mary.

Mary has a couple more important scenes but has less and less to do as the investigation proceeds. Increasingly, the detective work is done by the men. It is almost like a relay race: Mary passes the baton to Ward, who passes it to Jason Hoag, who passes it to Judd. Mary becomes ever more marginal to her own story.

Later the perspective abruptly switches again - from the pursuers to the cultists and we suddenly have a scene in which none of the protagonists is present and the audience gets information that they do not have. The baton has been passed again. Finally, when Jacqueline has been reunited with her sister, she takes over the story and the perspective switches to that of a character to whom we have only just been introduced.

These transitions are so ill-prepared that the movie just doesn't seem to flow properly. This is exacerbated by a related problem. Individual scenes do not follow through on what has gone before and the dialogue (frequently good) often misses the point. For example, why does Ward not immediately tell Mary he and Jacqueline are married. There is no plot reason for this. Why do they talk so little about Jacqueline? Why doesn't Mary ask any of the obvious questions? Again, after Mary has witnessed the death of August, why does she not immediately go to the police? This has changed everything. It is no longer a matter of tracing a missing person - it is murder. But no-one reacts as if there is now a real threat if they continue with their investigations.

Part of the problem is that Lewton is so afraid of of cliché that important points are barely hinted at. Hoag and Ward are both in love with Mary, but the movie is so reticent that this never registers and we would scarcely have guessed it without being told. This doesn't need dialogue; a simple look would have done, but everyone is so subdued that there is little for the audience to pick up on. Similarly, the cultists are treated so discreetly that we see nothing about them that might have attracted a sensation-seeker like Jacqueline or that might remotely justify her having to die.

I also feel that the screenplay is cluttered with surplus characters. Do we really need three private detectives? Couldn't the characters of Judd and Hoag have been combined in some way? What is the point of Hoag? Overall, there are seven different characters searching for Jacqueline (not to mention the cultists).

The flow of the story is also disrupted by the two big scare scenes that seem to have been inserted simply to allow the movie to be marketed as a horror/thriller. The death of August comes too early in the story and creates problems of plausibility thereafter. The stalking of Jacqueline seems to be there only because these 'walk in the dark' scenes had become a trademark of the RKO horror film. In context it makes no sense. She refuses to commit suicide, runs away from her assassin, meets Mimi and decides to commit suicide after all.

Finally, what the hell has been going on in Jacqueline's life? When did she go missing? Where has she been all the time? How many times did the cultists capture her? It is pointless going on. The screenplay is a hopeless muddle.

This is frustrating because a re-write could have fixed these problems and there is more than enough in the movie to show it could easily have been the masterpiece that some already think it is.

Have a drink

[AAdaSC · 7/10 · 14 May 2016]

Schoolgirl Kim Hunter (Mary) is called to the office of the Headmistress Ottola Nesmith and told that she can no longer stay on as a pupil as her sister Jean Brooks (Jacqueline) has stopped paying her fees. More than that, Brooks seems to have gone missing. So, Hunter goes off to find her. But Brooks isn't so easy to locate.

This film leaves you with scenes stuck in your mind, so it's good from that perspective. It is also well shot with an eerie atmosphere. Scenes that stand out include the sequence with Hunter and a detective exploring an office at night and the subsequent spooky train ride, a shower scene that will make you think of "Psycho" (1960) and pretty much every scene with Brooks. Fancy a drink? – no thanks but the pressure is on. And how about that ending? Wow, pretty bleak stuff. Especially coming after what had me cringing as we watched God and the Bible being used as a tool to counter Satan and his ways in an extremely simplistic way.

Amo, Amas, Amat, Amamus, Amatis, Amant – remember your Latin from school? The 'ablative absolute' and the 'ut' clause (use the subjunctive). Quamquam. This film also throws in some Latin and I'm glad to hear it. It takes the viewer back to a time sadly long gone as we hear schoolgirls reciting the verb 'Amo' – to love. The day will come when a generation will watch this film and not understand what language it is.

The cast are OK with Jean Brooks standing out. Her look suggests she is leader of the occult movement rather than a victim of it. And all of her scenes are quality – some genuinely scary, and all unworldly because of her appearance. That ending with the neighbour comes as a shock and leaves an eerie memory that will have you thinking about how we view life. It's an interesting film…and sad.

If I prefer to believe in satanic majesty and power, who can deny me?

[hitchcockthelegend · 8/10 · 3 December 2008]

The Seventh Victim is directed by Mark Robson and written by DeWitt Bodeen and Charles O'Neal. It stars Tom Conway, Jean Brooks, Isabel Jewell and Kim Hunter. Music is scored by Roy Webb and cinematography by Nicholas Musuraca.

When she is told her older sister Jacqueline has vanished, Mary Gibson is forced to leave her private school and travel to New York City to hopefully find her. Obtaining help from her sister's husband, Gregory, and the suspicious help of psychiatrist, Dr. Louis Judd, Mary finds that the deeper she goes the more dangerous the situation becomes, it appears that Jacqueline has got herself involved with something very sinister indeed.

He calleth all his children by their name.

Coming as it does from producer Val Lewton, one shouldn't be surprised that The Seventh Victim is a hauntingly poetic creeper of a movie, no shocks or out and out horror here, just a genuine sense of dread and a pervading sense of doom. When delving a bit further into the making of the picture it becomes apparent that an original cut of the piece was considerably longer, this explains a lot to me as the film, as good as it is in its 71 minute form, is not fully formed and at times not the easiest to fully understand. It would seem that although originally intended as a longer mainstream picture, a difference of opinion between Lewton and the studio (thought to be about the hiring of first time director Mark Robson) meant it was cut to a B movie standard.

The Palladists.

What remains, though, isn't at all bad, in fact it's unique. Robson's direction (obviously guided by Lewton) is perfectly sedate and in keeping with the mood of the piece, and between them they have conjured up some most unforgettable scenes and imagery. One particular shower scene lingers long after the credits roll, the perfect use of a silhouette probably had a certain Alfred Hitchcock taking notes, whilst the ending is quite simply a piece of bleak and unforgettable cinema. Musuraca is the key ingredient, though, the ace cinematographer is all about the shadows, blending noir with Gothic to create atmospheric paranoia. Satanism in Greenwich Village, suicide, psychological discord and urban dread, all potent little threads dangled into the slow burn pot. But ultimately it's the mood of the picture that gets you, unease and the murky mystery ensuring you are hooked throughout. 7.5/10

Clearing Up The Confusing Plot Line

[fordraff · 5 January 2003]

Many viewers of "The Seventh Victim" find the plot confusing. My comment may explain why and help clear up the matter.

"The Seventh Victim" was intended as an A film, but four scenes that had been photographed were edited out, as "Victim" was cut to a B film's running time of 71 minutes. This was a result of Lewton insisting that Mark Robson, who'd never directed a film before, direct this one. The studio brass didn't want Robson and gave Lewton a choice: get rid of Robson or lose the A-picture budget. Lewton chose Robson.

Following are the four scenes that were cut. Were they still in the film, the film's plot would make more sense than it now does.

Scene 1 - Gregory Ward visits Mary at the day care center where she works. In this scene, Mary admits, "It would be easier if Jacqueline were dead." At the beginning of the scene which remains in the picture--of Judd visiting Mary--Mary's supervisor says to her, "Aren't you the popular one? You've a visitor again," the last word making it clear she'd had an earlier visitor, Ward, whom we don't see because of the cut.

Scene 2 - Trying to discover what the Palladists have as a hold on Mary, Judd visits Mrs. Cortez, pretending to be interested in joining the group. Two points are made in this conversation between Judd and Mrs. Cortez: (a) That if good exists, evil exists, and one is free to choose. (b) Mrs. Cortez became a Palladist because, "Life has betrayed us. We've found that there is no heaven on earth, so we must worship evil for evil's sake."

Scene 3 - Judd makes a second, longer visit to Mrs. Cortez, indicating that he is ready to join the Palladists. In this conversation, Judd unintentionally reveals that Jacqueline is staying with Mary at the rooming house. This lets us know how the Palladists were able to trace Jacqueline to Mary's room in order to kidnap her. In the truncated print, viewers haven't a clue as to how the Palladists found Jacqueline.

Scene 4 - A final scene, which followed Jacqueline's suicide. Mary, Gregory, and Jason meet at the Dante restaurant. Gregory and Mary go off together, leaving Jason standing before the restaurant's mural of Dante and Beatrice, making clear his failure as an artist and lover; he says, "I am alive, yet every hope I had is dead. Death can be good. Death can be happy. If I could speak like Cyrano...then perhaps, you might understand."

In the British release print, Jason recites the entire Lord's Prayer to the Palladists, while only two lines of the Prayer remain in the American print, which is the one usually shown.

"I run to death and death meets me as fast,/And all my pleasures are like yesterday" are from Donne's Holy Sonnet 1, lines 3 and 4. I believe the film credits them to Donne's Holy Sonnet 7.

Details about Lewton insisting on Robson as director and the cutting of these four scenes can be found in "Fearing the Dark: The Val Lewton Career" by Edmund G. Bansak (McFarland) and "Val Lewton: The Reality of Terror" by Joel E. Siegel (Viking).

Interesting, though hardly brilliant

[scootmandutoo · 6/10 · 18 March 2006]

What "The 7th Victim" has going for it is its uniqueness. It certainly is unlike any film from that era that I remember seeing.

This is one of those films that it helps to know nothing about before viewing. To read any sort of capsule about the flick would definitely take away from the enjoyment of the film.

Having said that, I am not totally satisfied with the payoffs the movie provides. There are too many gaps in logic, combined with a bit too much moralizing. Some people find themselves in situations in this film that just simply seem to lack any credibility.

For some fascinating sequences (most notably, one that takes place in a shower and seems to have been seen by Alfred Hitchcock) this film is definitely worth a look-see.

For me, the individual elements of the film was far more interesting than the sum of its parts.

A rather muddled entry from Val Lewton

[AlsExGal · 6/10 · 31 December 2022]

I'm not sure if this is the film that officially caused RKO to rein in their errant art-horror guru--and stick him with Boris Karloff to make sure they got actual horror, just like Universal--but, more than most Lewton films that started out as a completely different story, this one's probably his most muddled. The story feels like it spends so much time trying to be an "allegory" for something, it's hard to nail down what it actually is.

Supposedly, we follow virginal girls'-school student Kim Hunter, as she has to go to New York to track down her missing sister who disappeared into the Greenwich Village life, and later discovers her sister has been marked for death by a sinister occult organization among the city elite, and you can never tell who might be In On It--Call it "Rosemary's Sister". There's an intriguing beginning with a private detective, two helpful male romantic-leads, and the usual Cat People-esque Val Lewton nervous street chases, but once we meet the sister, the story keeps trying to lecture us on something else.

We learn that the sister was starting to feel unfulfilled and suicidal, but once the Sinister Organization catches up with her, to "sacrifice" her into silence, their method is to sit her at a table and browbeat her into trying to drink a glass of poison--after all, she wanted to kill herself, didn't she?--like Eyes Wide Shut re-enacting the Death of Socrates. And although we're told who the Sinister Occult Organization is, we never actually see them doing anything sinister or occult: With a few rewrites, the baddies could just as easily have been secret Nazi saboteurs, and, in DeWitt Bodeen's earlier murder-mystery draft of the story, probably were.

The movie ends with our two heroes catching up with the baddies and self-righteously lecturing them, for reasons that seem to go a lot deeper than just being Sinister or Occult.

Unlike the usual tight Lewton button-pushing (there's a neat chill that foreshadows Hitchcock's shower scene, seventeen years early), there's so much Message, Metaphor and Allegory muddling the thriller, it feels like a screenwriter wanted to get something off his chest. It's the kind of story that a screenwriter would write after going through his own personal issues, and forget to not make them so personal for the studio. I give it 6/10 for being so ponderous, as many films from 1943 were.

Another stylish chiller from Val Lewton's RKO unit

[bmacv · 9/10 · 2 October 2000]

As a longtime booster of The Cat People, I tended to give the credit to its director Jacques Tourneur (later to helm Out of the Past). Seeing The Seventh Victim, also from Val Lewton's B-movie unit at RKO, changed all that. It seems Lewton was the resident genius, cobbling together stylish horror/suspense films on shoestring budgets. The young Kim Hunter, away at a private school, learns that her tuition hasn't been paid because her sister, owner of a beauty empire, has disappeared. She leaves school and starts scouring New York's Greenwich Village (also the locale of much of The Cat People) only to uncover a cult of devil worshipers. Lewton's thrillers haven't dated the way James Whale's, for instance, have, possibly because they depend so heavily on suggestion; the literalness of today's "horror" films is completely alien to these suggestive, truly chilling films. The RKO B-movie unit under Lewton was also, probably, a major influence on the look of film noir, soon to become the cutting-edge aesthetic in American movies. This is as tense and satisfying a 75 minutes as you'll find until the Mann/Alton team's seminal noirs of a few years later.

Hail Satan

[TheRedDeath30 · 7/10 · 29 April 2016]

The 1940s were an odd time in the annals of horror history. Of course, this has a lot to do with WWII and the fact that people were facing real horrors in their world, but it was a transitional period as well. Universal's golden age was over. While they were still churning out the movies, they were mostly second rate sequels featuring the same monsters over and over. There was really very little else going on in the horror genre. Film noir and the suspense thriller ruled the box offices and it was no surprise, then, that those genres crept their way into the horror film in the works of Val Lewton at RKO, who took the crown away from Universal and carried it into the next decade, starting with classics like CAT PEOPLE and I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE.

I have always found my personal opinion of Lewton's movies to be lower than those of the horror community, who tend to worship at his feet. By no means am I going to sit here and tell you that these are not great films, but they are not "my style". Further, I would argue that it was Jacques Tourner (as director) who made the early Lewton produced movies so great and once he moved on to other things, RKO was not able to match that early success. But alas, I am getting far too much into my horror geek history lessons and away from the actual movie itself.

Our film begins with a young woman who has learned that her sister has disappeared. She leaves school to go to the big city and find her sister. What occurs from there is an odd web of story lines that don't always make a lot of sense. We learn that her sister, Jacqueline, was an odd death-obsessed young woman (goth far before goth was cool). She has just sold her cosmetics empire to her partner. One of the first people that our heroine meets turns out to be her sister's husband. Though married to Jacqueline, he seems to know almost nothing about her personal life, doesn't appear to live with his wife and falls for the young sister in no time, at all.

We have poet who hangs around an Italian restaurant. He has stopped writing for a reason that's never truly explains, seems to be the love interest for our heroine, though that story line is cast aside. He joins our other main characters on the quest for a woman he's never met to help some people he just met a few days ago. Now, throw in a psychiatrist, who stopped practicing. He's the only one that knows where Jacqueline is and mainly serves to throw in lines that are supposed to be introspective. We get some odd side characters, as well, such as a private investigator who seems to be here to make one scene work, then disappears just as quickly.

Of course, all of this revolves around some devil worshipers. Don't get excited, though. These are not anything close to the cultists you might find in ROSEMARY'S BABY or THE DEVIL RIDES OUT or any of the other late 60s/ early 70s Satanic panic movies. It's basically a bridge club, full of wealthy types, who never actually discuss anything occultist at all, but seem hellbent on preserving their anonymity for some never explained reason.

As I'm writing this, I'm actually surprised at the tone that I'm taking because I never intended for this review to bash the movie. In fact, I do enjoy it, but it's occurring to me how silly the plot may be, but that's really beside the point. Like all of the movies produced by Lewton, this movie is all about images, suggestions, fear and shadows. The film carries a pervading fear of death, while at the same time being fascinated by death. Jacqueline (the missing girl) kept a noose in her apartment as a reminder that death was always a step away. An investigator is killed and we learn of many other deaths in the lives of both the occult and our main characters. Death, almost, becomes a character in itself, lurking over the shoulders of everyone involved.

None of Lewton's movies were ever really about monsters, or horrors presented cheaply for the audience. Settings and scenarios were created where the audience implanted the horror in their own minds. Some would tell you that this is the best sort of horror. I see this as one of the first examples of something audiences had never even really heard of in 1943, the psychological horror film. This is a movie that's not about monsters in the shadows, or blood on the killer's hand, but about the horrors that lie inside each of our heads and our own innate fears of death.

Must see picture

[michelle-woods · 10/10 · 20 October 2005]

I saw "The Seventh Victim" for the first time just last night, and found it to be absolutely captivating. The entire movie had a strange "eeriness" to it, that had me completely mesmerized throughout. Jean Brooks was absolutely amazing, in the role of Jacklyn (the Sister who was trying to escape the Satanic cult). It was as though she was put on earth to play this role. Her demeanor was so melancholy... One minute I was frightened for her life, and felt very sad for her. The next minute I was afraid of her! I highly recommend this movie to anyone who has appreciation for black and white films. Movies of today just don't have the same way of drawing in their audience, as those old black and white pictures. I am only 28 years old, and I have always had an obsession with classic films. This one is defiantly at the top of my list, a must see.

Not much plot but tons of atmosphere

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 14 December 2016]

A dark thriller from the popular '40s pairing of director Mark Robson and producer Val Lewton. This relies heavily on atmosphere to unsettle the viewer instead of any visual effects; in fact, there are no special effects at all in this film. There are no monsters, ghouls, ghosts, or spirits. In fact, only two people get killed in the entire thing. Therefore this film might be inaccessible to the latest crazed horror fiend who has been brought up on blood, guts, and more blood. Personally, I found this to be a creepy little low-key thriller.

While the Satanic plot may be nothing new, in some ways this film is very different indeed. For instance, the Satanists are depicted as a genteel, tea-drinking group who hate violence, not the typical robed maniacs with huge sacrificial knives. Therefore, the baddies in this film are more chillingly realistic than you might imagine, they could be your fellow workers or neighbours. This was one element of the film I liked. The acting is all above average with the cast giving subtle performances, from a youngish Tom Conway who fits the role of a stern British doctor to a tee through to Isabel Jewell as the surprisingly likable female lead, who gets to be tough and assertive in some scenes, which makes a usual change from the usual role the girl was relegated to in this period - a screaming victim.

It's also a plus to have Val Lewton on board, who once again includes much of his own unique visual style. Shadows are used heavily (the very best is made of the black and white) to suggest menace, and it works, making the viewer feeling disquiet and nervous, instead of having in-your-face shock horror, the sort with which we bombarded these days. The strong visual imagery - the horror of the swinging noose - plus the oodles of atmosphere help to lift the plodding plot, which has to be said doesn't really go anywhere. And check out the ending - surprisingly downbeat for the time. THE SEVENTH VICTIM may be difficult to watch for some because it has dated somewhat today, but nonetheless the use of visual artistry is highly effective.

Poorly written, badly executed

[rickodonovan · 1/10 · 19 October 2013]

I have no idea how this film got such a high rating. The whole premise is unfathomable, the acting and the dialog are both stiff and the "evil devil worshipers" look like the board of directors of a bank and are about as menacing as a bunch of frumpy old ladies at tea time. What a waste of time watching this drivel.If films like this set the standard for the mindless garbage of the modern horror era I can see we're in trouble. It is truly bad. I don't see how films like this could have ever been produced, I mean, why weren't they smart enough to just pull the plug and start making a good film. I didn't like any aspect of this film, and wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Offbeat and very creepy

[preppy-3 · 10/10 · 27 October 2003]

Spooky film about a young woman getting involved with a group of devil worshippers in NYC.

In terms of subject matter this is ahead of its time--it was probably the first film to deal seriously with cults. The film also is the film debut of Kim Hunter (later to win an Oscar for "A Streetcar Named Desire") and has an early performance by Hugh Beaumont (later on "Father Knows Best"). Also Tom Conway was in this and two other top horror films of the 40s--"I Walked With A Zombie" and "Cat People".

This is one of the very low-budget horror films that producer Val Lewton made for RKO in the 1940s. He was given only "B" actors to work with and zero money, but he turned in some true classics. He used darkness and shadow very effectively making some of the creepiest-looking sets on film. Also he NEVER showed anything explicitly--he always kept the monsters or violence off screen and just suggested at it. It works beautifully.

This movie is the least known of all of them (probably because of the subject matter), but it's probably the best one. The plot and themes are handled matter-of-factly and the sets are truly eerie. The performances are all low-key perfectly fitting the script. Even the obligatory love story shoehorned in works. There's also a VERY bizarre shower sequence and a grim ending.

Definitely worth seeing...a must for horror fans. A 10 all the way!

"One can take either staircase. I prefer the left: the sinister side"

[ackstasis · 6/10 · 22 October 2008]

'The Seventh Victim (1943)' was produced by Val Lewton, who developed a string of well-respected horror pictures for RKO between 1942 and 1946, this particular title being the first that I've seen. Had I been judging the film based only on its visuals, my appraisal would be decidedly glowing. Nicholas Musuraca much surely have been among the most proficient cinematographers of the 1940s, a master of the shadowy film noir, as his wonderful work in 'The Stranger on the Third Floor (1940)' and 'Out of the Past (1947)' can attest. In this twisted thriller, every city alleyway is a looming blanket of darkness, from which scarred, sinister faces emerge to exact their revenge on our helpless heroine. The photography is so meticulously and deliberately staged that the overall mood is not one of realism, but more closely resembles the theatre; it's all so impeccably-stylised that one can't help but be drawn into director Mark Robson's shady world of mystery, murder and deceit – and how about that shower scene!

But, alas, for every time Musuraca's superb cinematography managed to draw me into the film, I was jarringly yanked backwards by a ridiculous plot twist, a laughable line of dialogue or a dubious piece of acting. First-rate production values are used to complement a plot that would hardly suffice a B-movie, and so it's an unfortunate waste of talent. The screenplay, by DeWitt Bodeen and Charles O'Neal, seems so preoccupied with approaching taboo material that it flits around in circles, unable to settle on any solid theme or idea. The villains of the picture are ostensibly a secret society of Satan-worshippers – whose duties, it seems, fail to stretch beyond discussions of their secret society, and certainly don't appear to include anything even close to devil-worship. If their weekly meetings merely consist of rich people lounging around and drinking wine, then I'm not sure that the society's secrecy is really worth killing for (and, indeed, the members are such ordinary folk that they can't bear to kill anyone, in any case).

You can usually expect the acting in such low-budget horror films to be atrocious at best, but here the cast is quite adequate. Kim Hunter, as a young and vulnerable woman searching for her missing sister, seems out-of-her-depth, not just character-wise, but also as an actress. This being her first film role (in a long and prolific career), Hunter is simply following the script, unwilling to invest any extra emotion into her dialogue. Jean Brooks, after a tremendous build-up of Harry Lime proportions, fails to fulfill the screenplay's bloated expectations; she's hardly the most beautiful woman who ever lived, as described, and even her younger sister has a prettier face. The men – Tom Conway, Erford Gage and Hugh Beaumont – are sufficient to carry along the story. Before you get the impression that I disliked 'The Seventh Victim,' I'll add that its B-movie status allowed it to get away with some nice plot twists, and the abrupt, cunningly-understated ending – the sound of a chair collapsing in another room – was a stroke of genius.

Some Thrilling Casting But The Movie Doesn't Make Sense

[Handlinghandel · 5/10 · 7 July 2006]

I know. I know: Val Lewton saved RKO. He took awful titles forced on him and made subtle movies from them. He was influential. Etc., etc.

Nevertheless, and though I do understand that scenes were cut, "The Seventh Victim" doesn't follow any logical plot. We begin with a Sonnet from John Donne and hear schoolgirls declining the Latin word verb "love." It's filled with literary touches like these.

The thing is: It doesn't work.

That said, the cast is superb. Kim Hunter doesn't need praise from me. Just think "Stella"! She was also good in a marvelous film noir that used to be shown fairly often and seems to have disappeared. It even has a great title: "When Strangers Marry." Tom Conway is good, as are the other men. Jacqueline Brooks, as Hunter's sister, is made up and coiffed in such a bizarre manner we can't take our eyes off her.

Mary Newton, the evil woman who has taken over Brooks's beauty salon, is similarly fascinating to look at. She has a rather tough manner. (A pronounced lesbian subtext runs throughout the movie. I'm sure it was not unintentional.) Both these women remind me of Gloria Holden, so mesmerizing as "Dracula's Daughter." Also, in a small role, is Feodor Chaliapin Jr, son of one of the greatest singers of the Twentieth Century.

In a way, the most intriguing character, for me, is Irving August. For some reason, though the character is pivotal to the plot, the actor playing him is uncredited. His name is Lou Lubin and for all the world he looks as if he stepped right out of a photograph by the great Weegee! So watching this is not a waste of time. But don't expect a coherent plot. For me, the best of Lewton's productions was "The Ghost Ship." This one is in the top half of his others, but not too high up.

None of The Lord's Prayer survives in British TV print.

[jimsimpson · 22 September 2004]

I'm amazed not one reviewer has mentioned the outstanding contribution by Jean Brooks as the missing Jacqueline Gibson. Although she makes a late appearance Jean is very impressive in her five scenes, particularly her monologue describing how she came to join the Palladists and her nighttime flight being pursued by the assassin with the switchblade. None of the Lord's prayer survives in the print shown on British television. This is strange as two lines were reportedly intact when the film was originally shown in British cinemas.The excellent Brooks who appeared in two other Lewton films was sadly wasted by RKO and subsequently relegated to support and bit roles.

Deliberate, chilling, and atmospheric.

[rmax304823 · 7/10 · 4 March 2007]

It's hard to imagine how the producer Val Lewton managed to pull off these spooky, understated little films at RKO. The studio, envious of Universal's monster series, kept throwing these ludicrous titles at him. "The Cat People." Did "The Cat People" make money? Okay, then, "The CURSE of the Cat People." If Universal had "The Wolf Man," they threw "The Leopard Man" at Lewton. Yet he kept constructing miniature gems on these fragile foundations.

This is one of them, from 1943. It won't scare the kids as much as "The Cat People" did because there are fewer unexpected shocks ("buses", Lewton called them). But adults will find it about as interesting as any of Lewton's other fantasies, especially if they're at all familiar with Hitchcock's "Psycho" or "Rosemary's Baby" and are able to connect dots with any facility.

Here's the opening, in which the tenor of the film to follow is fully laid out. I'll use it as an example and then pretty much quit.

Mary (Kim Hunter, in her first role) is a student at some academy outside New York. Mrs. Lowood, the headmistress, calls her into the office and explains that Mary's sister, Jacqueline, has stopped payments for Mary's tuition without explanation. Mrs. Lowood has been unable to contact Jacqueline. Mary says she intends to go to New York and look into her sister's incommunicado. Mrs. Lowood offers to help pay Mary's tuition and adds that if Mary is unable to find Jacqueline, she is always welcome to return to the school as a teacher.

In the hallway, Mary is stopped by a young teacher, Mrs. Gilchrest, who pleads with her not to come back to the school. She herself was once in Mary's position and has regretted her return ever since. At this point we hear Mrs. Lowood's commanding call from inside -- "Gilchrest?" Mary leaves the school after a fond look at a grandfather clock in the hallways.

From the beginning everything is askew, not what we expect from a cheap B movie, not quite "normal". The apparent disappearance of Mary's sister Jacqueline is only the most obvious part of the puzzle. Mrs. Lowood seems to be treating Mary with sympathy, yet her demeanor is strangely ominous, giving us a sense of something going on that we aren't aware of.

Gilchrest's anguished warning in the hallway suggests that our unease is justified. I mean -- what the hell HAPPENED to Gilchrest when she came back to the school? Or is she frankly nuts? Lowood's demanding call leads us to believe that Gilchrest knows whereof she speaks. Neither Lowood nor Gilchrest is ever seen in the film again.

And the grandfather clock? What's that about? If anything.

Some of these apparent dead links may be due to hasty editing, attempts to trim the film down to a B-movie slot in the local theaters. But then why do Lewton's movies leave behind this sense of languorous dread when other, completely forgettable B movies, show plot holes because the actors are rushing through the film so that instead of mysterious digressions we wind up with plot holes? Mary's investigation takes her to Greenwich Village and puts her through a maze with odd characters as guides or red herrings. In the most clearly violent scene one of her acquaintances, a creepy detective, prowls through a dark and deserted building with her. Hearing a noise in the hallway ahead, he steps into the shadows, while Mary waits trembling, and after a few moments staggers back wordlessly with a fatal wound.

I think I'll let it go at that. Don't bother watching this if you expect a slasher movie or even a horror movie. Watch it some night when you feel ready to let its sluggish current take you along on a ride through a phantasmagorical setting that is anything but Disneyland.

A Subtly Horrifying Fright-Fest

[blakiepeterson · 7/10 · 2 May 2015]

Horror fanatics discuss Val Lewton like he's a sort of shadow obsessed God. The producer of low-budget, WWII era horror films renowned for their innovative use of lighting to create a supernaturally spooky tone, projects like Cat People and The Leopard Man aren't lumped together with the schlocky frankness of Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman or The Mummy. They're held in a sort of shimmering prestige: Martin Scorsese considers the Lewton produced Isle of the Dead to be the 11th scariest horror movie of all time; Leonard Maltin believes I Walked with a Zombie is an exceptional forage into B-movie terror. But maybe I'm harder to please than most.

I prefer coffee-stained cinematography to slimy gore when it comes to the genre, but no matter how I look at it, I consider the films of Lewton to be ingeniously shot, but not much more than that. Sure, there is a building dread that causes our adrenaline to genuinely pump (especially in comparison to other chillers of the time), but I've never been truly frightened by one of his films; many act as though they're as disturbing as the untamed throes of modern horror. With the exception of the excellent Cat People, they are well-made, if forgettable, B-movies. Maybe I'm just not as much of a Lewton aficionado as I'd like to be.

This shouldn't suggest that his films are bad; they're anything but. For the 1940s, they're more stylistically daring than anything in the decade. They rely solely on their photography and ghostly atmosphere, a dangerous move during a time where most studio heads would have an easier time pasting Frankenstein makeup onto the latest macabre personality.

The Seventh Victim, which is probably Lewton's second best film after Cat People, goes into the darkest territory of all his films combined. This time, island roaming zombies or lady panthers are not the villains. Satan worshippers are. The climax is not a seismic relief but a distressing suicide, an ending unthinkable when happy endings were at their historic peak. The Seventh Victim takes risk after risk after risk after risk, a series of dares that should pay off. But with its low production value and upsettingly short running time (a mere 71 minutes), things feel cluttered. There isn't quite enough room to develop the story into something earthshakingly haunting; the plot twist comes by so quickly that it doesn't hit us with nearly as much fury as it might have liked to. But if it were produced by anyone other than Lewton, it certainly wouldn't have the staying power it so proudly boasts. With its nightmarishly inky corridors and ingeniously characterized villains, it leaves a frightening taste in our mouth when the story offs itself before anything too stimulating happens.

Kim Hunter portrays Mary, a naive young woman who is getting her education at Miss Highcliff's boarding school. Before the film even has time to explain itself, Mary is called into her headmistresses office. It seems that Jacqueline (Jean Brooks), Mary's older sister and only relative, has not paid for her tuition in months. Facing financial hardship, the school offers Mary a choice; she can either stay by working as a student aid, or she can find a different place to learn.

Mary, wary of the school's clingy ways, decides to take on the real world. She figures she'll find Jacqueline in a short amount of time, and, with enough education on her side, will be able to find work for herself. But after just a few days of searching, Mary begins to realize that Jacqueline isn't simply on a vacation or something charming like that. She is involved in something hideous, something unspeakable; and after committing a crime, she may have to pay for it with her life.

For a film with satanists as its antagonists, The Seventh Victim is a surprisingly mature movie, where the foes are not fire-breathing devils but rather people you could pass by on the street without even noticing something strange. As Mary descends into a progressively alarming situation, we can't help but be even more frightened than she is; she believes that she's going to reunite with her sister in harmony, but we know that something much more evil is circling around her whereabouts. In a way, this is the most unsettling thing about the film. Because we know so much and because Mary knows so little, we instinctively want to protect her. But like her sister, we know that we're much too far in over our head to make any major changes.

The story may not stick with you, but its images will. In her brief appearance, Jean Brooks, covered in thick furs and surrounded by an onyx mane, makes a statement, looking like an apotheosis of the crossroads between good and evil. The infamous shower scene, an obvious precursor to the carnage of Psycho, has a blink-and-you'll miss it allusion that only enhances the indirect jolts of the film. Cat People, along with The Seventh Victim are the best films to come out of the Lewton cannon; shame about the overrated others.

Unique

[Prof_Lostiswitz · 10/10 · 18 April 2002]

I ran this tape for a few seconds to see if it was in good condition, and I was so drawn in by the hypnotic atmosphere that I dropped all else and watched the whole movie. Such is its power, it won,t let you go. Every relationship in the movie felt real and credible, despite the extreme circumstances.

Lewton is a humanitarian, which is why his movies have so much more profundity than most film noir. You really feel that you care about his characters, even the sleazy satanists (similar to the way he had made Irena the cat-woman a kind and gentle person, where anyone else would have cast her as a tough cookie). All the characters in this movie are complex people of the sort he must have known in his New York days, and the poet manque is likely a self portrait. And who else would quote John Donne's poetry in a thriller.

It will take repeated viewings for me (and you) to understand The Seventh Victim, but the sombre mood will communicate itself immediately.

Be alert for little details throughout- especially at the end, which comes suddenly.

One of the Best Horror Films You Never Heard Of

[gavin6942 · 7/10 · 12 August 2013]

A young woman (Kim Hunter) in search of her missing sister (Jean Brooks) 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.

Purported homosexual undercurrents run through the film and it has a generally dreadful story without the happiness that should accompany a film of its era. Today's audiences may not fully appreciate the darkness or the subtle sexual messages, but they are there and brilliant.

This is one you need to see repeatedly to really get the depth and beauty. Lewton had a unique way to approach horror. He was given titles by the studio and was forced to make movies somehow related to the titles. Well, he did not go for the in-your-face horror. Even here, with a Satanic cult, it is not as obvious as we might see today.

The Most Terrifying Movie I have ever seen--and the only film I can call a Masterpiece.

[sdiner82 · 10/10 · 20 October 2002]

I first saw "The Seventh Victim" on TV when I was a highschool teenager in New Jersey in 1960. I had no film knowledge, no idea of who Val Lewton was. Our local station Channel 9 had the rights to the RKO film library, and simply tossed "The Seventh Victim" into a 90-minute time-slot (a 71 minute movie interrupted every 10 minutes with a blast of commercials). Even so, seeing this movie under the worst possible circumstances, I was nonetheless hypnotized by its eerie, morbid, downright shocking handling of a fairly typical thriller premise: A young girl (the luminous Kim Hunter, in her first film) is informed by the staff of the Catholic girls' school she attends that her sister, who lives in New York City and owns a thriving women's fragrance emporium, has not paid her tuition bills for several months and has apparently vanished. Ms. Hunter goes to Manhattan to find her sister, whom she traces to the West Village, where the rest of the story is set. A trustful, kind-hearted innocent girl suddenly thrust into a series of increasingly frightening situations populated by a huge cast of supporting characters (and nobody is quite what meets the eye), Ms. Hunter and the viewer are sent down a series of dark alleys that eventually culminate in the most terrifying, nerve-needling, shocking ending of any film I have ever seen. "The Seventh Victim" has stayed in my mind (and haunted my dreams) ever since I first saw it. I now live in New York and have scoured the West Village for the locations of the scenes in "The Seventh Victim" (which, of course, was shot on the RKO Greenwich Village backlot--but is a perfect replica of the deceptively beautiful West Village as it appears even today: cobblestoned streets, majestic townhouses converted into brownstone apartments, cozy, family-run Italian restaurants, and the most colorful, fascinating, complex and entrancing people you'll neet anywhere in the entire world. This mis en scene is captured perfectly in "The Seventh Victim," which another reviewer on this website so perfectly described as a series of Edward Hopper paintings brought to sinister,yet alluring, black-and-white life. I won't go into plot details, since they have been well-covered by other IMDB reviewers. Hitchcock obviously saw this film and used its terrifying shower scene for the centerpiece of "Psycho." To this day, this modest, unpretentious, off-beat chiller remains relatively unknown (except for film-buffs), yet when I showed it to my guests at a dinner party a few years ago, they gradually fell under its creepily hypnotic spell, and, towards the end, when Ms. Hunter's sister is stalked by an unknown killer on the darkened Village streets, a quick camera shot of the stalker reaching into his pocket and pulling out a switchblade made three of my guests scream, How "The Seventh Victim" ever got past the censors in 1943 I'll never know I've read that the film had a strong lesbian undertone that drove the members of the Hays Office into cardiac arrest. Whether this is true or not, I have no idea, nor do I care. The artists who made "The Seventh Victim" created a true work of art-a poetic, chilling, ravishing masterpiece--a pretentious word I've never applied to any other movie, but will, without hesitation, apply to the most intelligent, audacious and spellbinding movie I have ever seen.

West Village Palladists

[rabrenner · 7/10 · 30 October 2007]

Atmospheric thriller. Although shot on a Hollywood back lot, it captures the look and feel of the old West Village, a neighborhood of artists, writers, actors, poets, bohemians, eccentrics, shopkeepers, restaurateurs...and devil worshippers? Val Lewton, of course, is the master of creating suspense out of shadows and sounds. There's a disappearing corpse on a subway, a mysterious room with a noose hanging in it, and a great shower scene that anticipates the more famous one in PSYCHO. Unfortunately, the plot is difficult to follow due to several deleted scenes; it would be great if a restored version could be reconstructed.

Historical note: In the movie, the devil worshippers are called "Palladists," and several characters read a book describing Palladism. This appears to be a reference to a real book called "The Devil In The Nineteenth Century ." The book claims, among many other sensationalistic things, that there was a group of Satanists in South Carolina (!) called the Palladists. The book exists, but its authenticity has been questioned; it appears to be a hoax.

Something different from Val Lewton, however not a complete success

[moonspinner55 · 5/10 · 22 April 2007]

Urban creepiness from producer Val Lewton, here thankfully abandoning his penchant for voodoo-island gimmickry for intriguing story about a young woman searching New York City for her missing sister, eventually discovering her sibling was involved with a devil-worshiping cult. Mark Robson directed and, while he's careful setting up this plot, he isn't very nimble (his pacing drags). In the central role, Kim Hunter isn't a colorful actress--she's not saucy or salty, nor does she crack wise--and her lack of personality combined with Robson's baby steps may tax the patience of viewers hoping for a brash scare-flick. The premise and execution are certainly unusual, yet the film is merely a precursor to the spate of devil films which followed and is not equal to the best of them. ** from ****

Seven is a Lonely Number

[frosty-26 · 9/10 · 30 May 2000]

A bleakly beautiful film set in an impossibly lonely Manhattan. It looks uncannily like an Edward Hopper painting translated to film. And it's look is timeless rather than dated. Another incredible Val Lewton film, and an amazing poetic achievement for a B-movie.

Missing the motivations, these Satan worshipers take over the place of Nazi's.

[mark.waltz · 7/10 · 5 June 2014]

Living a secret life on the lower East Side, a group of devil worshipers seem to be an analogy for fifth columnists playing the spying game in New York in this combination of psychological horror and film noir. Broadway actress Kim Hunter made her film debut as the sweet younger sister of a missing woman. She drops out of college to head to New York to find her missing sister and stumbles upon something far more sinister than she could ever imagine.

The dark shadows of the New York streets take front and center in this intriguing thriller that makes the night a villain and its characters simply players in a game of chess where both the winner and loser's grand prize is the same: death, where the fate is certainly worse. These streets are filled with odd noises, scary images and even today, when you venture down certain avenues in Manhattan, you may feel the same chills that the heroines here certainly felt, 70 years ago.

The odd hairstyle of the missing sister (Phyllis Brooks) is pure Val Lewton with its severity even though the character is not meant to be evil, just mysterious. She appears almost death-like, a combination of "Dracula's Daughter" and "She Who Must Be Obeyed" as she first appears to put her finger up to her lips to "shhh" her sister in their first scene together as her presence is definitely meant as a metaphor. Death definitely does not take a holiday here, and the most evil that the devil worshipers get is to prod their intended victims onto suicide, making their meeting place feel like a room of "Rebecca's" Mrs. Danvers.

The direction is appropriately grim and slow moving, giving it almost a feeling of floatation, with a scene in a shower that obviously influenced Hitchcock decades later. As imperfect as this film is, it is one that won't leave your mind, and one you will re-visit to try and find the many hidden metaphors and themes which its creators intended.

'Is That All There Is?"

[ccthemovieman-1 · 5/10 · 21 February 2006]

This was another in the Val Lewton Horror Collection, released in 2005 on a nice 9-film pack DVD set.

It's a typical film from the collection. Some stories, of course, are more interesting than others ("The Body Snatchers" was, I thought, by far the best) but this one - supposedly "Lewton's masterpiece," according to one national critic - I found was generally typical of the rest.

"Typical" for the following reasons:

1 - Great cinematography, film-noir-like with dramatic light and shadows, super black-and-white images that are a treat to see. The DVDs offer very good transfers with clear screens and fairly sharp images.

2 - Generally-speaking, not much happens in these films, such as this one. In this film, there was one quick "action" scene but nothing was shown. The rest of the film is all talk, talk and more talk...but great anticipation that something is going to happen....but it never does. The ending to this particularly movie, and some of the others, was flat and very disappointing. You are left asking, as Peggy Lee sang in her famous song years ago: "Is that all there is?"

3 - Decent acting and suspense...but see above for the end result. Of note, regarding the acting, this Lewton film has Kim Hunter making her debut. It also had a bunch of familiar faces from the 1940s and 1950s but no big names, unless you count "Ward Cleaver" from the "Leave It To Beaver" TV series. Ironically, his character name in this film is "Mr. Ward."