Despite the fact that the budgets during his glory days at RKO were minuscule, Val Lewton has become an outstanding example of the movie producer as auteur, leaving a mark on his “B” horror movies of the mid-1940s that is more distinct than that of their various directors.<\/p>\n
Lewton (1904-1951) was born Vladimir Ivan Leventon in Yalta, Russia, and came to the U.S. at the age of seven with his mother, who was a sister of actress Alla Nazimova. He enjoyed a rather lurid early career as a writer, working as a reporter known for totally fabricating at least one story, and as the author of pornography. He often used pseudonyms, one being the name that would stick: Val Lewton. He entered films in 1933 as an editorial assistant to producer David O. Selznick.<\/p>\n
In 1942 Lewton was put in charge of a new unit at RKO that was to specialize in low-budget horror films. His first film under this arrangement, Cat People<\/b> (1942), was directed by Jacques Tourneur and stars Simone Simon as a woman who takes on catlike qualities when aroused by jealousy. In a style that was to become defining and influential, Lewton refrained from showing the menace clearly and relied upon atmospheric photography, sound effects and music to convey a palpable sense of dread. Lewton, sometimes credited under the pseudonym Carlos Keith, also contributed to the movies’ screenplays.<\/p>\n
Other examples of Lewton’s evocative, sophisticated style during this period at RKO (which lasted only three years) are Mark Robson’s The Seventh Victim