Three Chilling Horror Movies from Jacques Tourneur

How small budgets can make horror movies scarier

Almost ten years ago I started listening to Karina Longworth’s amazing Hollywood history podcast, You Must Remember This. She recorded an episode about the great producer Val Lewton. I didn’t know who he was at the time, but her descriptions of his B-movie horror flicks intrigued me and I bought this DVD box set of 10 movies he produced from the 1940s. I watched them and found them to be both exciting and comforting. They are black-and-white low budget horror movies that are almost all under 90 minutes (some barely an hour long). They are stripped down supernatural tales. I’ve long since misplaced that box set; I think I donated it during a move. I didn’t rewatch them all that much, even though they had a lasting impression on me.

Three of those movies played on TCM recently: CAT PEOPLE (1942), which is the most famous of the Lewton movies, I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE, and THE LEOPARD MAN (both 1943). All three of these were directed by Jacques Tourneur, a French filmmaker who went on to have an incredible career making movies like OUT OF THE PAST and doing episodes of The Twilight Zone. The combination of Lewton’s sensibility and Tourneur’s elegant style makes for a unique viewing experience. These three movies are exercises in tight filmmaking, utilizing small budgets and limited time to tell character-based movies through trashy horror premises.

CAT PEOPLE stars Simone Simon as a woman Irene who believes she is descended from a tribe of Cat People and that she will turn into a panther when aroused. She gets married , but refuses to consummate out of fear of the transformation. Irene then stalks her husband’s co-worker out of jealousy and frustration. CAT PEOPLE is a beautiful movie, as Tourneur plays with camera angles, shadow, and blocking to create suspense. An influential scene is when the co-worker is stalked by an animal in a swimming pool only for Irene to show up. Another scene late at night with a bus is quite intense, as are mysterious animal killings. The film works best in its sense of dread and urgency, as Irene is both a woman fearful of her nature and an animal out for prey.It’s also kind of cool to see a 1940s horror film that stars normal, sophisticated adults in their own relationship dramas. At 75 minutes the film can’t take too much time going into mythology, but the lack of exposition adds to the character development and the mystery.

I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE is probably my least favorite of these three movies, but I still find a lot to enjoy. When I first saw the movie, I thought it would be about zombies as we know them now but I think that is a fairly modern version of zombies (more knowledgeable horror historians can correct me on that). ZOMBIE is more or less an adaptation of Jane Eyre, but it takes place in the Caribbean. A nurse (Frances Dee)arrives to take care of a mysterious catatonic woman (Christine Gordon) in an imposing mansion and falling in love with the owner of the mansion (Tom Conway). It involves Voodoo culture and colonist themes. The cinematography is the highlight, particularly the titular walk as the nurse and her “zombie” patient try to find a Voodoo priest. The movie works as a Gothic romance, and the influences from Charlotte Bronte are interesting. And it explores the stark difference between the colonizers and the colonized. But for me, it lacks the narrative punch that CAT PEOPLE and THE LEOPARD MAN have.

If CAT PEOPLE is perhaps the most celebrated of the Tourneur/Lewton projects, then THE LEOPARD MAN is probably my favorite. Jerry (Dennis O’Keefe), a club promoter in a small New Mexico town, rents a leopard for his client Kiki’s (Jean Brooks) nightclub act but the poor animal gets loose. A series of murders shocks the town and everyone blames the leopard. However, Jerry starts to suspect that a human is behind the violent attacks. This movie has a very simple story, and rather simple conclusion. But what sets it apart is that it creates such vivid characters and deep relationships in its 65 minute runtime. This town comes alive, and we feel for each of the unfortunate victims—and the falsely accused leopard! The murder scenes are viscerally intense and frightening, again using shadows and sound design to show what the budget and censors wouldn’t allow. The climax takes place during a commemorative march honoring Native American victims of a massacre perpetrated by the Conquistadors. It is an eerie and disturbing sequence, but all the more stunning and memorable for it. THE LEOPARD MAN is chilling, thanks to Tourneur’s delicate and imaginative work.

CAT PEOPLE, I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE, and THE LEOPARD MAN are three highly influential movies. Even if one hasn’t seen or heard of these movies, they have seen movies inspired by them. Tourneur’s workarounds for the budget and time allowed him to show terrifying stuff through suggestion and dialogue. And for me, what the mind conjures up can be the scariest thing of all.