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Rating:  - Excellent.
I Walked with a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur, 1943)
When Jacques Tourneur, one of the great directors of the forties and fifties, got together with Val Lewton, notorious B-movie producer (before B-movies were invented, even!), sparks just had to fly. The two of them worked on three pictures as a team in 1942 and 1943; I Walked with a Zombie, which adds a Curt Siodmak script to the mix, is the one in the middle, and often considered one of Tourneur's best movies (and the best collaboration between the two). I don't agree, but we'll get to that in a bit.
The story: Betsy Connell, a beautiful young nurse (Frances Dee, perhaps best remembered as Meg in George Cukor's adaptation of Little Women), leaves her native Canada to become a live-in assistant to Jessica Holland (Christine Gordon, who never received another credited onscreen role), the catatonic wife of sugar plantation owner Paul Holland (Tom Conway, of the long-running Falcon series of action movies). Also in the mix are Paul's brother, Wesley Rand (well-known Western actor Jimmy Ellison), and their mother (Jane Eyre's Edith Barrett). The servants start dropping hints to the impressionable young nurse that perhaps Jessica's predicament is not completely medical, and that she may be able to be helped by the voodoo priest...
At a spare sixty-nine minutes, I Walked with a Zombie has enough time to tell its tale, but it's lacking some of the deeper examinations of its theses that elevate Cat People to the level that movie achieves; there's obviously a great deal more to be said about the slave trade and the Hollands' part in it (especially as the slave ship figurehead, looming as it does in a number of scenes, pierced with a dozen arrows and constantly soaked by a fountain, is such a memorable prop in the film), and perhaps more importantly the status of the islanders who are descendants of those slaves; a few allusions are made to there being tension between some factions of freed slaves, but those seem to have been added more for atmosphere than anything else. This subtext (and a few others) seems to have been cut in order to make room for a love-affair subplot that wasn't really necessary, and that weakens the film overall.
All that said, that's not to take away from the fact that this is, in fact, a really good movie, given the infamous Val Lewton budget constrictions; it's a horror movie only in the broadest sense of the term, but there are scenes that work quite nicely on that level. And you'll never forget Carrefour. *** ½
Rating: - Lots of atmosphere, with jungle drums and a wife whose problems go well beyond sleep-walking
"Everything seems beautiful because you don't understand," says Paul Holland (Tom Conway) to nurse Betsy Connell (Frances Dee), on their voyage to Haiti where she will take care of his seriously ill wife. "Those flying fish, they're jumping in terror because bigger fish want to eat them. That luminous water...it takes its gleam from millions of tiny dead bodies, the glitter of putrescence. There's no beauty here, only death and decay." If that attitude isn't enough to be off-putting, Betsy discovers that Holland's "ill" wife is actually a zombie.
This is one of the low-budget horror quickies Val Lewton produced in the Forties and which form the basis of his reputation today. With little money to spend, Lewton and director Jacques Tourneur managed to create a movie heavy with atmosphere and foreboding. To their credit, it doesn't look like a cheap quickie. At the same time, the movie is a strange amalgam of dread and eerie atmosphere which works well despite there being almost no zombie thrills. The title of the movie, which the studio insisted Lewton use, is something of a bait-and-switch.
The story tells us of Betsy's care for Holland's wife, and the relationships that developed before Betsy arrived at Fort Hollland, the sugar cane plantation, among Holland, his wife, Holland's half brother and their mother. And in the distance, past the sugar cane fields and in the jungle, is the beating of the drums, frenetic dances and those native beliefs. The movie, in my opinion, works well until the full story is disclosed and the fate of Jessica is determined. Then, for me, things veer into melodramatic silliness. Still, the movie is worth seeing for fans of dramatic use of an eerie atmosphere.
Holland is played by Tom Conway, George Sanders' older brother. He never achieved his brother's success in films and ended destitute and an alcoholic. Jacques Tourneur was an amazingly variable director. He churned out countless low grade movies, yet was capable of bringing to the screen one of the best noirs ever made, Out of the Past, and one of the creepiest movies, Night of the Demon.
Rating: - A classic Val Lewton production
We are treated to exotic titles and expectations with titles such as "I walked With a Zombie." My only encounters with Zombies are those that process in an UNIX operating system that can not be killed. I also watched "Weekend at Bernie's II."
As with other Lewton productions he got a way with a psychological thriller in the guise of a monster movie. In the days of sailing ships a nurse (Frances Dee) is employed to go to San Sebastian to look after a plantation owner's wife (Christine Gordon.) She fined that her charge is more than just a victim of a disease that heft her without will. Turns out if you cut the wife she does not bleed. We all know what that means.
The true story is the relationship to man and wife, man and nurse, nurse and wife, brother and brother, brother and wife, need I say more? Could it mean that there is nothing supernatural or is love moving in mysterious natural.
Can this all be straightened out or is Jessica Holland the wife destined to be zomiated for ever and the nurse must learn to love from afar?
Yeah Lord pity them who are dead and give peace and happiness to the living.
Rating:  - This is a 5-star B movie
What a strange, short movie! Set in Haiti, around 65 years ago, a Canadian nurse comes to the island to care for a woman who appears to be catatonic. We discover that the patient is, instead, a zombie! None of the two zombies in this film chase people, eat people, or any of the other typical stuff. They are just stupified and can be controlled by others. It is a strange, dark little film that achieves its effect through lighting and excellant editing. This is a gem of a film -- like a great short story instead of a novel. The film lasts just a little over an hour, and uses every minute effectively.
Rating: - Don't Miss "I Walked With a Zombie"
I have always considered "I Walked With a Zombie" to be archetypical of what might be called "horror-noir." It is a moody, suspenseful black and white film, skillfully portrayed by all the actors, who play well off each other and off the premise of the story. Music gives just the right eerie note to build on the apprehension of the audience. Cinematography is excellent, with superb effect of light and shadow to create the chilling ambience. Unlike many latterday films, the makers of this film seem to have understood that they were playing to an intelligent audience that would understand the subtleties of the film, with no need for blatant, screaming examples to explain every nuance. No gore or grue -- no "special effects," just an excellently underplayed manipulation of the audience's own fearful imaginings to create a superior example of this film genre. Definitely a "must-see" for true film buffs and for anyone else who has not, yet, been privileged to view this type of film.
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