Tourneur, Jacques

The Twilight Zone: Vol. 2

Episodes: "Time Enough at Last" (Ep. 8, November 20, 1959) - A bookworm (Burgess Meredith) yearns for more time to read--then a nuclear holocaust leaves him alone in the world with lots of time, plenty to read, and one ironic twist! "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street" (Ep. 22, March 4, 1960) - Inexplicable events cause the residents of quiet Maple Street to erupt into rioting. The residents suspect an alien invasion has occurred. If so, where are the alien monsters? "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" (Ep. 123, October 11, 1963) - A salesman (William Shatner) recovering from a nervous breakdown spots a gremlin on the wing of his plane. When he attempts to alert the others, his nightmare truly begins! "The Odyssey of Flight 33" (Ep. 54, February 24, 1961) - Flight 33 picks up a peculiar tailwind and is blown off course. After apparently correcting the problem, the flight arrives at its destination--a billion years ahead of schedule!

Out of the Past

Former private detective Jeff Bailey is trying to live a quiet life but his past comes back to haunt him. He was once hired by a gambler to find his runaway girlfriend Kathy. Jeff traced her to Mexico and fell in love. She lured him into double-crossing the gambler but it was really Jeff who got double-crossed. Years later Jeff's quiet life is once again shattered as his old criminal associates descend on him. Now he's in deep trouble - someone is trying to frame him for murder.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 053939675924

"Build my gallows high, baby"--just one of the quintessentially noir sentiments expressed by Robert Mitchum in this classic of the genre. Mitchum, in absolute prime, sleepy-eyed form, relates a complicated flashback about getting hired by gangster Kirk Douglas to find femme fatale Jane Greer. The chain of film noir elements--love, money, lies--drags Mitchum into the lower depths. Director Jacques Tourneur gets the edgy negotiations between men and women as exactly right as he gets the inky shadows of the noir landscape (even the sunlit exteriors are fraught with doubt). This is Mitchum in excelsis, with his usual laid-back cool laced with great dialogue and tragic foreshadowing. As for his co-star, James Agee immortally opined that Jane Greer "can best be described, in an ancient idiom, as a hot number." Remade in 1984, unhappily, as Against All Odds (with Greer in a supporting role). --Robert Horton

The Twilight Zone: Vol. 1

Episodes: "Night of the Meek" (Ep. 47, December 23, 1960) - Christmas in the Twilight Zone. Art Carney is a forlorn department store Santa who takes to drinking--only to find himself experiencing the nicest Christmas ever! "The Invaders" (Ep. 51, January 27, 1961) - A flying saucer lands in the attic of an isolated house inhabited by an impoverished woman--who soon becomes panic-stricken as tiny spacemen begin to stalk her! "Nothing in the Dark" (Ep. 81, January 5, 1962) - An old woman has fought with death a thousand times and has always won. But now she finds herself afraid to let a wounded policeman (Robert Redford) in her door for fear he is Mr. Death. Is he?

Madame Curie

Based on the book by Ève Curie, Madame Curie is a tender tribute to the two-time Nobel Prize winner (and first female recipient). Narrated by screenwriter James Hilton (Mrs. Miniver), the biopic begins in the 1890s while Marie Sklodowska (Oscar winner Greer Garson, Mrs. Miniver) is enrolled at the Sorbonne. She's a poor Polish exchange student with a passion for physics and chemistry. When he finds out about her precarious financial situation, a professor recommends her for a position with the "nervous and impatient" Dr. Pierre Curie (Walter Pidgeon, Garson's Miniver co-star) and his assistant David (Robert Walker, Strangers on a Train). Curie believes that "women and science are incompatible." Marie, who will graduate at the top of her class, quickly proves him wrong. Just as quickly, he falls in love with her and introduces her to his parents (Henry Travers and Dame May Whitty). An engagement leads to a wedding, which leads to a partnership, which leads to the discovery of radium. Tragedy will eventually divide the couple, but Marie refuses to let their work die. Directed by Mervyn LeRoy (Little Women), Madame Curie may be heavier on the romance than the science, but charm is in abundant supply. With her regal bearing and breathy British accent, Garson isn't the most obvious choice for the famed physicist, but she effectively conveys the "stubborn, eager" woman's fervor for her field—-and for her husband. Margaret O'Brien (Meet Me in St. Louis) co-stars as future Nobel laureate Irene Curie. -- Kathleen C. Fennessy

Perennial co-stars Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon followed their triumph in the Oscar-winning Mrs. Miniver with this memorable biographical classic. Garson portrays the young Polish physics student Marie who soon falls in love with and marries Dr. Pierre Curie (Walter Pidgeon) in whose lab she had worked. On their honeymoon they decide to investigate a strange effect Professor Becquerel (Reginald Owen) has noticed with the uranium/thorium stones for Marie's dissertation and they determine there must be additional radioactive elements causing it. After years of experimentation in a makeshift lab at the University they are finally able to isolate a few grains of a new element radium from 7 tons of raw material. Unfortunately at the height of their success tragedy strikes. The grand success of Madame Curie continued Garson's winning streak as one of the biggest box-office stars of the decade.Running Time: 124 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 012569795259 Manufacturer No: 79525

Curse of the Demon / Night of the Demon

After establishing his signature style with such moody classics as Cat People and I Walked with a Zombie, Jacques Tourneur returned to peak form with the first-rate supernatural thriller Curse of the Demon. It's a horror-noir set in England, adapted from the M.R. James story "Casting the Runes" and built around the ominous notion that black arts--particularly the use of ancient runic symbols--can summon a deadly beast from hell. Dana Andrews is the stubborn American skeptic, determined to debunk a genteel occultist (Niall MacGinnis) whose evil powers are ultimately incontestable. The briefly seen demon may be cheesy by latter-day standards, but its nightmarish appearance--and Tourneur's masterful use of subtle suggestion, threatening atmosphere, and eerie special effects--make Curse of the Demon one of the best horror films of the 1950s. This splendid DVD offers the longer British version Night of the Demon for film-buff comparison; it's essentially the same film with a few extended scenes. Both are highly recommended. --Jeff Shannon

The Twilight Zone: Vol. 3

Episodes: "Steel" (Ep. 122, October 4, 1963) - In the future, only androids are allowed to box. Desperate to raise money, penniless manager Steel Kelly (Lee Marvin) must fight disguised as his own broken-down robot. "A Game of Pool" (Ep. 70, October 13, 1961) - Jesse (Jack Klugman) is a brilliant pool player whose dream of a showdown with the legendary (and dead) Fats Brown (Jonathan Winters) comes true. The stakes: his life. "Walking Distance" (Ep. 5, October 30, 1959) - Martin Sloan (Gig Young) is a frazzled executive who learns that you can't go home again after he steps back in time and meets his mom, his dad--and himself! "Kick the Can" (Ep. 86, February 9, 1962) - Has an old man at Sunnyvale Rest Home discovered a secret to regaining youth? After playing a simple child's game, he and the other residents are rewarded with rejuvenating powers!

War Gods of the Deep/At the Earth's Core

War-Gods of the DeepAn unusual science fiction adventure set not in the future but in the past. It is 1903 and just off the Cornish coast lives an undersea kingdom of humanlike creatures who never age. The ruler of this strange society sees a woman on land who looks like the reincarnation of the ruler's deceased wife. This sets off a chain of events that eventually bring the human world into battle against this underwater community of the past. Memorable for its creative sets and creepy gill man warriors this drive-in classic is based on a line from an Edgar Allen Poe work and is sprinkled with references to Poe throughout. Tab Hunter wearing gigantic scuba gear similar to a robot costume and Vincent Price star.At the Earth's CoreA Victorian scientist leads an expedition to the center of the Earth and there they find an incredible world populated by subhuman warriors and prehistoric monsters. Great special effects add to the adventure.System Requirements:Running Time: 175 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: HORROR Rating: PG UPC: 027616920591 Manufacturer No: 1008025

The Film Crew: The Giant of Marathon

GIANT OF MARATHON is a B-movie from 1960 about a muscular Greek hero who battles the invading Persian army. Here the Film Crew team--Mike Nelson Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett--offer some wry commentary as the film plays. Genre: COMEDY UPC: 826663103786 Manufacturer No: SF10378

Cat People / The Curse of the Cat People

Val Lewton's name is synonymous with the subtlest, most mysterious brand of horror filmmaking in Hollywood's golden age, and the nine horror classics he produced at RKO between 1942 and 1946 constitute the most remarkable cycle of creativity in B-movie history. He and director Jacques Tourneur scored with both a popular hit and a masterpiece in 1942: Cat People. The story involves a pretty young Serbian woman in Manhattan (Simone Simon) convinced that her ancestors had practiced animal worship during the Middle Ages--and that she herself might shape-change into a lithe, ravening panther if her passions were aroused. The film is uncannily successful in keeping the viewer guessing whether this is a phobia borne of morbid obsession and sexual repression, or a genuine, horrific possibility. There are two sequences of matchless artistry and almost unbearable suspense--a lonely, echoing walk through pools of lamplight alongside Central Park, and a late-night swim in a deserted indoor pool--that build to throat-grabbing climaxes and remain milestones in the history of screen horror. The Curse of the Cat People (1944), a sequel that is not quite a sequel, is a pretend-horror movie that's really a contemplation of the fragility of childhood. --Richard Jameson

The studio gave Val Lewton small budgets and lurid pre-tested film titles. Lewton working with rising filmmakers and emphasizing fear of the unseen turned meager resources into momentous works of psychological terror. Directed by Jacques Tourneur Cat People is the trailblazing first of Lewton's nine horror classics. Simone Simon portrays a bride who fears an ancient hex will turn her into a deadly panther when she's in passion's grip. Simon returns in The Curse of the Cat People a sequel in title and a landmark study of a troubled child in fact. Robert Wise makes his directing debut co-helming a gothic-laced mix of fantasy and fright so astute it was used in college psychology classes.Running Time: 143 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: HORROR UPC: 053939724424

The Val Lewton Horror Collection (Cat People / The Curse of the Cat People / I Walked with a Zombie / The Body Snatcher / Isle of the Dead / Bedlam / The Leopard Man / The Ghost Ship / The Seventh Victim / Shadows in the Dark)

Val Lewton's name is synonymous with the subtlest, most mysterious brand of horror filmmaking in Hollywood's golden age, and the nine horror classics he produced at RKO between 1942 and 1946 constitute the most remarkable cycle of creativity in B-movie history. (For the record, the Lewton/RKO legacy also includes two non-horror entries, Youth Runs Wild and Mademoiselle Fifi.)

Before becoming a film producer, the Russian-born Lewton was a prolific writer of pulp fiction, nonfiction, and a couple of pornographic novels. He also worked for years as assistant to David O. Selznick, a legendary producer with a distinctive personal signature--and a flair for grandiosity Lewton himself never emulated. It's ever so revealing that, on Selznick's Gone With the Wind, it was Lewton who came up with the idea for the famous rising shot of the Atlanta railyard filled with Southern wounded, with the Confederate flag streaming above--only he idly proposed it as a joke, never imagining that anyone would actually film such a spectacularly ambitious scene.

In 1942 Lewton left Selznick to undertake a series of horror films for RKO Radio Pictures. The studio would give him a budget around $200,000 per picture and a title RKO deemed to be grabby; Lewton would have a free hand as long as he stayed on budget, used the title, and gave the studio a salable movie of second-feature length (around 70 minutes). Over time, Lewton would increasingly have trouble with studio supervisors, but RKO was the right place for him. Although low in the pecking order among Hollywood majors, the studio made up for its lack of MGM-style glamour and Warner Bros. grit-and-gusto by working in a finely filigreed, almost miniaturist style. The art department under Van Nest Polglase and Albert S. D'Agostino was capable of exquisite artisanry, and in Nicholas Musuraca, a master of low-key cinematography and supple camerawork, Lewton found an invaluable collaborator in creating moody shadow-worlds where what you couldn't see was more disquieting than what you could.

He was also fortunate in having Jacques Tourneur to direct his first three efforts (they had teamed years earlier on the Bastille-storming sequence for Selznick's A Tale of Two Cities). They scored first time out of the gate with both a popular hit and a masterpiece: Cat People (1942). The story involves a pretty young Serbian woman in Manhattan (Simone Simon) convinced that her ancestors had practiced animal worship during the Middle Ages--and that she herself might shape-change into a lithe, ravening panther if her passions were aroused. The film is uncannily successful in keeping the viewer guessing whether this is a phobia borne of morbid obsession and sexual repression, or a genuine, horrific possibility. There are two sequences of matchless artistry and almost unbearable suspense--a lonely, echoing walk through pools of lamplight alongside Central Park, and a late-night swim in a deserted indoor pool--that build to throat-grabbing climaxes and remain milestones in the history of screen horror.

Many critics feel that the second Lewton-Tourneur endeavor, I Walked With a Zombie (1943), is both men's finest work. The title is so lurid that the heroine-narrator (Frances Dee) must shrug it off with her very first words, yet the movie is an amazingly delicate and poetic piece of spellbinding--nothing less than a reworking of Jane Eyre on a voodoo island in the Caribbean. Other horror aficionados prefer the more mainline ferocity of The Leopard Man (1943), an adaptation of a Cornell Woolrich story about a serial killer strewing corpses along the U.S.-Mexican border. Although on one level this is the Lewton film that veers closest to conventional mystery-suspense, there's no end of unsettling ambiguity (another black panther on the loose!) and hints of occultism and religious mania.

RKO promoted Tourneur to A-movies after this; Lewton would never again have so masterly a directorial partner. Yet in a weird sense (which is only appropriate), this underscores how much Lewton--with his wealth of arcane historical lore and storytelling archetypes, his quiet, patient attention to detail, and his taste for oblique narrative--was the essential auteur of all his films. Promoting first Mark Robson and then Robert Wise from the editing table, Lewton went on to make the deeply mysterious The Seventh Victim (1943) and The Ghost Ship (1943), two films in which such grotesque elements as Satan worship and murderous psychopathology are folded away inside eerily drifty, almost becalmed sleepwalks into eternal night. The Seventh Victim--a movie populated with more walking dead than Lewton's out-and-out zombie picture--is one of the cinema's supreme meditations on the ways lives brush against one another in the spaces of a great, impersonal city. And The Ghost Ship (the rarest of Lewton's films, owing to a ruinous copyright suit) is like a fever dream from which the viewer never awakens.

That's enough for a legacy, surely. Yet there remain The Curse of the Cat People (1944), a sequel that is not quite a sequel, a pretend-horror movie that's really a contemplation of the fragility of childhood; Isle of the Dead (1945), a doomed reverie about travelers who escape the Goya-esque chaos of a 19th-century war only to be beset with plague on a miasma-shrouded island; The Body Snatcher (1945), an atmospheric Robert Louis Stevenson adaptation that invokes the grisly history of graverobbers Burke and Hare, and supplies a together-again-for-the-last-time occasion for Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi; and Bedlam (1946), the Hogarth painting come to life to portray the real-life horrors of an 18th-century insane asylum. Bedlam's critical and box-office failure ended Lewton's quasi-independent status at RKO; he would live to make only three other, unsuccessful films.

James Agee, the premier American film critic of the 1940s, reckoned that Val Lewton was one of the three foremost creative figures in Hollywood--an assessment yet more impressive when we consider that the other two were Charles Chaplin and Walt Disney. His greatest films--Cat People, I Walked with a Zombie, The Seventh Victim--are towering achievements, and even his half-realized projects are haunting experiences, the products of an utterly distinctive sensibility. This is an extraordinary collection. --Richard T. Jameson

Val Lewton a famous RKO Radio Pictures producer redefined the horror genre with low-budget high-box office films. Now available are nine of these horror classics on DVD in the all new Val Lewton Horror Collection. Exclusive to the collection are a new documentary on the producer and 3 of the 9 films.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/CLASSIC UPC: 053939727029