This week’s mystery movie was the 1943 RKO film I Walked With a Zombie, with James Ellison, Frances Dee, Tom Conway, Edith Barrett, James Bell, Christine Gordon, Teresa Harris, Sir Lancelot, Darby Jones and Jeni LeGon.
Screenplay by Curt Siodmak and Ardel Wray.
Based on an original story by Inez Wallace titled I Met a Zombie, published May 3, 1942, in Hearst’s American Weekly magazine.
Music by Roy Webb.
Musical direction by C. Bakaleinikoff.
Photography by J. Roy Hunt.
Art direction by Albert S. D’Agostino and Walter E. Keller.
Set decoration by Darrell Silvera and Al Fields.
Recorded by John C. Grubb.
Edited by Mark Robson.
Assistant director William Dorfman.
The characters and events depicted in this photoplay are fictional. Any similarity to actual persons, living, dead or possessed, is purely coincidental.
Produced by Val Lewton.
Directed by Jacques Tourneur.
Further information on I Walked With a Zombie is available from the AFI Catalog.
I Walked With a Zombie is available on Blu-ray from Critics’ Choice Video.
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I decided to close out October as “Zombie Month” with the excellent film I Walked With a Zombie. The story is creepy and suspenseful, with first-rate acting, and fabulous lighting and photography. It is a gem. I would think even The New York Times would approve.
Inez Wallace’s I Met a Zombie, published May 3, 1942, in Hearst’s American Weekly magazine.
One of the “alphabet critics,” T.M.P. (probably Thomas M. Pryor) gets the assignment (April 22, 1943). He does not approve of such goings-on.
“Horror” pictures are enjoying a peculiar popularity the country over at the moment, according to box office statistics, so it seems reasonable to assume that RKO has a safe bet in I Walked With a Zombie, which opened yesterday to a packed house at the Rialto and, at one point, drew a horrified scream from a woman patron. It’s just like the days of old when The Bat and The Gorilla were scaring audiences out of their wits and Frankenstein’s Monster was making the night hideous for children and the more impressionable oldsters.
With its voodoo rites and perambulating zombie, I Walked With a Zombie probably will please a lot of people. But to this spectator at least, it proved to be a dull, disgusting exaggeration of an unhealthy, abnormal concept of life. If the Hays office feels it has a duty to protect the morals of moviegoers by protesting the use of such expressions as “hell” and “damn” in purposeful dramas like In Which We Serve and We Are the Marines, then how much more important is its duty to safeguard the youth of the land from the sort of stuff and nonsense that their minds will absorb from viewing I Walked With a Zombie???
For Monday, we have a mysterious musician.
Update: This is Sir Lancelot.
For Tuesday, we have a mysterious fellow with a sword.
Update: This is Jieno Moxzer
The Brain Trust makes an impressive showing! Stacia (mystery movie and mysterious calypso singer), E. Yarber (mystery movie and enigmatic guitarist), Bob Hansen (mystery movie and enigmatic calypso singer), B.J. Merholz (mystery movie), Mike Hawks (mystery movie and mystery singer), Chrisbo (mystery movie and enigmatic musician) and Megan and Thom (mystery movie, mysterious calypso singer and mysterious tune).
For “Hm Wednesday,” we have a mysterious woman.
Update: This is Edith Barrett.
We also have this mysterious woman and Back of the Head Woman.
Update: This is Teresa (Theresa) Harris and Frances Dee as Back of the Head Woman.
Brain Trust roll call: Matthew Berger (mystery movie and enigmatic calypso singer), Anne Papineau (mystery movie and both mysterious guests), Sarah (mystery movie and both mysterious guests), L.C. (mystery movie and mysterious cast), Chrisbo (mystery swordsman), Sylvia (mystery movie, mysterious director and both mystery guests), E. Yarber (Tuesday’s mysterious swordsman) and Michael Lott (mystery movie).
For “Aha Thursday,” we have a mysterious fellow having a drink, perhaps a Zombie, though probably not.
Update: This is James Ellison.
And a mysterious woman.
Update: This is Christine Gordon.
Brain Trust roll call: Chrisbo (Wednesday’s mystery guests), Mike Hawks (Wednesday’s mysterious guests), E. Yarber (Wednesday’s mystery guests and Back of the Head Woman), Sylvia (Wednesday’s mysterious guests and Back of the Head Woman) and Anne Papineau (Wednesday’s mystery guests).
For Friday, we have a mysterious fellow and his mystery passenger.
Update: This is Frances Dee and Clinton Rosemond.
And a mysterious fellow.
Update: This is Tom Conway.
Brain Trust roll call: Ben Crumpacker (mystery movie and Wednesday’s mysterious guests), Chrisbo (Thursday’s mystery guests), Sylvia (Thursday’s mystery guests), Mike Hawks (Thursday’s mystery guests), E. Yarber (Thursday’s mystery guests) and Anne Papineau (Thursday’s mystery guests).
I Walked With A Zombie! This is Sir Lancelot who was in a bunch of awesome movies in the 1940s, more than one with a zombie theme!
I remember talking about Bop Girl Goes Calypso (1958) somewhere and saying Sir Lancelot should have been in it and someone got snarky at me and said, “Why, because he sang calypso?” and… yes? Get all the best calypso artists you can find. Go big or go home. He’s great and I love this part in Zombie.
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Sir Lancelot in I Walked With a Zombie.
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Monday’s person is Sir Lancelot from I Walked With A Zombie (1943), starring Frances Dee and Tom Conway, and directed by Jacques Tourneur.
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I’ll stick with the Halloween themed I walked with a Zombie.
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Sir Lancelot in I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE.
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Sir Lancelot in I Walked With a Zombie?
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Our movie is I Walked with a Zombie, with Sir Lancelot singing The British Grenadier.
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That looks a lot like I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE, one of Val Lewton’s best productions, which would make the singer Sir Lancelot.
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It’s zombie time, zombie time, zom, zom, zombie time. It’s “I Walked with a Zombie,” the Val Lewton classic. Our musician is Sir Lancelot. And on Tuesday, a sword-wielding Jieno Moxzer.
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The movie is I Walked With a Zombie. Sir Lancelot on Monday. I think the man with the sword is Jieno Moxzer. Love Val Lewton!
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I Walked with a Zombie (1943) w/Frances Dee, Tom Conway, Sir Lancelot, James Ellison, James Bell, Edith Barrett, Darby Jones, Theresa Harris, Jieno Moxzer…
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Jieno Moxzer
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I Walked With a Zombie 1943
Directed by Jacques Tourneur
Monday – Sir Lancelot singing “Scandal in the Family”
Tuesday – Jieno Moxzer is our sabreur
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Jieno Moxzer.
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This is some crazy Zombie/Voodoo movie – I don’t remember the name! I won’t cheat and look it up. I remember the sword guy.
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Edith Barrett, Theresa Harris, Francis Dee
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Edith Barrett, Theresa Harris and Francis Dee.
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Edith Barrett and Theresa Harris, with the hindbrain of Frances Dee.
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Wednesday – Edith Barrett and (I think) Martin Wilkins lightning the lamp.
Theresa Harris and BOTHW Frances Dee.
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On Wednesday, Edith Barrett and Theresa Harris. Wonderful cast.
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Izzat Theresa Harris and Frances Dee in I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE? PS I prefer drinking them
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james Ellison and Christine Gordon
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Thursday – James Ellison and Christine Gordon
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James Ellison and Christine Gordon.
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James Ellison and Christine Gordon.
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Thursday’s stars are James Ellison and Christine Gordon.
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Our other stars are Jieno Moxzer, Edith Barrett, I think James Bell as Back of the Head Guy, Theresa Harris, James Ellison, Christine Gordon, Frances Dee, Norman Mayes, and Tom Conway.
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Frances Dee and Tom Conway.
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We finally get to see Frances Dee’s face today. Given that her character was derived from Charlotte Bronte, one might sum up the film’s story as, “To Eyre is human, to re-live divine.”
Her driver Norman Mayes gives her a rueful invocation of the slavery trade on this trip, adding a bit of insightful revisionism to the adaptation of the novel that would be explored even further over twenty years later in Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea.
In photographs, Tom Conway always seems to look as though he can tell what a mess his life would turn out to be. Apparently a very nice guy in real life, he repeatedly took over characters abandoned by other actors. When he took over the Sherlock Holmes radio series from Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce finally got top billing as Dr. Watson. As long as you provided voices for Disney animated features, however, it’s a good bet that you’ll always have a young audience for generation after generation.
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Friday – Frances Dee and Clinton Rosemond, engaged in their interesting conversation and their different points of view about his ancestors arrival at this “beautiful” island (her words, not his and his response is great).
Tom Conway
This movie has been so interesting to read up on. It could have been yet another in a line of “scary islanders-black magic” stories, but the research done about voodoo and the slave trade really bolstered the story and put it on a whole other level. And the decision to use Jane Eyre as a touchstone was such a good idea. I’d forgotten the West Indies element in the novel. Enjoyed the adventure.
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