Lewton’s first RKO film was Cat People which was a huge hit. In commercial terms the series started to falter slightly after that. Lewton’s idea of taking a totally fresh and original, and subtle, approach to the horror genre was an artistic triumph but audiences were increasingly unimpressed.
The nine Lewton horror films gradually established major cult followings and are now immensely admired by cinephiles but it is worth bearing in mind that only Cat People and The Body Snatcher achieved massive commercial success at the time.
The Seventh Victim bombed at the box office. It’s easy to see why. It sounds like it’s going to be a murder mystery but it isn’t. It’s also not a conventional horror movie. It’s not a conventional anything. No matter how good such films are they’re difficult to promote and are likely to provoke audience resistance. These are the sorts of movies destined one day to become cult movies.
The Seventh Victim begins with what does seem like a straightforward mystery. Schoolgirl Mary Gibson (Kim Hunter) is told that the school has been unable to her sister Jacqueline. Jacqueline is her only living relative and pays her tuition fees. Mary decides to head for New York to find her.
She is befriended by lawyer Gregory Ward (Hugh Beaumont) who claims to be in love with Jacqueline and to be equally anxious to find her. Ward seems like a very nice man.
Mary is also offered help by a down-at-hell private eye, Irving August (Lou Lubin). He is scruffy and seedy and looks very disreputable but he also sounds very confident and Mary probably figures all private detectives look like bums.
Mary meets several other men who have played some part in Jacqueline’s life. There’s failed poet Jason Hoag (Erford Gage) and psychiatrist Doctor Louis Judd. Since Judd is played by Tom Conway he could turn out to be a sinister figure but in a Lewton film it’s foolish to jump to conclusions.
Mary also discovers the room that Jacqueline rents but keeps permanently locked. The contents of the room provide the first unsettling moment in the movie and it’s very unsettling indeed, for Mary and for the viewer.
Gradually it emerges that Jacqueline had belonged to a group of Satanists known as the Palladists. It seems that Jacqueline is trying to break off her contact with this group.
The movie was criticised at the time for being incoherent. The fact that several scenes were apparently cut (including a longer ending) may have contributed to this but I suspect the cuts were deliberate. Those cut scenes were unnecessary and would have slowed the movie down. The Lewton movies had to come in with running times around 70 minutes. That was non-negotiable. And that was a good thing. They couldn’t afford to have an ounce of fat on them, and they don’t.
The ending as it stands works extraordinarily well and I think the movie is meant to remain enigmatic. In particular I think that Jacqueline is meant to remain something of a mystery. What led her to the Palladists?
It’s definitely not a plot-driven movie. Mood is everything here. None of the characters take any actions that really achieve anything. The attempts by Mary and her friends to rescue Jacqueline are confused and ineffectual.
This is a very morbid film. Most of the characters are either failures or disappointed by life or drifting through life in a mood of quiet despair. This incredible bleakness almost certainly contributed to the movie’s commercial failure just as it has contributed to its later cult status. Nobody made movies like in the 40s, but Val Lewton did.
What’s really fascinating is that these devil-worshippers are themselves so ineffectual. They are effete self-indulgent would-be intellectuals playing at wickedness. They would head for the fainting couches if they ever encountered true evil. Their devil-worshipping game of make-believe staves off the boredom and despair for a while. They think it gives their lives meaning but it doesn’t.
Forget the silly stuff about homoerotic subtexts that some reviewers try to read into this film. I don’t buy it because it would be out of place. This is a movie that has other fish to fry. This is a movie about people who are emotionally, spiritually and intellectually neutered. They’re empty vessels.
Mark Robson had edited the first three movies in the series for director Jacques Tourneur (whom he admired greatly) and Robson learnt his lessons well. He does an excellent job. And the cinematography is once more done by the great Nicholas Musuraca.
The Seventh Victim is awash with film noir nihilism. It’s tough viewing but it’s very highly recommended.
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