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I Walked with a Zombie / The Body Snatcher Movie Streaming. Movie Title: I Walked with a Zombie / The Body Snatcher Average customer review: I Walked with a Zombie / The Body Snatcher is available for streaming or downloading. Click Here to Stream or Download I Walked with a Zombie / The Body Snatcher

Val Lewton (1904-1951) was brought to RKO when that studio decided to compete with Universal in the dread genre. As it happened, RKO was teetering on the verge of bankruptcy at the time–and Lewton was given the audience-tested title CAT PEOPLE and ordered to make an inexpensive movie to fit it. Without the budget to produce “a monster movie,” Lewton responded with a series of remarkably artful films that relied on suggestion and implication.

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Released in 1943, I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE is considered by many to be Lewton’s single best film. Directed by Jacques Tourneur (who also directed Lewton’s CAT PEOPLE and LEOPARD MAN), the epic concerns nurse Betsy Connell (Frances Dee), who is hired to care for mysterious Jessica Holland (Christine Gordon–and who finds herself romantically torn between the woman’s husband Paul (Tom Conway) and his half-brother Holland (James Ellison.) But no sooner does Nurse Connell choose in to the region than she becomes unsettled by native drums. Is her patient’s queer condition the result of voodoo?

Although the film suffers from an occasional spot hole, it is easily one of the most stylish anxiety films of the 20th century. Like all Lewton films, the direction, performances, and script are indecent key–but the tone is at once romantic and chilling, a queer tropical melange buttressed by Lewton’s powerful look for sad and white produce. While the film print is not pristine, it is reasonably righteous and probably represents a best-case set. Unfortunately, the commentary by film historians Kim Newman and Steve Jones tends to be excessively chatty; even so, it can be remarkably informative.

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Released in 1945, THE BODY SNATCHER often vies with I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE for well-known approval. Directed by Robert Wise (who also directed Lewton’s CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE), the film clearly has a larger budget and a tighter script than most Lewton movies–and this is due to the presence of a star: Boris Karloff, an actor with whom Lewton did not originally want to work; after meeting him, however, Lewton realized Karloff’s fair potential as a serious actor, and Karloff would manufacture three films for Lewton.

Loosely based on the Robert Louis Stevenson myth which was itself suggested by the celebrated Burke and Hare case. In an era when bodies were available for medical purposes, Dr. MacFarlaine (Henry Daniell) relies on grave-robber John Gray (Karloff) for specimens–and MacFarlaine soon involves protege Russel Wade (Donald Fettes) in the traffic. But it happens that Gray is not very fastidious when it comes to acquiring cadavers, and kill is the result.

Some critics complain that BODY SNATCHER is excessively literal in comparison with other Lewton films, but the strength of the film is actually rests upon its remarkably frosty, clinical feel. Everything about the film is completely believable. The cast is flawless, and if there was every any doubt about Karloff’s skill as an actor this film erases it: his performance is arresting, and although you hasty learn to detest Gray–but try as you might, you cannot utter his humanity. Daniell is equally exquisite in what would his most memorable role. And then there is Bela Lugosi.

Lugosi, of course, had been a major dismay star of the 1930s and had often co-starred with Karloff, with THE Dark CAT perhaps their most memorable pairing. But Lugosi’s accent runt the roles he could play, and by 1945 his career had taken a downturn from which it would never recover. Lugosi was hired for this film for the sake of publicity–a sort of “together again!” campaign–but although he received second billing the role of Joseph, Dr. MacFarlane’s servant, was actually quite puny. Even so, Lugosi proves extremely memorable, and it is difficult to imagine the film without him. It was the last time he would appear with Karloff, who by all accounts was very sensitive to Lugosi’s dwelling during filming. Karloff and Lugosi would never work together again, and Lugosi posthaste declined into obscurity.

The print of THE BODY SNATCHER is not pristine, but it is very graceful, and the well-behaved commentary is divided between director Robert Wise and film historian Steve Haberman; Wise provides comments on both his believe career and his work with Lewton, while Haberman’s remarks are particular to the film. Current trailers for I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE and THE BODY SNATCHER round out the DVD. This DVD is also available in the five disk box status THE VAL LEWTON Fright COLLECTION, which I also recommend.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

A incredible double-feature DVD featuring two greats from legendary genre producer Val Lewton.

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I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (1943)

Purportedly based on Charlotte Bronte’s recent JANE EYRE, this typically low-key Lewton chiller stars pleasing Frances Dee as a Canadian nurse assigned to care for the semi-comatose wife of a plantation owner. Not really a dread film–but spellbinding nonetheless–this one’s a dark yet well-acted melodrama that uses the voodoo-steeped Caribbean island of San Sebastian as a backdrop. Jacques Tourneur’s haunting direction, J. Roy Hunt’s rich black-and-white cinematography, and Roy Webb’s calypso-inspired earn design a very otherworldly atmosphere, and actor Darby Jones’ portrayal of an emaciated, bug-eyed island native–who may or may not be a zombie–is disturbingly unforgettable.

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THE BODY SNATCHER (1945)

This literate adaptation of the Robert Louis Stevenson narrative stars genre expansive Boris Karloff as a 19th-century grave robber who turns to cancel in order to meet the local med school’s quota for cadavers to dissect. Karloff delivers what is arguably one of his best performances, and Bela Lugosi does equally well in a less prominent secondary role. The film is also necessary for being one of the first genre directorial efforts from Robert Wise, who would later instruct such genre classics as THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD Peaceful (1951), THE HAUNTING (1963), THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN (1971), and STAR TREK: THE MOTION Represent (1979), as well as some non-genre greats like WEST SIDE Chronicle (1961) and THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1965) .

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The double-feature disc from Warner offers both movies their recent 1.33:1 format, and though neither appears to have received any restoration, the condition of both is resplendent satisfactory considering their age (THE BODY SNATCHER is in the best shape by comparison) . Each flick is paired with its theatrical trailer, and both are accompanied by optional feature-length commentaries. The commentary on THE BODY SNATCHER is from the unhurried director Robert Wise, possibly the last one he worked on prior to his death in September of 2005.

All in all, this disc is well worth the reasonable note of admission and is a must-have for any serious film collector.
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