Val Lewton Filmography

Born:: May 7, 1904 in Yalta, Russia
Occupation:: Producer
Birth name:: Vladimir Ivan Leventon
Biography:: A Columbia University graduate and former writer, Val Lewton first made a name for himself in films as an assistant to David O. Selznick in the 1930s, and co-directed the Bastille scene in A Tale of Two Cities (1938). In 1942, Lewton became a producer at RKO, specializing in low budget but...Read More

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Val Lewton: The Man in the Shadows

Actors: Roger Corman, Glenn Gabbard, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Val Lewton, Alexander Nemerov

Synopsis: While his name was known to only the most obsessive film fans during the course of his career, Val Lewton produced a handful of low-budget horror movies in the 1940's that had a revolutionary impact on the genre. Working within a special production unit at RKO Pictures, Lewton's films were mood Read More

2007
Apache Drums

Crew: Producer

Actors: Stephen McNally, Coleen Gray, Willard Parker, Arthur Shields, James Griffith

Synopsis: Shortly before his death, horror film producer Val Lewton switched creative gears by overseeing the Universal western Apache Drums. The scene is the potentially prosperous western town of Spanish Boot, built from nothing by a group of determined settlers. Before they can enjoy the fruits of their Read More

1951
Please Believe Me

Crew: Producer

Actors: Deborah Kerr, Robert Walker, Peter Lawford, Mark Stevens, James Whitmore

Synopsis: Producer Val Lewton abandoned the "psychological horror" efforts of his RKO days when he moved to MGM in 1950. Lewton's Please Believe Me is a simple, sometimes simplistic romantic comedy, designed principally as a showcase for Deborah Kerr. The star plays Alison Kirbe, an English girl who Read More

1950
My Own True Love

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: After supervising several of the best "psychological" horror films ever made, producer Val Lewton shifted his base of operations from RKO to Paramount. Lewton's first project at his new studio -- and the last -- was My Own True Love, an uncharacteristically sentimental offering. Based on the novel Read More

1948
Bedlam

Crew: Producer

Actors: Boris Karloff, Anna Lee, Billy House, Glenn Vernon, Jason Robards, Sr.

Synopsis: Bedlam is one of the costlier psychological-horror efforts from RKO producer Val (Curse of the Cat People) Lewton. Boris Karloff stars as the supervisor of the notorious 18th century British insane asylum St. Mary's of Bethlehem, better known as "Bedlam." Anna Lee, who co-stars as the feisty Read More

1945
Isle of the Dead

Crew: Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Boris Karloff, Ellen Drew, Marc Cramer, Katherine Emery, Alan Napier, Jason Robards, Sr., Helene Thimig

Synopsis: Inspired by Swiss artist Arnold Böcklin's famous painting, this seminal horror film marked the first of three collaborations between RKO producer Val Lewton and British genre star Boris Karloff. Set during the 1912 Balkan Wars, Isle of the Death featured Karloff as Greek general Pherides who Read More

1945
The Body Snatcher

Crew: Producer

Actors: Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Henry Daniell, Edith Atwater, Donna Lee, Russell Wade, Rita Corday

Synopsis: Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi were given top billing in the Val Lewton-produced The Body Snatcher, but the film's protagonist is played by Henry Daniell. A brilliant 18th century London surgeon, Daniell can only make his humanitarian medical advances by experimenting on cadavers, which is strictly Read More

1945
Youth Runs Wild

Crew: Producer

Actors: Bonita Granville, Kent Smith, Jean Brooks, Glenn Vernon, Tessa Brind

Synopsis: In this WW II-era drama set in a small town, most of the adults are so busy fighting the war or working in the local defense plant that they have little time to supervise their children. A sort of juvenile anarchy ensues with the children and teens doing whatever they please. Soon the town is Read More

1944
The Curse of the Cat People

Crew: Producer

Actors: Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Jane Randolph, Ann Carter, Eve March, Elizabeth Russell

Synopsis: Officially a sequel to Val Lewton's psychological-horror classic Cat People (1942), Curse of the Cat People is in fact an engrossing and oftimes charming fantasy, told from a child's point of view. Six-year-old Ann Carter plays Amy Reed, the lonely daughter of eternally preoccupied Oliver Reed (Kent Smith Read More

1944
Mademoiselle Fifi

Crew: Producer

Actors: Simone Simon, John Emery, Kurt Kreuger, Alan Napier, Helen Freeman

Synopsis: One of the few failures for RKO Radio's resident "prestige programmer" producer Val Lewton, Mademoiselle Fifi is based on two Guy De Maupassant tales, with emphasis on Boule de Suif. The story takes place during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, though it is clearly an allegorical representation of Read More

1944
The Leopard Man

Crew: Producer

Actors: Dennis O'Keefe, Margo, Jean Brooks, Isabel Jewell, James Bell

Synopsis: Adapted from the Cornell Woolrich novel Black Alibi, The Leopard Man is a lesser but still fascinating psychological-horror effort from producer Val Lewton. Someone has been killing off the citizens of a small New Mexico town, and the most likely suspect is a huge leopard, purchased for a local Read More

1943
I Walked with a Zombie

Crew: Producer

Actors: Tom Conway, Frances Dee, James Ellison, Edith Barrett, Christine Gordon, James Bell

Synopsis: RKO producer Val Lewton seemed to thrive upon taking the most lurid film titles and coming up with pocket-edition works of art. Saddled with the studio-dictated title I Walked With a Zombie, Lewton, together with scripters Curt Siodmak and Ardel Wray, concocted a West Indies variation on Jane Read More

1943
The Seventh Victim

Crew: Producer

Actors: Kim Hunter, Tom Conway, Hugh Beaumont, Isabel Jewell, Jean Brooks, Evelyn Brent, Erford Gage

Synopsis: Producer Val Lewton once more utilized leftover Magnificent Ambersons sets for his psychological horror piece The Seventh Victim. Kim Hunter arrives in New York's Greenwich Village in search of her errant sister Jean Brooks. Gradually, the naive Hunter is drawn into a strange netherworld of Satan Read More

1943
The Ghost Ship

Crew: Producer

Actors: Richard Dix, Russell Wade, Edith Barrett, Lawrence Tierney, Ben Bard, Edmund Glover

Synopsis: RKO horror producer Val Lewton dished up seven reels of brooding psychological terror with The Ghost Ship. Richard Dix stars as the ship's captain, a tortured soul who teeters on the verge of madness. Seaman Russell Wade notices the captain's deterioration, but his warnings are dismissed by the Read More

1943
Cat People

Crew: Producer

Actors: Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Tom Conway, Jane Randolph, Jack Holt

Synopsis: Handed the exploitive title Cat People, RKO producer Val Lewton opted for a thinking man's thriller--a psychological mood piece, more reliant on suspense and suggestion than overt "scare stuff". Simone Simon plays an enigmatic young fashion artist who is curiously affected by the panther cage at Read More

1942