Val Lewton’s Naturalism and Historical Trauma: No Bed of Her Own, Cat People, The Seventh Victim, and I Walked with a Zombie

• DOI: 10.1353/san.2022.a899840
• Publication Date: 2023-10-06T16:36:46Z
• Authors: Donna M. Campbell
• Keywords: Naturalism; Zombie; Knight

Val Lewton’s Naturalism and Historical TraumaNo Bed of Her Own, Cat People, The Seventh Victim, I Walked with a Zombie Donna M. Campbell (bio) In December 1942, American movie audiences saw startling title card introducing what they thought would be low budget “B” picture from RKO studios: “‘Even as fog continues to lie in the valleys, so does ancient sin cling places, depressions world consciousness.’ Anatomy Atavism— Dr. Louis Judd” (Cat People). Off-brand for studio known its glossy Fred Astaire Ginger Rogers musicals, epigraph, set against backdrop knight holding aloft cat pierced by his sword, references respectively fictitious quotation, book, author (see figure 1). With naturalistic echoes “ancient sin” “atavism,” it might have been borrowed Frank Norris’s McTeague, whose character possesses “the foul stream hereditary evil, like sewer. . evil an entire race flowed veins” (285). quotation introduces producer classic horror film however, reveals deeper preoccupation subject matter atavism historical trauma print film, including Depression-era novel No Own (1932) well three movies he produced during World War II: People (1942), Victim (1943), (1943). Following example Donald Pizer’s “Naturalism Visual Arts” Jeff Jaeckle’s “American Literary Film Noir” placing novels context visual media, suggest that reading 1940s films enables understanding intersection naturalism, Gothic, trauma. Born Yalta, Ukraine, on May 7, 1904, son Russian mother English father who abandoned family, Lewton moved [End Page 103] Berlin siblings child immigrated U.S 1909 under sponsorship mother’s sister, famous screen actress Alla Nazimova. grew up Port Chester, NY, was educated at New York Military Academy Columbia School Journalism. While employed story department MGM’s offi ce, published eight novels, time thirty. Beginning 1934, spent years Hollywood working David O. Selznick literary adaptations such Rebecca, Anna Karenina, Gone Wind, Jane Eyre, leaving 1942 head own production unit RKO. Working titles sometimes chosen others compete Universal Pictures’ robust line pictures Dracula Frankenstein (both 1931), now considered classics, among themCat Leopard Man Ghost Ship Curse (1944), Isle Dead (1945), Body Snatcher Bedlam (1946). Despite their origins pictures, made lower budgets less -acclaimed actors than prestigious “A” feature films, even were noted “refined, literate approach” “strong female roles” (Bansak 68–69). Click larger view View full resolution Fig. 1. epigraph People. 104] Although before make him famous, Dreiser’s Sister Carrie (1900), Crane’s Maggie: A Girl Streets (1893), Graham Phillips’s Susan Lenox: Fall Rise (1917), chronicles violence, poverty, sexual exploitation, desperate struggle heroine survive sense her authentic self intact. Like Maggie Johnson, Lenox, Meeber, defines money “something everybody else has must get” (Dreiser 48), Rose Mahoney recognizes capitalist society she commodity sell that, if labor...