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->''"It is perhaps characteristic of Lewton's career that [I Walked with a Zombie], one of the rare pieces of pure visual poetry ever to come out of Hollywood, was seen by hardly anybody but ... bloodthirsty chiller fans."''
-->-- '''Joel E. Siegel''', ''Val Lewton: The Reality of Terror''[[note]]quoted in Ivan Brunetti's comic strip "Produced by Val Lewton", printed in ''Schizo'' #4[[/note]]

Val Lewton (born Vladimir Ivanovich Leventon, Russian: Владимир Иванович Левентон, May 7, 1904 – March 14, 1951) was a Hollywood producer and screenwriter for MGM and RKO. He worked as a radio writer, pulp novelist and studio publicist before coming to MGM. At MGM, he worked with David O. Selznick on ''Film/{{A Tale of Two Cities|1935}}'' and ''Film/GoneWithTheWind'', variously as a script doctor, second unit director and personal assistant. At the beginning of his writing career, he semi-frequently wrote under the pseudonym of "Carlos Keith" and was credited as such.

In 1942, Charles Koerner placed him in charge of the "B"-picture unit at RKO. Lewton had to follow three rules for each film:
* it would cost less than $150,000;
* it would run less than 75 minutes;
* and Koerner would supply the title for each project.
As long as he followed these three rules, Lewton had complete creative freedom.

What followed was a series of clever subversions: Koerner gave him a lurid horror title, and Lewton turned it into something subtle and meditative, while still making it appropriate enough to the title that his superiors wouldn't get annoyed. He made ten films under this system, working with directors like Creator/JacquesTourneur, Creator/RobertWise and Mark Robson:

[[index]]
* ''Film/CatPeople'' (1942) -- First of three films directed by Creator/JacquesTourneur. A Serbian woman refuses to kiss her husband, believing it will turn her into a deadly panther.
* ''Film/IWalkedWithAZombie'' (1943) -- ''Literature/JaneEyre'' in the West Indies, with the mad wife affected by a voodoo curse.
* ''Film/TheLeopardMan'' (1943) -- A leopard hired for a nightclub performance escapes and terrorises a town. Last film directed by Tourneur.
* ''Film/TheSeventhVictim'' (1943) -- A woman searching for her sister discovers a Satanist cult.
* ''Film/TheGhostShip'' (1943) -- New crewmember suspects his captain is crazy; the rest of the crew believe the ship is haunted.
* ''[[Film/CatPeople The Curse of the Cat People]]'' (1944) -- Following the daughter of two characters from ''Film/CatPeople''.
* ''Mademoiselle Fifi'' (1944) -- A Prussian Lieutenant holds up a stagecoach, demanding that a beautiful young passenger "dines" with him.
* ''Film/TheBodySnatcher'' (1945) -- An early Nineteenth Century doctor is blackmailed by the very cabman (Creator/BorisKarloff) he gets his dead bodies from. Also features Creator/BelaLugosi in [[ThoseTwoActors his final film with Karloff.]] Based on a story by Creator/RobertLouisStevenson, which was in turn based on the real-life story of Dr. Robert Knox and the Burke and Hare murders.
* ''Film/IsleOfTheDead'' (1945) -- Visitors to a Greek island are quarantined because of a plague.
* ''Film/{{Bedlam}}'' (1946) -- The sinister apothecary-general of a madhouse (played by Creator/BorisKarloff) has his "loonies" put on a show for a visiting aristocrat.
[[/index]]

Lewton was noted by friends and family to be a massive workaholic, and this probably greatly contributed to his failing health at the end of the 1940s and start of the 1950s, culminating in several heart attacks and eventually a quite early death at the age of 46.

Lewton became a major influence on the horror genre and filmmakers in general. Creator/MichaelPowell, Creator/CarolReed and Creator/MartinScorsese are among the many directors who cited him as an influence on their work. Jacques Tourneur, Creator/RobertWise and Mark Robson all directed films for Lewton, and moved on to successful directing careers.

----
!!Val Lewton's work contains examples of:

* ActuallyNotAVampire: ''Isle of the Dead''.
* AdultsAreUseless: Nearly every adult in ''[[Film/CatPeople The Curse of the Cat People]]'' except for Amy's teacher. Theresa's lazy mother in ''Film/TheLeopardMan''.
* AdaptationExpansion: ''Isle of the Dead'' and ''Bedlam'' are adaptations of paintings.

* BuriedAlive: In ''Isle of the Dead'', Mary St. Aubyn mentions that she has a particular fear of being buried alive. Later on, [[spoiler:when the sickness (or [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vorvolakas]], maybe) takes her, she is presumed dead and sealed in a coffin (but not buried). When she breaks out she goes on a killing spree.]]
* CatScare: Since the source of terror in ''Film/CatPeople'' actually is a cat of sorts, the Cat Scare in this film is a bus with an airbrake that sounds like a cat's hiss. ''Film/TheLeopardMan'' -- a leopard did attack and kill a little girl.
* ContinuitySnarl: It has been argued that ''The Seventh Victim'' takes place in the same continuity as ''Film/CatPeople'' and ''[[Film/CatPeople The Curse of the Cat People]]''. Tom Conway plays a psychiatrist named Louis Judd in ''Cat People'' and ''The Seventh Victim'', and this is possibly the same character. (He seems to have a generally similar personality.) Some say ''Seventh'' is a prequel to ''Cat People'', since [[spoiler:Judd apparently dies at the end of ''Cat People'', and this is confirmed by another character in ''Curse'']]. Others say ''Seventh'' might be a sequel and that Judd's mention of a beautiful woman who went mad is probably a reference to Irena from ''Cat People'' (although he says this woman is now in an asylum, but [[spoiler:Irena also dies at the end of ''Cat People'', and this is also confirmed in ''Curse'']]). Actress Elizabeth Russell appears in all three movies, but her presence each time is rather strange and mysterious, so it is possible she was playing the same character, or someone completely different, each time.
* ExecutiveMeddling: In a sense this is what drove Lewton's production unit. He wasn't credited as writer or director on any of the movies, but he had the last word on everything that happened. He would tweak the final draft of scripts, often providing copious notes on how scenes were to be set up, lighted, etc. In effect he was "pre-directing" the movies and the directors were just there to bring his vision to the screen. Fortunately he was able to choose personnel who were able to work under these conditions.
** ''The Seventh Victim'' played this the straightest. Lewton's original version was significantly longer and did more to flesh out its rather large cast, but RKO didn't like it and cut a lot of material not related to the main storyline. This perhaps accounts for the film's tepid reception during its initial release.
* GreatOffscreenWar: ''Isle of the Dead'' is set during the First Balkan War in 1912. We only see the aftermath of a battle very briefly at the start of the film, but the war itself casts a shadow over the events on the island [[spoiler:(the main reason General Pherides and Doctor Drossos decide to enforce a quarantine is to protect their army on the mainland from the plague).]]
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: The 18th century radical politician John Wilkes appears as a supporting character in ''Bedlam''.
* HollywoodVoodoo: ''I Walked with a Zombie'' has zombies and dolls. It also has a religious ceremony, however, which our unnerved heroine must brave in order to meet with the houngan.
* IdleRich: A couple of characters come close but Lewton generally averted this; he preferred his characters to be gainfully employed.
* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Lewton was a big fan of keeping the explanation for things ambiguous.
* NothingIsScarier: A major pioneer, and possibly even the [[TropeMakers Trope Maker]]. Lewton didn't have the budget for special effects, so he found creative ways to suggest things without actually showing them.
* RecycledInSpace: ''I Walked with a Zombie'' is basically ''Literature/JaneEyre'' in the West Indies. WordOfGod says this was deliberate.
* {{Subversion}}: Koerner supplied the titles, Lewton subverted them.
%% ZCE/unclear whether the music is in-universe * SuspiciouslyAproposMusic: "Ah woe, ah me" in ''I Walked with a Zombie''.
* ThisBearWasFramed: ''Film/TheLeopardMan'' features a serial killer who disguises his crimes as attacks from an escaped leopard. He's aided by the fact that the escaped leopard really did kill someone.