The most arresting scene from "I Walked With a Zombie" was featured in Martin Scorsese's "A Personal Journey Through American Movies". Anyone who saw that clip would want to know more about it. Unfortunately, the film does not quite live up to the promise of that eerie sequence when Francis Dee leads Christine Gordon in a twilight journey through the cane fields. Although the film is not equal to the sum of its parts, those parts are still interesting.
Apparently producer Val Lewton was saddled with the title but allowed to construct his own story around it. He chose to re-work Bronte's Jane Eyre, setting it on a Caribbean island with a theme of voodoo and black magic.
Betsy Connell, a nurse played by Francis Dee, is hired to tend the wife of a sugar planter on a Caribbean Island. She journeys to the island by schooner with the planter, Paul Holland – played with monumental stiffness by Tom Conway – and realises he is a man with issues. On her first night, she dines with Paul's half-brother Wesley Rand, played by James Ellison, and discovers that the case has some unexpected twists.
Betsy meets her patient, Jessica Holland, played by Christine Gordon, when she finds her in a trance-like state climbing the stairs of the tower. Yes, there is a tower, and those stairs could only exist in a movie such as this; they are so perilous one would almost need the help of a Sherpa to climb them.
During a visit to the nearby town, Betsy strikes up a friendship with Mrs Rand, Paul and Wesley's mother played by Edith Barrett. Betsy learns that Jessica Holland's illness has been brought about by an adulterous affair with her brother-in-law, Wesley. Betsy is persuaded to seek help for Jessica from the island's voodoo practitioners.
On the given evening, Betsy leads Mrs. Holland on that aforementioned journey to the voodoo ceremony. The finale of the movie reveals that Jessica has been one of the undead all along – a zombie in fact – all as a result of the powerful emotions her affair with Wesley had unleashed in his mother. By this time, Betsy has fallen in love with Paul Holland and they seek each other's support when Wesley finally ends Jessica's torment and his own.
Sound complicated? It is. For a seventy-minute movie there is enough plot, exposition and revelation for a mini-series. Although made on a tight budget, the film has great mood thanks to its celebrated art direction – the Caribbean setting allowed for extensive use of shutters and slats that bathe the characters with an amazing interplay of light and shade.
The movie is set in an indeterminate time – the fashions, and other references mark it as modern day (the 1940's) but there is not one automobile to be seen in the entire movie.
The film makes few demands on the actor's abilities. The two male leads are not much above the zombie level themselves. Sandra Dee is fine as Betsy Connell but any number of actresses could have been cast without any loss of effect.
It is perhaps wrong to label "I Walked with a Zombie" as a horror story. Like many of Lewton's films it is more of a psychological study; it even delivers a reasonably plausible explanation for Jessica's affliction. "I Walked With a Zombie" is an unusual film but it does contain a couple of sequences that are compelling enough to be fondly remembered by one of cinema's modern masters.
Apparently producer Val Lewton was saddled with the title but allowed to construct his own story around it. He chose to re-work Bronte's Jane Eyre, setting it on a Caribbean island with a theme of voodoo and black magic.
Betsy Connell, a nurse played by Francis Dee, is hired to tend the wife of a sugar planter on a Caribbean Island. She journeys to the island by schooner with the planter, Paul Holland – played with monumental stiffness by Tom Conway – and realises he is a man with issues. On her first night, she dines with Paul's half-brother Wesley Rand, played by James Ellison, and discovers that the case has some unexpected twists.
Betsy meets her patient, Jessica Holland, played by Christine Gordon, when she finds her in a trance-like state climbing the stairs of the tower. Yes, there is a tower, and those stairs could only exist in a movie such as this; they are so perilous one would almost need the help of a Sherpa to climb them.
During a visit to the nearby town, Betsy strikes up a friendship with Mrs Rand, Paul and Wesley's mother played by Edith Barrett. Betsy learns that Jessica Holland's illness has been brought about by an adulterous affair with her brother-in-law, Wesley. Betsy is persuaded to seek help for Jessica from the island's voodoo practitioners.
On the given evening, Betsy leads Mrs. Holland on that aforementioned journey to the voodoo ceremony. The finale of the movie reveals that Jessica has been one of the undead all along – a zombie in fact – all as a result of the powerful emotions her affair with Wesley had unleashed in his mother. By this time, Betsy has fallen in love with Paul Holland and they seek each other's support when Wesley finally ends Jessica's torment and his own.
Sound complicated? It is. For a seventy-minute movie there is enough plot, exposition and revelation for a mini-series. Although made on a tight budget, the film has great mood thanks to its celebrated art direction – the Caribbean setting allowed for extensive use of shutters and slats that bathe the characters with an amazing interplay of light and shade.
The movie is set in an indeterminate time – the fashions, and other references mark it as modern day (the 1940's) but there is not one automobile to be seen in the entire movie.
The film makes few demands on the actor's abilities. The two male leads are not much above the zombie level themselves. Sandra Dee is fine as Betsy Connell but any number of actresses could have been cast without any loss of effect.
It is perhaps wrong to label "I Walked with a Zombie" as a horror story. Like many of Lewton's films it is more of a psychological study; it even delivers a reasonably plausible explanation for Jessica's affliction. "I Walked With a Zombie" is an unusual film but it does contain a couple of sequences that are compelling enough to be fondly remembered by one of cinema's modern masters.