It was 36°C today. There's quite a lot of opacity to this tale - Tom Conway's wife (Christine Gordon, her only performance) cannot be a zombie - yet when she is stabbed, she doesn't bleed. And what was going on with her - was she about to leave him for his brother, drunkard James Ellison?
Tourneur met Val Lewton when both were working for David Selznick on David Copperfield in 1935. When Lewton set up his mini-studio at RKO, producing that series of intelligent and atmospheric horror films, Tourneur was his first choice, and he directed Cat People, this and The Leopard Man, all of which are terrific - but for pure atmosphere, and its subtext of island culture and slavery, this one takes the cake. And eats it, if that doesn't scramble metaphors too badly.
Frances Dee is the nurse, Edith Barrett the enigmatic Mrs Rand. Sir Lancelot seems like a nice polite man, but when he finds Dee on her own, he's almost threatening her with his calypso (Q says warning). Theresa Harris is charming as the maid, Darby Jones memorable as Carrefour (was he stoned, or had the RKO medics given him starey potion?) I love that moment when he's at the house, advancing, and there's a close shot of him that's quite out of focus - it doesn't matter, in fact it may have been deliberate. As I've said before it's possibly J Roy Hunt's finest hour and is one of the most texturally interesting examples of cinema photography ever.
Love those wind-powered hanging flute bowl things, same sort of principle as an Aeolian Harp.
From an original idea by Inez Wallace, whoever she is, written by Curt Siodmak and Ardel Wray. I think comparisons to 'Jane Eyre' are rather over-stretched.
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