I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE

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GaryP11111	I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE	Lead	[-]
(10/12/05 11:31 PM) Burgomaster Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	Tags : None Along with THE BODY SNATCHER, IWWAZ one of my two favorite Lewton horrors. I get a kick out of a nice little touch in ZOMBIE during the opening credits. In the disclaimer small print is this sentence: Any similarity to actual persons, living, dead or possessed, is purely coincidental. GARY L. PRANGE "Sic gorgiamus allos subjectos nunc."
Joe Karlosi	Re: I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE	#1	[-]
(10/13/05 6:19 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	This one really worked for me when I re-watched it from the new LEWTON COLLECTION. I really love Frances Dee in the role of the nurse, and the scene where she walks with the zombified woman to the beat of voodoo drums is among the finest in this genre. The movie has a potent air of voodoo ritual to it, and I like that. ---------------------- "It's MORE ... than a hobby!"
Stuart Gardner	I Walked... Zombie: disclaimer & the walk thru the cane	#2	[-]
(10/22/05 6:27 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	Gary, I've always noticed and enjoyed that gag in the disclaimer. Isn't it interesting that perhaps the sole note of humor in this most somber film (my favorite of the Lewtons) is "outside" of the movie itself, appearing in the titles? Incidentally, that standard disclaimer beginning "Any similarity to actual persons" stems from the 1932 film Rasputin and the Empress, as I learned recently from Robert Osborne when he introduced the picture on TCM. A member of the former Russian royal family had sued MGM over the movie, and that disclaimer was one of the results. Joe, you're so right about that walk through the sugarcane being one of the high points in the genre. I think it's Lewton's best moment, and one of Jacques Tourneur's. In Joel Siegel's book on Lewton, The Reality of Terror, he sums up my feelings about the scene by praising its artificiality, that quality so misunderstood by most filmgoers today, when he writes (if this isn't the exact quote it's very close), "Everything is controlled, everything is artificial; everything is perfect."
Stuart Gardner	Val Lewton screenplays are here:	#3	[-]
(10/22/05 8:08 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	After writing the above post I surfed a bit and made this delightful discovery: www.whiskeyloosetongue.com/lewton_index.html The complete screenplays of all nine Lewton chillers are there, and so is a great deal more. And I was amazed at this wild coincidence. Only an hour ago I related here that the standard motion picture disclaimer played with in I Walked with a Zombie began as the result of the 1932 picture Rasputin and the Empress... and a mere hour later I learned for the first time (on the following page) that Lewton himself wrote a 1933 novelization of that very film! Now that is one heck of a coincidence. www.whiskeyloosetongue.com/lewton_biography.html
jimi d2	Re: Val Lewton screenplays are here:	#4	[-]
(10/22/05 8:53 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	I finally got my Lewton set last night (things can be slow to arrive here in Canada) and I Walked With A Zombie was the first film I sat down to... It was, believe it or not, and despite the fact that Cat People is one of my top ten favourite movies, the first time I had ever seen this wonderful film, and it was exquisite for lack of a better word. This is one of the most beautiful films I've ever seen, and the aforementioned "artifice" conspires to gradually develop an air of melancholy and magic and mystery that is achingly lovely... I loved it! :)
drlouisjudd	Re: Val Lewton screenplays are here:	#5	[-]
(10/23/05 11:37 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	Speaking of magic and mystery, I love how Betsy (Frances Dee) goes out to the cliffs and narrates her feelings after realizing her love for Paul Holland. "I don't know how other women discover their true love, maybe in their lover's arms..." I won't quote the whole speech and probably got the beginning slightly wrong, but the point is Lewton's ability to find time in a genre film to illustrate the magic and mystery of love and at the same time to do so in a way that is at once natural, almost off-handed yet achingly and beautifully artificial as well. For what in narrative cinema is much more the product of artifice than the voice over narration? When the narrator at the film's close tries to resolve the magic and mystery of the film, he seems to me painfully unreliable, saying things that don't quite add up to an explanation. There's some wisdom in what he says, but I can't accept it as an explanation of the film's events. The film itself won't allow it. Love and death defy explanation and Lewton had the courage to trust his audience to delight in the mystery of artifice and to question the reliability of narration. I'm with you guys on this film. It's a joy.
evilskippy	Re: Val Lewton screenplays are here:	#6	[-]
(10/23/05 12:01 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	Hands down my favorite film of all time. Everything works for me with this film. "Permit me to introduce myself.My name is Mabuse.Dr Mabuse".
drlouisjudd	Re: Val Lewton screenplays are here:	#7	[-]
(10/24/05 2:17 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	I just watched it again yesterday. On the topic of voice over narration. It struck me as interesting that Paul Holland contradicts Betsy's voice over narration on the ship. She just thought "...how beautiful." He says, "it isn't beautiful." That's the first time I can think of in film where a character addresses the inner-monologue of another character. For a film where the reliability of narrators is suspect (afterall isn't the film mostly a series of narrations about what might have happened to Jessica ranging in form from Calypso songs to voice overs to testimonials), I think that's a smart moment when the privacy of the inner-monologue is seemingly violated and its content contradicted by a counter-narration, this time spoken aloud.
Bill Warren	Re: Val Lewton screenplays are here:	#8	[-]
(10/24/05 2:30 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	Speaking of Calypso songs, the main one Sir Lancelot sings in this movie (he also wrote it) is included on his CD "Trinidad Is Changing" available at Amazon.Com.
carl2000	Re: Val Lewton screenplays are here:	#9	[-]
(10/24/05 9:35 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	I just got the disc today. This is not a complaint, it's an observation. Who are those two guys who do the audio commentary and why did Warner feel it necessary to go all the way out to the U.K. to have one made?
Bill Warren	Re: Val Lewton screenplays are here:	#10	[-]
(10/25/05 1:53 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	I presume an Amazon.Com search and a Google search on the names turned up nothing?
carl2000	Re: Val Lewton screenplays are here:	#11	[-]
(10/25/05 2:03 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	Oh, heck, I don't know. I'm too lazy to perform such back-breaking research, and decided to go straight to the experts, instead.
LesDaniels	And who, pray tell, are you?	#12	[-]
(10/26/05 2:51 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	Those "two guys" doing the commentary are well-known Brit writers Stephen Jone and Kim Newman, and they're both friends of mine, so tread softly. They've done several commentaries for UK DVDs, including THE DEAD ZONE. Together they edited the critical anthology HORROR: 100 BEST BOOKS, and its recent followup. Jones has edited several volumes of BEST NEW HORROR with Ramsey Campbell, and on his own has edited THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF VAMPIRES, THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF ZOMBIES, etc. He has also written THE ILLUSTRATED FRANKENSTEIN MOVIE GUIDE, THE ILLUSTRATED DINOSAUR MOVIE GUIDE, etc. He has received a World Fantasy Award. Newman has written several film books, including NIGHTMARE MOVIES, and is the author of horror novels including ANNO DRACULA, THE QUORUM, etc. He appears regularly in VIDEO WATCHDOG. In short, these "two guys" are major figures in the international horror community. But I'll bet they wonder who you are.
carl2000	Re: And who, pray tell, are you?	#13	[-]
(10/27/05 8:25 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	I'm sure they would wonder who I am, and I wouldn't blame them one bit. Sorry, I meant no offense with my question, but I honestly never heard of them before!
Count Gamula	Zombie photos?	#14	[-]
(07/02/08 5:39 PM) Burgomaster Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	I'm working on an illustration and I'm looking for the best photo I can find of Darby Jones as that tall, bug-eyed zombie from I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE. Or one from ZOMBIES ON BROADWAY might work just as well. If anyone happens to have a picture they can scan for me or knows of a particular book or magazine that has a good shot of him, please let me know as soon as possible. Thanks. Kerry Gammill
Dankerdine		#15	[-]
(07/02/08 7:52 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	Unfortunately, I don't have a full-length shot. Hope this helps. Check out my MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/monsterkid55
Count Gamula		#16	[-]
(07/02/08 8:00 PM) Burgomaster Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	Thanks. I already went through the DVD for possible screen grabs like this. What I'm really looking for is an actual still photo that shows more of his body. There's one whith the two women standing in front of him with a flashlight and another of him carrying the dead woman. Either of those would be ideal. Thanks again. Kerry Gammill
Dankerdine		#17	[-]
(07/03/08 9:01 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	Yeah! I know the photo(s). Let me nose around through some books (after I get back - am leaving now to run some errands) and see what I can turn up. If I find it, I'll scan it and pass it on. Check out my MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/monsterkid55
Count Gamula		#18	[-]
(07/03/08 9:40 AM) Burgomaster Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	I finally found a good one in the old Dennis Gifford book A PICTORIAL HISTORY OF HORROR MOVIES. Thanks for the the willingness to help, Dankerdine. I hope you didn't spend too much time on it. Kerry Gammill
Dankerdine		#19	[-]
(07/03/08 2:27 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	Count Gamula wrote: I finally found a good one in the old Dennis Gifford book A PICTORIAL HISTORY OF HORROR MOVIES. Thanks for the the willingness to help, Dankerdine. I hope you didn't spend too much time on it. Actually, I just got home and was ready to dive into the books. Oddly (my brain being what it is!), that book woud have been my first stop in my search. Well, glad you found what you needed! Hope you'll let us see your illustration when you're done! Check out my MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/monsterkid55

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