Val Lewton.org

A List of Val Lewton Movies

[Most recent films at top]

APACHE DRUMS 1951
Producer, co-writer
Directed by Hugo Fragonse
Running time 75 minutes

PLEASE BELIEVE ME 1950
Producer, rewrites during production
Director Norman Taurog
Running time 87 minutes

MY OWN TRUE LOVE 1948
Paramount
Producer
Directed by Compton Bennett
Running time 84 minutes

• Blackbeard 1946
Pre-production work
Producer/ co-writer with Mark Robson

Lewton journal entry 1946

(Above, middle paragraph) "Boris Karloff came into town and had lunches with Mark and myself. He seemed pleased with the work we had done on "Blackbeard."

"It is interesting to note that while Robert Siodmak was directing Warners' The Crimson Pirate (1952), the Burt Lancaster follow-up to The Flame and the Arrow, Tourneur was working on Anne of the Indies, an account of Blackbeard the Pirate. Tourneur's film should not be confused with RKO's aborted Lewton/Robson/Karloff Blackbeard project (which, that same year, had been dusted off, rewritten, assigned to director Raoul Walsh, and released as Blackbeard the Pirate.)

[Quote above] From Edmund G. Banzak's Fearing the Dark: The Val Lewton Career, published by McFarland & Company, 1995, page 426.

AMAZON: Fearing the Dark: The Val Lewton Career

THE RKO VAL LEWTON FILMS

BEDLAM 1946
RKO production 515
Producer, CO-writer
Directed by Mark Robson
Production start July 18, 1945
Production end August 17, 1945
Running time 79 minutes

THE BODY SNATCHER 1945
RKO production 484
Producer, CO-writer
Directed by Robert Wise
Production start October 25, 1944
Production end November 17, 1944
Running time 78 minutes

ISLE OF THE DEAD 1945
RKO production 470
Producer, CO-writer
Directed by Mark Robson
Production start July 14, 1944
Suspended: July 22, 1944
Restart: December 1, 1944
Production end December 12, 1944
Running time 71 minutes

MADEMOISELLE FIFI 1944
RKO production 457
Producer, CO-writer
Directed by Robert Wise
Production start March 23, 1944
Production end April 22, 1944
Running time 69 minutes

YOUTH RUNS WILD 1944
RKO production 444
Producer, CO-writer
Directed by Mark Robson
Production start November 3, 1943
Production end December 21, 1943
Running time 67 minutes

CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE 1944
RKO production 435
Producer, CO-writer
Directed by Gunther V. Fritsch,
replaced by Robert Wise
Production start August 26, 1943
Production end October 4, 1943
Running time 70 minutes

THE GHOST SHIP 1943
RKO production 431
Producer, CO-writer
Directed by Mark Robson
Production start August 3, 1943
Production end August 28, 1943
Running time 69 minutes
More The Ghost Ship - 1943

THE SEVENTH VICTIM 1943
RKO production 416
Producer, CO-writer
Directed by Mark Robson
Script by Charles O'Neal and DeWitt Bodeen
Production start May 5, 1943
Production end May 29, 1943
Negative shipped July 30, 1943
7 reels, footage 6385
Running time 70 minutes, 57 seconds
Certificate #9370

Seventh Victim: Page 33 (Script dated May 12, 1943): Dr. Judd "I'm sorry. I don't practice anymore. I find it easier to write about mental illness and leave the cure of it to others."

THE LEOPARD MAN 1943
RKO Production 407
Producer, CO-writer
Directed by Jacques Tourneur
Production start February 9, 1943
Production endMarch 8, 1943
Negative shipped April 16, 1943
7 Reels, footage 5939
Running time 66 minutes

I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE 1943
RKO Production Number 396
Production start October 26, 1942
Production end November 19, 1942
Producer, CO-writer
Directed by Jacques Tourneur
Running time 68 minutes
More I Walked with a Zombie - 1943

CAT PEOPLE 1942
RKO Production Number 386
Production start July 28, 1942
Production end August 21, 1942
Producer, Co-writer
Directed by Jacques Tourneur
Running time 71 minutes
More Cat People 1942

Other Films involving Lewton

• Jane Eyre 1940-1942
Lewton's last major story-editor work for Selznick.

• Rebecca 1940
A Hitchcock and Selznick film. Lewton is known to be responsible for having the title characters suicide segment of the story kept as it is presented versus the ending that Hitchcock & Selznick pursued. Lewton fundamentally ran interference for negotiations with the Breen office that approved film content for ratings.

• A Star is Born 1937
• The Prisoner of Zenda 1937
• Nothing Sacred 1937
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer 1938
• Young at Heart 1938
• Made for Each Other 1939
• Intermezzo 1939
Independent Selznick films. As Selznick's assistant, Lewton worked as a story editor, consultant and contributor (particularly on Nothing Sacred, according to Banzak's book).

Gone With The Wind
• Gone With The Wind 1936-1939
Lewton had been pushing Selznick for an adaptation of War and Peace, but instead was forced into production on this story which he disliked. Supposedly Lewton was the originator of the vast wounded-confederate railway depot scene, besides his usual chores for Selznick as an uncredited script editor and contributor.

• The Garden of Allah 1936
• Little Lord Flauntleroy 1936
Independent Selznick films. As Selznick's assistant, Lewton worked as a story editor, consultant and contributor.

Tale of Two Cities

• A TALE OF TWO CITIES 1935
("revolutionary sequences" with Jacques Tourneur)

Anna Karenina 1935
Reckless 1935
Vanessa: Her Love Story 1935
David Copperfield 1934
As Selznick's assistant, Lewton worked as a story editor, consultant and contributor. MGM Productions.

• Taras Bulba 1934
Unproduced Selznick film. Lewton hired to write film treatment.