The Seventh Victim

This week’s Film Noir of the Week is Val Lewton’s The Seventh Victim (1943). Last week, Don Malcom wrote about one of my favorites The Big Sleep which many believe may not be a film noir at all, while The Seventh Victim is almost never classified as a film noir when it’s a fine example of the film style.

The film was created by Lewton based only on a title given to him by RKO. It was directed by Mark Robson (his first film as director) and stars Tom Conway (playing the same guy he played, and got killed as, in The Cat People!); Jean Brooks (The Leopard Man); Isabel Jewel (The Leopard Man); Kim Hunter (her first film role) and Hugh Beaumont (Railroaded!). Cinematography by Nicholas Musuraca (Blood on the Moon, Cat People) and music by Roy Webb (Out of the Past, and many other films noir).

As you can see the film boasts a very good cast and film makers who worked on many classic period films noir. So why isn’t this film “noir”? Who knows? People just didn’t go out and make noir back in the 1940s, they just came out that way. I would be interested in seeing what others think about this film.

I watched the film a few times on DVD this week and couldn’t get it out of my head. I’ve never seen it before or read much about it. Apparently, when Val Lewton was asked what the film was about he said, “Death is good.” The film is filled with a bunch of sad lonely people. Even the bit-part secretaries in the film have drunken fathers or great regrets in their lives. This is not a happy movie but one that makes you think. And one that makes you think “How the hell did this film get made?” In my opinion, it’s brilliant. I enjoy Cat People a little more because the story for The Seventh Victim doesn’t hold up when you ask key questions about the plot. I wrote a long (probably too long) synopsis for the film below, but my recommendation to you if you haven’t seen it is to watch it first. There are a few scenes in the film, not to mention the ending, which knocked...