The Seventh Victim (1943)

Director:

Mark Robson

Writers:

Charles O'Neal (written by) and
DeWitt Bodeen (written by)

Release Date:

21 August 1943 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

SLAVE to SATAN!

Plot:

A woman in search of her missing sister uncovers a Satanic cult in New York's Greenwich Village, and finds that they may have something to do with her sibling's random disappearance.

Plot Keywords:

Cult | New York City | Satanic Cult | Switchblade | Number 7 In Title

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Tom Conway	...	Doctor Louis Judd
Jean Brooks	...	Jacqueline Gibson
Isabel Jewell	...	Frances Fallon
Kim Hunter	...	Mary Gibson
Evelyn Brent	...	Natalie Cortez
Erford Gage	...	Jason Hoag, Poet
Ben Bard	...	Mr. Brun
Hugh Beaumont	...	Gregory Ward
Chef Milani	...	Mr. Jacob Romari
Marguerita Sylva	...	Mrs. Bella Romari

Also Known As:

The 7th Victim (USA) (promotional title)

Runtime:

71 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Australia:M | Finland:K-16 (1986) | USA:Approved (PCA #9370)

Company:

RKO Radio Pictures

Trivia:

The original story for the film (outlined by DeWitt Bodeen) was to be about an orphaned heroine caught in a web of murder against a background of the Signal Hills oil wells. If she didn't find out the killer's identity in time, she would become his seventh victim. Producer Val Lewton wanted the story to go in a different direction and called in a second writer to help reshape it.

Goofs:

Factual errors: In the beginning of the movie we see a quote from John Donne. "I run from death, and death meets me as fast, And all my pleasures are like yesterday." The movie attributes the quote to John Donne's Holy Sonnet #7. But it is actually from Holy Sonnet #1.

Quotes:

Doctor Louis Judd: As a man you distrust me. Perhaps you can believe me as a physician

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Two Masters' Eyes (2003) (V)

Another stylish chiller from Val Lewton's RKO unit

As a longtime booster of The Cat People, I tended to give the credit to its director Jacques Tourneur (later to helm Out of the Past). Seeing The Seventh Victim, also from Val Lewton's B-movie unit at RKO, changed all that. It seems Lewton was the resident genius, cobbling together stylish horror/suspense films on shoestring budgets. The young Kim Hunter, away at a private school, learns that her tuition hasn't been paid because her sister, owner of a beauty empire, has disappeared. She leaves school and starts scouring New York's Greenwich Village (also the locale of much of The Cat People) only to uncover a cult of devil worshipers. Lewton's thrillers haven't dated the way James Whale's, for instance, have, possibly because they depend so heavily on suggestion; the literalness of today's "horror" films is completely alien to these suggestive, truly chilling films. The RKO B-movie unit under Lewton was also, probably, a major influence on the look of film noir, soon to become the cutting-edge aesthetic in American movies. This is as tense and satisfying a 75 minutes as you'll find until the Mann/Alton team's seminal noirs of a few years later.