Interviews &
Clips
Photos
News
Awards &
Nominations

Val Lewton

:

Overview

Avg.User Rating: 
2 Ratings
Rate this person:
Producer, Screenwriter
Born:
May 7, 1904 in Yalta, Russia
Death:
March 14, 1951 in Los Angeles, CA
Biography:A Columbia University graduate and former writer, "Val Lewton" first made a name for himself in films as an assistant to "David O. Selznick" in the 1930s, and co-directed the Bastille scene in "A Tale of Two Cities" (1938). In 1942, Lewton became a producer at RKO, specializing in low budget but extremely effect chillers, such as "Leopard Man" (1943), "Cat People" (1942), "The Seventh Victim" (1943), and "Curse of the Cat People" (1944), co-writing several of them. Lewton hoped to move into A-pictures, but his slightly higher budgeted "Bedlam" (1945) failed to make as much money as was hoped, and he was told to continue with smaller scale films. He left RKO and continued trying to produce movies elsewhere, but none of his subsequent pictures had the style or appeal of those small-scale, atmospheric chillers which Lewton virtually directed himself, so precisely did his scripts indicate what he wanted... Full Biography
advertisement