I Walked with a Zombie

The film opens with Betsy Connell (Frances Dee) being interviewed for a home-care nursing position. Oddly, she's asked during the interview if she believes in witchcraft. She gets the position, working for Paul Holland (Tom Conway), who is a wealthy plantation owner on the Caribbean island of St. Sebastian. Holland has hired her to take care of his wife, Jessica (Christine Gordon), who is in a perpetual state that resembles somnambulance. As Betsy spends more time on the island, she learns that most of the population believes in and practices voodoo, and she learns that Jessica had a relatively tumultuous past with Holland's family.

This was director Jacques Tourneur and producer Val Lewton's second horror/thriller collaboration (the first being Cat People (1942) and the third The Leopard Man (1943)). For many viewers, it is their favorite of the three. While I like the film, I don't like it quite that much--I prefer Cat People. But still, I Walked With A Zombie ends up with a 7 out of 10 from me.

The horror aspects of I Walked With A Zombie are really very minor. They're really present only as a kind of personification of the results of complicated romantic and familial relationships. Yes, there is an admirable "haunted house"-styled scene involving a spooky stairway and creepy, distant sounds, and yes, the trek to the voodoo "home fort" is well done, but this kind of material doesn't work as well for me here as it did in Cat People, because here it's not really the focus of the story. It's ancillary material with the function of helping to solve a very different kind of mystery. Also, much of the voodoo material (such as the actual ceremony) tends to be overrated in my opinion, although the final sequence related to the voodoo theme is appropriately eerie.

But what works best for me in I Walked With A Zombie are the many dialogue-heavy scenes where the three main characters--Connell, Holland and Wesley Rand (James Ellison)--gradually learn more about one another, and where the "mystery" is gradually uncovered. A scene where a local "minstrel" sings part of the backstory while Connell and Rand are having a drink is exquisite, for example. Yet, even with this positive aspect, I never felt that the backstory was sufficiently explained. The mystery remains, and the moralizing bookends of the film do not help, either.

Still, I Walked With A Zombie is definitely worth a watch, and based on the extravagant praise that many viewers utter towards the film, you might like it much better than I do.

Director Jacques Tourneur and producer Val Lewton are noted for their more cerebral forays into the horror genre and this is one of the finest of their partnership. The basic story centers around voodoo in the islands and the real or imagined effects it has on one particular family. I never know whether Tom Conway is a good, low-key actor or not an actor at all but here he does a passable job as the tortured husband. Frances Dee is sweet as the nurse who gets entangled in the family problems and tries to help to no avail. Although Christine Gordon says not a word during the whole film, her image and unusual beauty is haunting. Edith Barrett, an actress who was pitifully under used in film, is outstanding as the mother who plays a rather surprising role. The whole film is based on atmosphere and great cinematography....it is chilling without showing much, therefore leaving a lot to the imagination. There is no violence,no special effects and no gore but it will hold you in suspense just the same. The choice of title is unfortunate (but so was "I Married a Monster from Outer Space" which was also a good film). I rate this movie as one of the Tourneur/Lewton masterpieces and highly recommend it to all lovers of the genre.

"I Walked with a Zombie" is one of the most highly regarded of the handful of horror films that Val Lewton produced in the early to mid forties. The story is based partly on Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre" and partly on a magazine article by Inez Wallace.

In the film, a young Canadian nurse accepts a position in the West Indies where she will care for a plantation manager's convalescent wife. She finds that the woman's mental faculties have been affected by a fever and the locals refer to her as a zombie. She determines to effect a cure, even if she has to enter into the mysterious (and potentially dangerous) world of voodoo.

The acting is decent enough but nothing to write home about. The top-billed James Ellison gives a forgettable performance but co-stars Frances Dee & Tom Conway fare better. In support, some actors seem more authentic than others but overall the cast is satisfactory.

Jacques Tourneur was handed the directorial duties and he did a fine job with the resources that were available to him. The direction, cinematography & score (by Roy Webb) create an ominous atmosphere that makes up for any inadequacies inherent in the film's low budget. The screenplay (co-written by Curt Siodmak) also deserves praise for its psychological depth and ambiguous treatment of the supernatural.

All in all, "I Walked with a Zombie" is a worthwhile horror picture and a welcome change from today's stereotypical flesh-eating zombies. While its B-movie origins are sometimes apparent, this film elevates itself above the usual expectations with intelligent screen writing and skillful technique.

Betsy Connell (Frances Dee) is a Canadian nurse hired to come to the Caribbean island of St. Sebastian, to work at Fort Holland. There she will attend to the needs of the mute, unresponsive, yet seemingly alive Jessica Holland (Christine Gordon). Jessica is wife to a plantation owner named Paul Holland (Tom Conway), with whom Betsy falls in love. Betsy becomes determined to do the right thing by Paul by trying to cure her, if she can. That includes immersing herself in the local voodoo culture.

There may be modern horror fans who bemoan the lack of what one might consider horror in "I Walked with a Zombie". It starts to go for more of a traditional creep factor in its second half, using the imposing Darby Jones as the mysterious, zombified Carrefour to great effect. Everything is handled with a great deal of sensitivity and authenticity by screenwriters Curt Siodmak & Ardel Wray, producer Val Lewton, and director Jacques Tourneur. Unlike some of the horror product of the time, it actually treats its black characters with a great deal of dignity and respect, and also gives the actors a chance to shine, such as Theresa Harris as Alma the maid.

As was always the case with these Lewton productions, the story (based to some degree on Jane Eyre, with factual articles on voodoo in the West Endies also used as a basis) is pretty tight, and the running time is typically short. (69 minutes all told.) We don't get to know the characters all that well, but we do still like them, and in a refreshing touch, there are no clear cut villains or explanations for the strange events. The actors each do a solid job: Dee as the heroine, Conway as the husband, James Ellison as his half brother, Edith Barrett (in old age make-up) as their mother, James Bell as the doctor, and Sir Lancelot as the calypso singer. As one can see, some of the cast were regulars in these Lewton films.

Overall, there's a real feeling of sadness to the atmosphere, helping to make this one of the best of Lewtons' filmography. One wouldn't know from the end result how quickly and cheaply these productions were made, as they have the power to grip their viewers 70 plus years later.

Eight out of 10.

The Canadian nurse Betsy Connell (Frances Dee) is hired to travel to St. Sebastian, in West Indies, to work at Fort Holland nursing Jessica Holland (Christine Gordon), the wife of the sugar plantation owner Paul Holland (Tom Conway). Betsy meets Paul in the ship and is welcomed by Paul's estranged half-brother Wesley "Wes" Rand (James Ellison) in the farmhouse. During the night, she overhears a woman crying and she believes that might be Jessica and goes to her room. She finds a creepy mute woman and she learns that Jessica had a mental paralysis after a severe tropical fever and is a hopeless case, unable to speak or have power. Soon Betsy falls in love with Paul and she decides to help Jessica to be cured to make Paul happier. She suggests an experimental treatment with shock to Dr. Maxwell (James Bell) but it fails. While talking to the maid Alma (Theresa Harris), she discovers that another woman was cured in a voodoo ceremony by a voodoo priest and she decides to use witchcraft to cure Jessica. However the natives believe that Jessica is a zombie that cannot be cured. When Betsy meets Paul and Wesley's mother Mrs. Rand (Edith Barrett), she finds that Jessica was the pivot of a fight between Paul and Wes and she believes that her daughter-in-law is a zombie.

"I Walked with a Zombie" is an ambiguous zombie movie directed by Jacques Tourneur. The plot is a family drama and the zombies in this movie are not like in George Romero's trilogy or "The Walking Dead", but related to voodoo in a Caribbean Island. There is a creepy atmosphere with a beautiful cinematography, the non-stop voodoo drums and the native Carrefour, but no gore, violent death or scream. The conclusion is ambiguous after the revelation of Mrs. Rand. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Morta-Viva" ("The Living Dead")