The Seventh Victim (1943)


Many of the movies that producer Val Lewton made for RKO in the 1940s are considered horror.  They were done on low budgets, often with many of the same actors and with directors that shared similar ideas with Lewton on how the movies should be made.  However, unlike the Universal horror films, Lewton relied more on atmosphere rather than makeup effects and monsters.  As a result, other than Cat People and The Leopard Man, many of these movies walk a line between psychological drama and mystery.  It is almost as if they are horror not because that is what is intended, but because people want them to be.  Such is the case with The Seventh Victim. 

Mary Gibson (Kim Hunter) is a young girl at a private religious institution that is suddenly informed that her sister Jacqueline (Jean Brooks) has stopped paying her tuition.  In fact, Jacqueline seems to have gone missing.  Mary decides to return to New York City to find her.  What she discovers in that Jacqueline sold her cosmetics business to her partner Esther Redi (Mary Newton) before vanishing.  At first she enlists the help of shady private eye Irving August (Lou Lubin), but after looking in a secret room at the factory he is killed. 

Mary soon finds out that her sister is married to a man named Gregory Ward (Hugh Beaumont) who is also looking for Jacqueline and, soon, they find that a man named Dr. Louis Judd (Tom Conway) knows of her whereabouts.  It seems that she is tied up with a group of devil worshippers who believe she has betrayed them and have declared that she should die.  With the help of Judd, Ward and a poet named Jason Hoag (Erford Gage) Mary hopes to rescue her sister, but finds herself falling in love with Gregory. 

One of the striking things about The Seventh Victim is that it addresses something that was pretty much ignored in the 1940s.  Now we would recognize Jacqueline as having severe depression.  She has an obsession with death to the point where she rents a room that contains simply a chair and a noose so that, at any time of her choosing, she can end her life.  Despite being successful at her business she has a tendency to self-sabotage.  Rather than being an all-seeing secret society the cult she falls in with seems like a dime store Thelema knockoff that doesn't even have the courtesy to throw a decent orgy. 

The acting is well done, with Kim Hunter coming across as timid when need be but otherwise tenacious and determined.  Tom Conway is solid as usual, reprising his role from Cat People, as is Hugh Beaumont, even though I wouldn't say he nor the romantic subplot are too impressive.  Erford Gage has much more emotional resonance as Jason, the poet, who longs for Mary despite knowing, in a mature manner and not a fatalistic one, that he won't get her.  Mary Newton is satisfyingly evil and Lou Lubin does a great character actor job in his small role.  Too bad neither of them made the credit list despite being integral to the plot. 

Jean Brooks, like Simone Simon, may seem like some proto-goth icon.  However, Jacqueline is more than a one-note character despite Brooks's limited time on screen.  Rather, despite her depression, she remains strong, making it clear to the cult that she is going out on her own terms and not theirs.  There is a bit of awkward moral dialog from Dr. Judd that I'm sure was demanded by censors, but for the last portion of the film is unlike most movies of the time and definitely at odds with the Hays Code.  It is amazing that Charles O'Neal and DeWitt Bodeen, who wrote the script, got away with it, although Bodeen's original script was much different. 

Finally, there is first-time director Mark Robson, who works some of the same magic for Lewton as Jacques Tourneur did, overcoming the shoestring budget with shadows and atmosphere as all the usual monster props were not available.  That is what mostly links this to horror other than there are some devil worshippers involved.  Otherwise, this is a bit of a dark noir story with a few occult elements thrown in.  Still, it works, and is yet another great example of Lewton's time at RKO. 

The Seventh Victim (1943)
Time: 71 minutes
Starring: Kim Hunter, Hugh Beaumont, Tom Conway, Erford Gage, Jean Brooks
Director: Mark Robson

 

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