Archived News Items 2005 - 2006
December 22, 2005:
The page on the Lewton film BEDLAM has been added
to here including a new 30
image gallery page here.
December 11, 2005:
NO BED OF HER OWN - Lewton's 1932 novel to be reissued - Click
on the Press Release image below for more.
Featuring
a new introduction by Val E. Lewton, the son of the author,
specially commissioned art from comic-book artist Marc Baines,
and an essay on Lewton's writing career by Damien Love (author
of the Robert Mitchum biography Solid, Dad, Crazy), No
Bed of Her Own will be published April 3rd, 2006 in the
UK and USA, as the first title from Kingly-Reprieve, a new imprint
of Kingly Books.
- 
Contact publicity for this book is no-bed@dsl.pipex.com
Kingly Books
Amazon.com
December 8, 2005:
The page on Simone Simon has updated with a few links and additional
pictures here.
Scans of
two pages frpom Weird Tales, 1930, with Lewton's cat story The
Bagheeta.
Scan of two-page pre-filming promo for the film No Bed of Her Own which became No Man of Her Own, based on Lewton's novel of the former name. Also, Miriam Hopkins was switched out for Carol Lombard for the final version.
November 12 , 2005:
The Google.com book project has a number of Lewton titles in its online library. For example Banzak's Fearing the Dark, and the Jacques Tourneur bio Cinema of Nightfall.There are literally hundreds of books listed which mention Lewton in some degree.
- 
October 18 , 2005:
Liz Chancellor has an excellent web site on Frances Dee. Go here.
October 4, 2005:
The long anticipated VAL LEWTON BOX SET is now out. It can be
ordered from many outlets, like the TCM movie channel web site
and (of course) amazon.com, among others.
October
1, 2005
(Above)
The animated ad at TCM.com promoting their Lewton Halloween festival in October.
(Above) Still frame from the flash animation at the TCM movie site.
September 15, 2005:
Lewton film editor and director Robert Wise died of heart failure.
Obituary articles:
Hollywood
Reporter:
"Robert Wise, a four-time Academy Award winner whose
epic 65-year career ranged from editing Orson Welles' "Citizen
Kane" to directing the quintessential 1960s musical "The
Sound of Music" to launching the first "Star Trek"
film, died Wednesday of heart failure. He was 91.
[excerpt]
...Wise then began to bombard studio executives with requests
to direct. In 1943, while he was editing "The Curse of
the Cat People," the film's director was removed because
the project was behind schedule. Wise was handed the job,
and he completed it within the 10 allotted days. The movie
went on to become a hit and has since become a cult classic."
Reuters UK
IMDB page on Wise
CBC.CA
(Screenshot of their page about Wise's death below)
September 19, 2005:
There's a new book on the Lewton films from the University of California Press:
Alexander Nemerov
Icons of Grief
Val Lewton's Home Front Pictures
$24.95
"This beautifully written study looks at the haunting, melancholy horror films Val Lewton made between 1942 and 1946 and finds them to
be powerful commentaries on the American home front during World War
Alexander Nemerov focuses on the iconic, isolated figures
who appear in four of Lewton's small-budget classics--The Curse of the Cat People, The Ghost Ship, I Walked with a Zombie, and Bedlam.
These ghosts, outcasts, and other apparitions of sorrow crystallize the anxiety and grief experienced by Americans during the war,
emotions decidedly at odds with the official insistence on courage, patriotism, and optimism. In an evocative meditation on Lewton's use
of these "icons of grief," Nemerov demonstrates the film-maker's interest in those who found themselves alienated by wartime society and illuminates the dark side of the American psyche in the 1940s.Nemerov's rich study draws from Lewton's letters, novels, and scripts and from a wealth of historical material to shed light on both the visual and literary aspects of the filmmaker's work. Lavishly illustrated with more than fifty photographs, including many rare film stills, Icons of Grief recasts Lewton's horror films as suggestive commentaries on a troubled and hidden side of America during World War II."
More
at the Press web site here.
September 1, 2005:
The Val Lewton Horror Collection DVD is due out in October.
The Amazon page describing the discs included is here.
This is what I've heard for a list of titles:
DVD Feature
Titles:
Cat People
The Curse of the Cat People
I Walked with a Zombie
The Body Snatcher
Isle of the Dead
Bedlam
The Leopard Man
The Ghost Ship
The Seventh Victim
Shadows in the Dark (Documentary)
Audio
Commentary:
Greg Mank with Simone Simon on Cat People and Curse of the Cat
People, Kim Newman and Steve Jones on I Walked With a Zombie, Steve Haberman with Robert Wise on The Body Snatcher, Tom Weaver
on Bedlam, and Steve Haberman on The Seventh Victim.
March
17, 2005:
Warner Bros is working on a 9-film box set of Lewton films for
DVD release. CAT PEOPLE is the lead film for the series. Newspaper
article listing as a 2005 release here.
