The Seventh Victim (1943)

Schoolgirl Kim Hunter (Mary) is called to the office of the Headmistress Ottola Nesmith and told that she can no longer stay on as a pupil as her sister Jean Brooks (Jacqueline) has stopped paying her fees. More than that, Brooks seems to have gone missing. So, Hunter goes off to find her. But Brooks isn't so easy to locate.This film leaves you with scenes stuck in your mind, so it's good from that perspective. It is also well shot with an eerie atmosphere. Scenes that stand out include the sequence with Hunter and a detective exploring an office at night and the subsequent spooky train ride, a shower scene that will make you think of "Psycho" (1960) and pretty much every scene with Brooks. Fancy a drink? – no thanks but the pressure is on. And how about that ending? Wow, pretty bleak stuff. Especially coming after what had me cringing as we watched God and the Bible being used as a tool to counter Satan and his ways in an extremely simplistic way.Amo, Amas, Amat, Amamus, Amatis, Amant – remember your Latin from school? The 'ablative absolute' and the 'ut' clause (use the subjunctive). Quamquam. This film also throws in some Latin and I'm glad to hear it. It takes the viewer back to a time sadly long gone as we hear schoolgirls reciting the verb 'Amo' – to love. The day will come when a generation will watch this film and not understand what language it is.The cast are OK with Jean Brooks standing out. Her look suggests she is leader of the occult movement rather than a victim of it. And all of her scenes are quality – some genuinely scary, and all unworldly because of her appearance. That ending with the neighbour comes as a shock and leaves an eerie memory that will have you thinking about how we view life. It's an interesting film…and sad.

You're in store for satanic misery when you see this awful 1943 film.Kim Hunter spends the entire film looking for her missing sister. The latter is often seen with a Cleopatra like-hair-do and is constantly seeking out death.While searching, Kim meets up with the people around the sister's orbit. Seems as though she has joined a Satanic cult and as they claim she has betrayed them, she must die!Only Isabell Jewell has her moments as one of the members of this sick group. Jewell can burst forth crying, but this is not like her condemned seamstress 8 years earlier in the magnificent "Tale of Two Cities."Along the way, Hunter finds love with a guy she later discovers is married to the cookie sister. How convenient the sister makes it for them at film's end. Let us say a merciful end.

It's best not to know too much about the plot before sitting down to watch this interesting and offbeat little film, a nice combination of noir and horror that is written, acted, and directed in style. It's got some marvelously scary and suspenseful moments - especially near the end - and is overall quite the potent meditation on loneliness. It's got a memorable shower sequence that Hitchcock may well have seen and remembered before making "Psycho" 17 years later. Lewton and director Mark Robson (this was the first of the five features that Robson directed for Lewton) do a fine job of keeping our innocent heroine, and the viewer, in the dark for a fair amount of the running time, and create a memorably enigmatic character in Jacqueline Gibson.Kim Hunter debuts as Mary Gibson, a schoolgirl who learns that her sister Jacqueline has gone missing. So she travels to Greenwich Village in search of her, meeting various characters along the way, including lawyer Gregory Ward (Hugh Beaumont), who initially doesn't play it quite straight with her, published poet Jason Hoag (Erford Gage), psychiatrist Louis Judd (Tom Conway), and beauty shop proprietress Mrs. Redi (Mary Newton)."The Seventh Victim" gets very philosophical, and poignant, in the end, with two opposing sides engaging in a rather civil disagreement. But before we get there, there's a very creepy subway ride about which it's best not to reveal too much. Hunter is appealing in the lead. In addition to those actors mentioned, others lending fine support are Isabel Jewell as Frances and the distinctively featured Lou Lubin as concerned private eye Irving August. Jean Brooks as lost soul Jacqueline is excellent once the focus of the story finally shifts to her.Although this entry in Lewtons' filmography underperformed at the box office compared to hits like "Cat People", and wasn't well received at the time, it's very well done and certainly deserving of another look from film fans.Eight out of 10.

Remember when satanic cults were full of straight-laced middle-aged men and women sitting around in parlors wearing ties and wide brimmed hats? No I don't either, but according to this film that was the modus operandi of a group called The Palladists in Greenwich Village. We've probably never heard about them because they have stricter rules than The Fight Club, if a member talks about the Palladists outside the group their days are numbered. This creepy horror noir is enjoyable and worth a watch. If nothing else to see Hugh Beaumont show off his acting chops before he was typecast as Beaver Cleaver's father Ward. As it turns out, The Palladists was the alleged name of a secret society in France in the 19th century, so this film could claim it was "based on a true story" if it wanted to. When one of the members asks for proof that good is better than evil, I for one wasn't convinced by the protagonist's response.