After The Seventh Victim‘s disappointing returns, Val Lewton and RKO clashed over their next project. Lewton wanted a comedy, provisionally titled The Amorous Ghost, as a change of pace; studio boss Sid Rogell, Lewton’s bete noir, insisted on a sequel to Cat People, which Lewton resisted. Then RKO suggested a Universal-style monster rally, They Creep By Night, reuniting …
Val Lewton, Russian émigré turned horror master, was a reporter, pulp novelist and MGM publicity writer before moving into film. He spent the 1930s as David O. Selznick’s story editor, directing second unit work on A Tale of Two Cities (1935) and script doctoring Gone With the Wind (1939), warning Selznick it would be “the mistake of his …
Coming out of World War II, the major Hollywood studios had hoped to get back to business as usual. The distraction of the war was gone, rationing repealed, and the boys – 15 million of them — were coming home. But the expected upsurge in business didn’t come. In fact, almost immediately box office began …