Val Lewton: The Man in the Shadows

Directed by Kent Jones. With Martin Scorsese, Elias Koteas, Orson Welles, Val E. Lewton. Martin Scorsese narrates this tribute to Val Lewton, the producer of a series of memorable low-budget horror films for RKO Studios. Raised by his mother and his aunt, his films often included strong female characters who find themselves in difficult situations and who have to grow up quickly. He is best remembered for the horror films he made at RKO starting in 1940. Starting with only a title - ...

Val Lewton: The Man in the Shadows (TV Movie 2007) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more.

While his name was known to only the most obsessive film fans during the course of his career, Val Lewton produced a handful of low-budget horror movies in the 1940's that had a revolutionary impact on the genre. Working within a special production unit at RKO Pictures, Lewton's films were mood pieces that created an atmosphere of anxiety rather than aiming for blunt shocks, and used shadowy camerawork and careful pacing to infer more than the audience actually saw. Several of Lewton's productions became minor hits, most notably Cat People, and a number of others (including Isle Of The Dead, I Walked With A Zombie, Curse Of The Cat People, The Seventh Victim and The Body Snatchers) are cult favorites to this day. Lewton also discovered a number of directors who would become major players later on, including Robert Wise, Mark Robson and Jacques Tourneur, but Lewton's efforts to move on to bigger budget projects fared poorly, and poor health claimed his life in 1951, six years after his last picture for RKO. Film critic and archivist Kent Jones traces the story of Val Lewton's life and career while paying homage to the films that made his name in the documentary Val Lewton: Man In The Shadows, which features highlights from Lewton's best films while sharing the memories of those who knew and worked with him. Originally produced for the Turner Classic Movies cable network, Val Lewton: Man In the Shadows is narrated by filmmaker and lifelong film fan Martin Scorsese.

Nowhere else on television is such a genuine love for filmmaking consistently put on display as ADDED: in //the Turner Classic Movie documentaries, especially when they have the audacity to stretch beyond household-name stars and directors.

Val Lewton: The Man in the Shadows (also known as Martin Scorsese Presents: Val Lewton – The Man in the Shadows) is a documentary tribute to Val Lewton, the producer of a series of distinctive low-budget horror films for RKO Radio Pictures, presented and narrated by director Mart