SOURCE: "The Seventh Victim: The 'Haunted Eyes' of Jean Brooks—Val Lewton, 1904-1951," in Val Lewton: The Reality of Terror, The Viking Press, 1973, pp. 7-100.

In the following excerpt, Siegel discusses Lewton's career and the production histories of his films, from Cat People through The Curse of the Cat People.

It is generally nonsensical to speak of producers as creators when, in all but a few cases, they were the enemies of creation. One of the exceptions was Lewton who, though credited only as producer, was unarguably the artistic creator and prime mover of his films. Apart from his last, troubled productions, Lewton's films were easily identifiable by their attention to detail, their unusually literate screenplays, their skillful, suggestive use of shadow and sound. Although his production unit at RKO was fully democratic, with each member having a full say on artistic matters, Lewton's eleven RKO films constitute...