SOURCE: "A Photogenic Horror: Lewton Does Robert Louis Stevenson," in Literature/Film Quarterly, Vol. 10, No. 1, 1982, pp. 25-37.

In the following essay, Telotte examines the specifically cinematic qualities of Lewton's adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's short story "The Body Snatcher" (1895).

Before becoming a story editor for David Selznick and then going on to produce his famous series of B-films at RKO, Val Lewton had embarked on a writing career, working first as a reporter and then churning out a broad range of historical novels, romances, and thrillers. That literary background apparently served him well in his film work, for according to his associates he "rewrote everything that his writers turned in; the last draft [of each script] was always his" [Joel Siegel, Val Lewton: The Reality of Terror, 1973]. Perhaps more importantly, he made that literary atmosphere felt everywhere in his productions; as Mark Robson, director of five Lewton films...