The Seventh Victim (1943) *

Finished late Halloween Eve into Halloween morning with the final Lewton horror production, directed by Mark Robson, The Seventh Victim (1943), about a young woman trying to find her older sister in New York, encountering a sophisticated, privileged class cult of Greenwich village devil worshippers. In order to maintain their lifestyle/worship in secret, a rule or vow is taken by members that if one among them blabs to outsiders about their existence death is a result. While use of violence is deemed unnecessary, their tactic is to influence the lawbreaker to commit suicide. The security of their devil cult society is of great importance as you can see. With Kim Hunter debuting, her younger sister outsider in the urban setting searches diligently for Jacqueline, unsure where she's located. She meets Jacqueline's husband, a poet struggling with writer's block, and Jacqueline's psychiatrist (Lewton vet, Tom Conway) along the way, including a PI killed by her sister when they were closing in on her. Unique look at followers of Satan, dressed in fine tailored suits and evening gowns, revealed as rich and successful. And their willingness to send an assassin out to execute Jacqueline shows just how desperate they are to keep their society hidden. Much like Cat People and other Lewton goodies, the urban streets at the darkest night, empty and foreboding, have women walking the sidewalks not exactly sure if they are alone. Jacqueline's fatalistic, tragic character was doomed to meet a grin fate while her younger sister finds a kindergarten teaching job and love. This is famous for the shower intrusion where Hunter is interrupted while bathing by one of the cult, threatening her. Also notable by scholars for its potential homosexual relationship as Jacqueline's "former employee" (Isabel Jewel) begs for her to be spared as the cult members persist in a voluntary suicide. This deserves so much better a write-up, and there are layers, characterizations, and content just dying for further analyses and deep thought, so I look forward to future viewings of this gem. It doesn't get the glow necessarily as others Lewton productions, but The Seventh Victim, just the same, deserves the very praise its later re-evaluation merited it.