Match Cut Director Consensus - Jacques Tourneur

[Ezee E]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/75/Tourneur.jpg

Filmography
1931 Tout ça ne vaut pas l'amour
1933 Toto
Pour être aimé
1934 Les Filles de la concierge
1938 They All Come Out
1939 Nick Carter, Master Detective
1940 Phantom Raiders
1941 Doctors Don't Tell
1942 Cat People
1943 I Walked with a Zombie
The Leopard Man
1944 Days of Glory
Experiment Perilous
1946 Canyon Passage
1947 Out of the Past
1948 Berlin Express
1949 Easy Living
1950 Stars In My Crown
The Flame and the Arrow
1951 Circle of Danger
Anne of the Indies
1952 Way of a Gaucho
1953 Appointment in Honduras
1955 Stranger on Horseback
Wichita
1956 Great Day in the Morning
1957 Nightfall
Night of the Demon
1958 The Fearmakers
1959 Timbuktu
Frontier Rangers
Giant of Marathon
1964 The Comedy of Terrors
1965 War-Gods of the Deep

[Boner M]

Cat People - 7.5
I Walked With a Zombie - 6.5
Out of the Past - 9
Night of the Demon - 8

[Raiders]

Cat People (1942) 8.0
I Walked With a Zombie (1943) 8.5
The Leopard Man (1943) 9.0
Out of the Past (1947) 9.0
Nightfall (1956) 7.5
Night of the Demon (1957) 6.5
Twilight Zone: Night Call (1964) 8.5

[Yxklyx]

Cat People - 7
I Walked with a Zombie - 7
The Leopard Man - 6
Out of the Past - 7
Night of the Demon - 8
Nightfall - 6

[MacGuffin]

I have just put some of his most major stuff on hold at the library. I've seen I Walked With a Zombie, but I'm at least 90% sure I missed the boat.

[Bosco B Thug]

Cat People - 8
I Walked With a Zombie - 8.5
The Leopard Man - 9
Out of the Past - 9
Night of the Demon - 8
The Comedy of Terrors - 5.5

Might give Out of the Past a re-view before the week is out. Ought to.

[soitgoes...]

Cat People (1942) - 8.0
I Walked with a Zombie (1943) - 8.0
The Leopard Man (1943) - 6.5
Out of the Past (1947) - 9.0
Easy Living (1949) - 5.0
The Flame and the Arrow (1950) - 4.0
Night of the Demon (1957) - 6.5

[MadMan]

Cat People(1942)-9.0
I Walked with a Zombie(1943)-7.0
The Leopard Man(1943)-8.0
Out of the Past(1947)-9.0
Night of the Demon(1957)-8.0

One of my favorite directors, although I doubt I'll ever watch all of his filmography. I think Berlin Express, War Gods of the Deep, The Comedy of Terrors, and Nightfall are ones I should check out from him next. His work with Val Lewton is awesome, of course.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Does his Twilight Zone episode count?

[Spinal]

Cat People - 6

[Grouchy]

Cat People - 8

Heh, I watched that movie after reading a full description of it in the Manuel Puig novel Kiss of the Spider Woman. Pop culture is the shit.

[baby doll]

Cat People (1942) [8]
I Walked With a Zombie (1943) [8]
The Leopard Man (1943) [8]
Out of the Past (1947) [8]

[Rowland]

Cat People - 7.5
I Walked with a Zombie - 9.0
The Leopard Man - 8.5

I'm not entirely comfortable with the Cat People score, and I didn't bother posting my Out of the Past score (6.5), since I saw the film over a decade ago in my early teens as one of my first noirs. I don't trust most of my scores from that long ago.

[dreamdead]

Cat People - 6.5
I Walked with a Zombie - 9
Out of the Past - 8
Night of the Demon - 6

[Sven]

Cat People 6.5
I Walked with a Zombie 8
The Leopard Man 9
Experiment Perilous 7
Out of the Past 8.5
Berlin Express 8.5
The Flame and the Arrow 7
Night of the Demon 10

Cat People is one of those kind of movies that works perfectly on paper and as theory and even as a film -- it's practically perfectly shot, the acting is fine, and the content is relatively compelling -- yet for some reason just has never clicked for me. I've seen it four times now, each time hoping to like it more.

Leopard Man is crazy underrated. Reading on him for the class I took on him, it seems like the critical world disses on that one all the time. But it's so good! And I don't think I can get on board with any scores less than an "8" for Night of the Demon, which is as excellent as films get.

The Flame and the Arrow was suspiciously fun.

[Bosco B Thug]

Cat People is one of those kind of movies that works perfectly on paper and as theory and even as a film -- it's practically perfectly shot, the acting is fine, and the content is relatively compelling -- yet for some reason just has never clicked for me. I've seen it four times now, each time hoping to like it more. I'd say it's because it plays it pretty straight, compared to The Leopard Man and I Walked With a Zombie. I'd actually say its sensitive and perceptive content supersedes Tourneur's directing job on this one.


And I don't think I can get on board with any scores less than an "8" for Night of the Demon, which is as excellent as films get. Right on. This one also plays it straight, but it's so assured and confident. I love its drab, almost documentary-like aesthetic, that is perverted by the unbelievable horror we witness.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Cat People - 6.5
Night Call - 8.5

[MadMan]

If anything, Night of the Demon is rather underrated. It has many excellent shots and scenes, and the actual creature itself flat out rules as far as 50s monsters go.

I want to revisit The Leopard Man and I Walked With a Zombie again. A second viewing of Leopard made me realize how good it actually was, but Zombie fell a few notches. I viewed both and a couple more Val Lewton movies thanks to TCM in 2008, which showed many of them and the documentary "Val Lewton: The Man In the Shadows," which was narrated by Martin Scorsese and is quite good.

[Derek]

Cat People - 6.5
I Walked with a Zombie - 7.0
The Leopard Man - 7.5
Out of the Past - 8.0
Stars in My Crown - 6.0
Night of the Demon - 7.0

[StanleyK]

Cat People - 9

[kopello]

Cat People - 7.5
Out of the Past - 6.5

[dreamdead]

Meh. I can't get behind Night of the Demon. Although parts of the monster effects work, especially in the long distance shots, all of the close-up effects just come off clunky. Furthermore, the whole science vs. mysticism angle never feels as though it's naturally brought about--Andrews doesn't have the personality to make his character work. Only the villain actually has proper personality, even if he doesn't get enough coverage...

[Sven]

Meh. I can't get behind Night of the Demon. Although parts of the monster effects work, especially in the long distance shots, all of the close-up effects just come off clunky. Furthermore, the whole science vs. mysticism angle never feels as though it's naturally brought about--Andrews doesn't have the personality to make his character work. Only the villain actually has proper personality, even if he doesn't get enough coverage...

Epic fail. Dana Andrews is perfection.

[thefourthwall]

Cat People - 6.5
I Walked with a Zombie - 9
Out of the Past - 8
Night of the Demon - 7.5

[StanleyK]

I thought Cat People was supposed to be a classic; what's with all the 'meh' scores?

[baby doll]

I thought Cat People was supposed to be a classic; what's with all the 'meh' scores?If they can't see how awesome it is, that's their problem, not the film's.

[Boner M]

Cat People is one of those kind of movies that works perfectly on paper and as theory and even as a film -- it's practically perfectly shot, the acting is fine, and the content is relatively compelling -- yet for some reason just has never clicked for me. I've seen it four times now, each time hoping to like it more.
I feel exactly this way about I Walked With a Zombie. I keep waiting for a breakthrough with each viewing... but nope, it never comes.

[origami_mustache]

Cat People - 7

[dmk]

Cat People - 8.5
I Walked with a Zombie - 8.0
The Leopard Man - 9.0
Out of the Past - 6.0
Night of the Demon - 7.5

[B-side]

I Walked with a Zombie - 6.5

[MacGuffin]

Do we have 'til the end of this week? I just picked up a few of his films from the library and can probably watch them by then.

[Ezee E]

Do we have 'til the end of this week? I just picked up a few of his films from the library and can probably watch them by then.
Yeah. I'll be in Telluride, so I don't plan on doing this till next week.

[MacGuffin]

Yeah. I'll be in Telluride, so I don't plan on doing this till next week.

Awesome, thanks!

[MacGuffin]

Won't be getting to the Tourneur's.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Cat People - 9
I Walked with a Zombie - 8
The Leopard Man - 9
Night of the Demon - 8

[Eleven]

Cat People - 9
I Walked with a Zombie - 8.5
The Leopard Man - 7
Out of the Past - 8.5
Stars in My Crown - 7.5
The Flame and the Arrow - 7.5
Night of the Demon - 8
The Fearmakers - 5.5

[Dillard]

What's wrong with me? I love I Walked With a Zombie, but somehow, the rest of the Tourneur horror/suspense films I have been watching fall utterly short of great: the characters half-baked, the suspense not as thrilling, the mystery not as engaging. Maybe I rate Cat People so low because Curse of the Cat People absolutely blows it out of the water for its drama and poetry and I watched the latter right after the former.

Cat People - 5.5
I Walked With a Zombie - 9
The Leopard Man - 4
Curse of the Demon - 5

[Bosco B Thug]

What's wrong with me? I love I Walked With a Zombie, but somehow, the rest of the Tourneur horror/suspense films I have been watching fall utterly short of great: the characters half-baked, the suspense not as thrilling, the mystery not as engaging. Maybe I rate Cat People so low because Curse of the Cat People absolutely blows it out of the water for its drama and poetry and I watched the latter right after the former.

Cat People - 5.5
I Walked With a Zombie - 9
The Leopard Man - 4
Curse of the Demon - 5 I often find myself automatically placing IWWaZ as the best, and I feel a lot of it has to do with the fact that it's mostly just a drama w/ supernatural elements, and so it doesn't suffer from too much in the way of "genre trappings." The Leopard Man definitely suffers a bit from that. And right now, I do feel more eager to repeat-bask in The Curse of the Cat People's straight-up magic rather than go through Cat People's in-all-frankness-has-dated "OoOo is she or is she not a CAT PERSON?" stuff.

But still, harsh with The Leopard Man!

[Raiders]

I need to watch them all again. I did a binge right after the box set was released and honestly a lot of the imagery has run together in my mind. My fondest memories are actually of The Leopard Man but I would rate all three pretty much evenly.

[Dillard]

But still, harsh with The Leopard Man!I really should rewatch it.

[monolith94]

1942 Cat People 8.0
1943 The Leopard Man 8.5
1947 Out of the Past 9.5
1957 Night of the Demon 9.5