Icons of Grief: Val Lewton's Home Front Pictures

by Alexander Nemerov

This beautifully written study looks at the haunting, melancholy horror films Val Lewton made between 1942 and 1946 and finds them to be powerful commentaries on the American home front during World War II. Alexander Nemerov focuses on the iconic, isolated figures who appear in four of Lewton's small-budget classics― The Curse of the Cat People, The Ghost Ship, I Walked with a Zombie, and Bedlam. These ghosts, outcasts, and other apparitions of sorrow crystallize the anxiety and grief experienced by Americans during the war, emotions decidedly at odds with the official insistence on courage, patriotism, and optimism. In an evocative meditation on Lewton's use of these "icons of grief," Nemerov demonstrates the film-maker's interest in those who found themselves alienated by wartime society and illuminates the dark side of the American psyche in the 1940s.

Nemerov's rich study draws from Lewton's letters, novels, and scripts and from a wealth of historical material to shed light on both the visual and literary aspects of the filmmaker's work. Lavishly illustrated with more than fifty photographs, including many rare film stills, Icons of Grief recasts Lewton's horror films as suggestive commentaries on a troubled and hidden side of America during World War II.

226 pages, Paperback

First published June 18, 2005

About the author

A scholar of American art, Nemerov writes about the presence of art, the recollection of the past, and the importance of the humanities in our lives today. Committed to teaching the history of art more broadly as well as topics in American visual culture — the history of American photography, for example — he is a noted writer and speaker on the arts. His most recent books are Wartime Kiss: Visions of the Moment in the 1940s (2013) and Acting in the Night: Macbeth and the Places of the Civil War (2010). In 2011 he published To Make a World: George Ault and 1940s America (2011), the catalogue to the exhibition of the same title he curated at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Among his recent essays are pieces on Peter Paul Rubens, on Henry James, on Thomas Eakins and JFK; and on Rothko and Rembrandt.

Reviews

[Chuck Pickerill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Val Lewton produced a total 14 films from 1942-1951. Despite this low number, he left a lasting mark on film history through the low budget horror films he produced for RKO Radio Pictures. Many of these films were released during World War II when Americans flocked to the movies for escapism. However, what do these films have to say about the American home front during this time? This is the premise of Alexander Nemerov's book "Icons of Grief: Val Lewton's Home Front Pictures."

Nemerov examines five characters in four of Lewton's films that crystallize the anxiety and sadness experienced by Americans during the war. These emotions being at odds with the typical insistence on courage, patriotism and optimism promoted by the government. These "icons of grief" he contends represent those alienated by wartime society. The first example he presents is a Christmas Eve scene in the 1944 "The Curse of the Cat People." In this scene as group of friends are gathered around a piano singing Christmas Carols, only the little girl Amy (Ann Carter) hears a French lullaby being sung. When she looks out the window, the ghostly apparition of her father's first wife, Irena (Simone Simon) stands still in the snowy backyard. Amy goes out to greet her ghostly friend with the adults unaware she has gone. This Nemerov contends is an example of the chasm between the home front and the battle lines. The warm and the cold, the living and the dead being the scene's subject. This chapter goes on further to explore the characters of Irena and Amy from this film.

Other chapters look at Skelton Knaggs in "The Ghost Ship" (1943), Darby Jones in "I Walked with a Zombie" (1943) and Glen Vernon in "Bedlam" (1946). Throughout the book he cites other works from literature (including fictional works of Lewton himself), art and film to support his theories. While this is helpful and interesting, there are so many examples used it sometimes distracts from discussion on the Lewton films. The book is at its best when it is focusing on specific elements from the Lewton films and how they correlate to the American home front during World War II. I would recommend this book to hard core Val Lewton fans or anyone with an interest in the American home during the war. Others may get bogged down in some of the analysis of this study.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

there's enough material here for a very illuminating long essay, but nowhere near enough for a 170 page book. nemerov's affection for the great, low budget horror films val lewton produced in the 40's (cat people being the most famous) made me eager to finish it, but by the second chapter, he'd said most of what he had to say. as a theory of lewton's horror cycle, it holds up-- nemerov does a wonderful job characterizing the stillness and pathos of his films, as well as their overlap to wartime americana. but the book loses focus too quickly-- his sources aren't specific enough to be particularly effective, and there's an odd number of digressions into the uninteresting careers of minor actors. by the time he gets to i walked with a zombie, some of his thoughts about race are short-sighted in a way that borders on outright ignorance. read the first two chapters and move on.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

As my wife would say, Nemerov is trying to make a dollar out of 15 cents here. Granted, the 15 cents in this case is pretty good (a survey of the links between Lewton's imagery and Russian religious iconography) but there's just not enough there for a full-length book. So, he seems to try and stretch the material by bringing in all sorts of examples and analogies that are tangental at best. Too bad, because it just drowns out the intriguing core of his arguments.

[Kit · Rating 4 out of 5]

a lot of fascinating research and illuminating appreciation sits alongside occasionally spurious and wild interpretations. Worth reading and not just for the easy excuse to watch amazing movies such as Curse of the Cat People, Bedlam, The Ghost Ship, I Walked with a Zombie again.