I Walked with a Zombie

Plot synopsis:
Betsy Connell (Frances Dee), a Canadian nurse, relates in a voiceover how she once "walked with a zombie."
Betsy is hired to care for the wife of Paul Holland (Tom Conway), a sugar plantation owner on the Caribbean island of Saint Sebastian. Saint Sebastian is inhabited by a small white community and descendants of African slaves. Betsy is told the story of how the Hollands brought slaves to the island, and that the statue of "Ti-Misery" (Saint Sebastian pierced by arrows) in the courtyard is the figurehead from a slave ship.
That night at dinner, Betsy meets Paul's half-brother and employee, Wesley Rand (James Ellison). While getting ready for bed, Betsy hears crying. When she investigates, a woman in a white robe walks towards her, her eyes staring. Betsy screams, waking the rest of the household. Paul takes charge of Jessica Holland, the woman Betsy is to care for. The next morning, Dr. Maxwell tells Betsy that Jessica's spinal cord was irreparably damaged by a serious illness, leaving her totally without the willpower to do anything for herself.
On her day off, Betsy encounters Wesley in town. While he drinks himself into a stupor, a calypso singer (Sir Lancelot) sings about how Jessica was going to run away with Wesley, but Paul would not let them go. Then she was struck down by the fever. Betsy meets Mrs. Rand (Edith Barrett), Paul and Wesley's doctor mother.
That night, at dinner, Paul tries to persuade Wesley to reduce his drinking (at Betsy's suggestion), but he accuses Paul of trying to impress Betsy and of driving Jessica insane in the first place.
Later, Betsy is drawn to the sound of Paul playing the piano. He apologizes for bringing her to the island and admits that he may have been the cause of his wife's condition. Betsy has been falling in love with her moody employer. She determines to make him happy by curing Jessica.
Betsy gets Paul to agree to try a potentially fatal treatment of insulin shock on Jessica, but it has no effect. Housemaid Alma (Theresa Harris) then tells her that a Voodoo priest cured a woman of a similar condition. Betsy takes her patient without permission through cane fields past a crossroads guarded by the towering figure of the eerie Carre-Four (a reference to the loa Maitre Carrefours) to the houmfort (a place where Voodoo worshipers gather).
There, they watch a man (the Sabreur) wield a saber during a ritual. People are given advice through a shack door by a Voodoo priest. Betsy is summoned inside, where she is shocked to find that the priest is none other than Mrs. Rand. Mrs. Rand explains that she uses Voodoo to convince the natives to accept conventional medical practices and tells Betsy that Jessica can never be cured.
Outside, the locals stab Jessica in the arm with the sword as a test. When she does not bleed, they are convinced she is a zombie. Betsy takes her back to the house, but the natives demand that Jessica be returned to them for "ritual tests". Later, Carre-Four approaches the residence, but Mrs. Rand orders him to leave.
Paul suggests that Betsy return to Canada, as he is fearful of demeaning and abusing her as he did Jessica. She is convinced that he is not really like that.
The next day, Doctor Maxwell reports that the unrest has sparked an official inquiry into Jessica's illness. Mrs. Rand shocks everyone by claiming that Jessica is a zombie. Although she had never taken Voodoo seriously, Mrs Rand reveals that when she discovered that Jessica was planning to run away with Wesley and break up her family, she felt herself possessed by a Voodoo god. She then put a curse on Jessica. Paul, Maxwell and Betsy dismiss her story, but Wesley becomes obsessed with freeing Jessica from her zombie state. He asks Betsy if she would consider euthanasia, but she refuses.
Using an effigy of Jessica, the Sabreur takes control of her and draws her to him. Paul and Betsy stop her the first time, but they are not around when he tries again. Wesley opens the gate, letting Jessica out. Then he pulls an arrow out of the statue of Ti-Misery and follows. As the Sabreur stabs the doll with a pin, Wesley thrusts the arrow into Jessica. He then carries her body into the sea, pursued slowly by Carre-Four. Later, the natives discover the bodies of Jessica and Wesley floating in the surf. Paul comforts Betsy.

Tags: cult, romantic

Review:
Lyrical and atmospheric, "I Walked with a Zombie" recounts the story of a Canadian nurse sent to a small West Indian sugar island to tend for a young comatose woman, the wife of the island's plantation owner.
As Betsy spends more time on the island, she learns that most of the population believes in and practices voodoo, and she learns that Jessica had a relatively tumultuous past with Holland's family.This was director Jacques Tourneur and producer Val Lewton's second horror/thriller collaboration (the first being Cat People (1942) and the third The Leopard Man (1943)).
Also, much of the voodoo material (such as the actual ceremony) tends to be overrated in my opinion, although the final sequence related to the voodoo theme is appropriately eerie.But what works best for me in I Walked With A Zombie are the many dialogue-heavy scenes where the three main characters--Connell, Holland and Wesley Rand (James Ellison)--gradually learn more about one another, and where the "mystery" is gradually uncovered.
Over there she becomes involved with a very dysfunctional family and the realization that her patient may be a zombie--one of the living dead.Eerie, poetic horror film--one of the great ones producer Val Lewton made for RKO on no budget.
The basic plot: A Canadian nurse arrives at the isle of St. Sebastian to take care of a plantation owners mentally entranced and disturbed wife, but once she get's there, she learns more than she should about the family secrets, voodoo , and zombie fever......The praise: A truly poetic, hypnotizing, and creepy film experience.
Based somewhat on the classic story of "Jane Eyre," "Zombie" takes us to the South Seas, where Nurse Betsy Connell arrives on a remote sugar plantation owned by the mysterious and reclusive Paul Holland.
***SPOILERS*** Undoubtedly the most atmospheric of the Lawton/Tourneur film collaborations "I Walked with a Zombie" is completely told in flashback by nurse Betsy Connell, Frances Dee. Who was sent from the cold weather of Ottawa Canada's Memorial Hospital to the warm Caribbean tropical breezes of the Island of St. Sebastian in the West Indies to care for Paul Holland's, Tom Conway, comatose wife Jessica.
The scene with Betsy and Jessica walking through the dark sugar cane field is a good example of how Tourneur can scare the hell out of you without any special effects like the way it's done in horror movies by todays movie makers.
Tragically in the end Wesley, who realized that his affair with Jessica lead to all this, together with the doomed and already dead Jessica end up under the waves of the Caribbean Sea. The movie does such a good job of exploring and explaining Voodoo and Zombies that it almost makes you believe, like it does Paul Wesley Betsy Dr. Maxwell and Mrs. Rand, in it.
My guess is the director Jacques Tourneur, who had just finished the terrific "The Cat People" and was going to soon do the near legendary "Out of the Past." For this odd and enchanting zombie movie, he takes very little and makes a lot out of it.
As Betsy starts to fall for Holland, she resolves to cure Jessica and get to the bottom of just what is going on in this mysterious place.Producer Val Lewton firmly carved out a reputation for having a keen eye with a number of literary horror adaptations in the 1940s, there is certainly a case for I Walked With A Zombie being one of the best of the bunch.
A voodoo zombie shuffling on a mission to fetch poor Jessica from the plantation home is not horrifying, its damn near gorgeous, soft and near silent in its execution, the whole film is simply full of memorable moments.Written by Curt Siodmak, the concept for the piece came about by way of a number of newspaper articles that were telling of voodoo and witchcraft in Haiti, the scope for a screamathon horror movie was obviously there, but thankfully in this viewers humble opinion, we get a classy and chilling film that is dripping with ethereal beauty from first reel to last.
Unlike some of the horror product of the time, it actually treats its black characters with a great deal of dignity and respect, and also gives the actors a chance to shine, such as Theresa Harris as Alma the maid.As was always the case with these Lewton productions, the story (based to some degree on Jane Eyre, with factual articles on voodoo in the West Endies also used as a basis) is pretty tight, and the running time is typically short.
The Canadian nurse Betsy Connell (Frances Dee) is hired to travel to St. Sebastian, in West Indies, to work at Fort Holland nursing Jessica Holland (Christine Gordon), the wife of the sugar plantation owner Paul Holland (Tom Conway).
When Betsy meets Paul and Wesley's mother Mrs. Rand (Edith Barrett), she finds that Jessica was the pivot of a fight between Paul and Wes and she believes that her daughter-in-law is a zombie."I Walked with a Zombie" is an ambiguous zombie movie directed by Jacques Tourneur.
With only good intentions, Betsy sets out to care for Jessica any way she can, but becomes entangled in the local customs as well as the family's sordid past.Jacques Tourneur directed a formidable trio of films for Val Lewton including Cat People and The Leopard Man. Due to the snug budgets; directors were expected to complete these projects in an efficient manner.
Curious about her condition, and of the voodoo antics that are being undertaken by the island's inhabitants, Betsy searches for a cure, and for the reason behind her zombie-state.I've long been a fan of French director Jacques Tourneur, who at the age of ten moved to America with his father, also a film director.
But when I started to analyze the film I was wondering just what did I see?Frances Dee has been hired to look after Tom Conway's wife Christine Gordon who is in a coma, but this is the sleepwalking type of coma and the natives have identified here as a zombie.
After the enormous success of "Cat People", Lewton and Tourneur began working on their next horror movie: the noir-influence "I Walked with a Zombie".In "I Walked with a Zombie", Frances Dee plays Betsy Connell, a recently graduated Canadian nurse who travels from Ottawa to the Caribbean after being hired to take care of a mental patient in the island of St. Sebastian.
In her trip, she meets Paul Holland (Tom Conway), owner of the sugar cane plantation where she is going to live, and soon she discovers that her patient is his wife, Jessica (Christine Gordon), who has been in a catatonic state after contracting a fever at St. Sebastian.
As she goes deeper into the intrigues at the plantation, she'll discover the horrible true behind Jessica's condition.Loosely based on Charlotte Brontë's classic novel, "Jane Eyre", the film's story was conceived by Val Lewton and Inez Wallace and further developed by Ardel Wray and the legendary Curt Siodmak (of "The Wolf Man" fame).
Roy Hunt, Tourneur expands on the style he developed in "Cat People" and creates in the perfect hybrid of Film-Noir and horror movie in "I Walked with a Zombie", where he gives a morbid ambiguity to Siodmak's script.
Tourneur's use of music and sound is another of the elements that make this movie remarkable, as Roy Webb's score is impressively haunting and adds a lot of power to the film.The work done by the cast in "I Walked with a Zombie" is very effective, with most of the actors delivering excellent performances in their respective roles.
Finally, Christine Gordon is simply gorgeous as Jessica Holland, the alluring beauty who may be possessed by unseen forces.Being a subtle and almost melancholic film, "I Walked with a Zombie" is definitely less bombastic than its title (which Val Lewton hated) may suggest.
Val Lewton's vision of "Jane Eyre", set in San Sebastian satisfied me in every way.Frances Dee plays Betsy Connell, an idealistic nurse who goes to San Sebastian, in the Carribbean, to take care of the catatonic wife of Paul Holland (played by Tom Conway).
Val Lewton and Jacques Tourneur's follow-up to CAT PEOPLE (1942) may not be as readily enjoyable - leaving some rabid genre fans underwhelmed as well - but, if anything, it's even more complex and mature (Tourneur himself considered it the best film he ever made): while Kent Smith was essentially bland, here we have two rather dark male leads in Tom Conway and James Ellison (both of whom turn in fine performances far beyond their usual standards); in fact, characterization is very well thought out all the way (considering it's a B horror piece barely over an hour in length!).Frances Dee makes for a very sympathetic heroine, while Edith Barrett gives another multi-layered portrayal as Conway and Ellison's mother (the two men are half-brothers) who herself bears a guilty conscience; Sir Lancelot is a native troubadour who sings a haunting tune - actually reprised in the 1945 spoof ZOMBIES ON Broadway, co-starring Bela Lugosi!
That, and the strange-looking anorexic voodoo man, are my main good memories of this film, which was transfered nicely on DVD as part of the Lewton Horror Collection.The acting was fine and the dialog interesting at times.
Jacques Tourner, and his producing partner/collaborator Val Lewton, cooked up this film as their follow-up to Cat People, and while it's no B-movie masterpiece like the former, it provides above all else some effective, oddly evocative imagery to make it near essential for admirers of old horror films.
It's not exactly scary, but this compounded by the exquisite camera-work, gliding alongside Jessica and Betsy as the go along through the field, make things so creepy and even dream-like that it's worth seeing the film alone for that and the voodoo.The actual plot, with the stuffy man-of-the-house who tries to deny there's anything wrong with his wife, and the mysterious madame of the house, and the drunken brother, aren't quite as interesting even if they are essential to the plot.
In 'I Walked with a Zombie', nurse Betsy Connell (Frances Dee) is recruited to a Caribbean Island to care for Jessica Holland (Christine Gordon), the wife of plantation owner Paul Holland (Tom Conway), who has been in a catatonic state since being afflicted by a serious fever.
Betsy Conwell (Frances Dee) takes a job on a West Indies island as the private nurse to the wife of plantation owner Paul Holland (Tom Conway).
Betsy begins to fall for Paul and tries to help him by finding a cure for Jessica with the native witch doctors.I Walked with a Zombie is the second of producer Val Lewton's classic psychological horror films.
Beautiful nurse and narrator Frances Dee (as Betsy Connell) recalls when, "I Walked with a Zombie." She is hired by Caribbean plantation owner Tom Conway (as Paul Holland) to take care of his sick wife Christine Gordon (as Jessica).
******** I Walked with a Zombie (4/21/43) Jacques Tourneur ~ Frances Dee, James Ellison, Tom Conway, Edith Barrett.
In Tourneur's film a West Indies plantation owner also has a 'mad wife' and the movie revolves around this mysterious woman.Over and above everything else I Walked With A Zombie is a master-class in rich atmosphere.
Betsy Connell is a Canadian nurse, who's hired to take care for Jessica Holland.She's the wife of Paul Holland, the owner of a sugar plantation on the Caribbean island of Saint Sebastian.The place is populated by descendants of African slaves and a small white community of doctors and officials.Betsy also meets Paul's half-brother Wesley Rand and their mutual mother, Mrs. Rand.Betsy's being told that Jessica's sleepwalking condition is caused by an incurable tropical fever.But there's something else about her.It seems she's living-dead, a zombie.Jacques Tourneur is the director of I Walked with a Zombie (1943).The acting is brilliant.James Ellison plays Wesley Rand.Frances Dee is Betsy Connell.Tom Conway plays the part of Paul Holland.Edith Barrett is Mrs. Rand.The part of Jessica Holland is played by Christine Gordon.Theresa Harris portrays Alma-Maid.Sir Lancelot is a calypso singer, who sings the truth in his lyrics.It's the atmosphere that makes this a really good horror movie.It's really haunting when Betsy goes walking with Jessica to see those voodoo people in the night.This old horror movie is really worth seeing..
Lewton's films always left the viewer to analyse the information presented and to decide for themselves exactly what it was they saw...or thought they saw.Frances Dee (not to be confused with Sandra Dee), plays Betsy Connell, a Canadian nurse who accepts a job looking after the wife of a sugar cane farmer (Tom Conway) in the West Indies.
Discovering the source of all that is wrong at the plantation leads her into the mysterious world of Voodoo and zombies.The screenplay, co-written by Curt Siodmak (the same man who wrote the classics "THE WOLF MAN," "FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN," "SON OF DRACULA," and "THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS"), is loosely based on the classic novel "Jane Eyre."  "I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE" is a great film, full of eerie atmosphere (the scene where Frances Dee walks up the stone staircase in the tower is a classic of creepiness) and psychological terror, and that guy with the weird eyes is just too freaky!
In line of previous Jacques Tourneur's Cat People this one is a follow up in same direction,bringing the spooky atmosphere at West Indians island where slavery takes place at this period of time,the black people took their mysticism with them as voodoo,the epic night scene through cane field under the moonlight is quite fantastic when they meet the black man Carrefour,stunning story which has a minor fail,is too short,could be more developed to expand the whole thing,even so deserves a look to all moviefan who likes this genre!!Resume:First watch: 2018 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.5.
As she dedicatedly takes it on herself to bring Jessica back to the living world, a manifestation of her lofty affection to the man she loves, and is out of step with a more plausible self-serving/possessive maneuver that more likely pops up in the context of romantic pursuit, her last resort to work the miracle hinges on the local voodooism, and the most atmospherically stirring sequence is where she chaperones a sleep-walking Jessica across a nocturnal cane field interspersed with memento mori, to attend an occult ceremony and is appalled by the sight of a dead-fish-eyed guardian Carrefour (Jones), an archetypal zombie embodiment that might give viewers at then nightmares.Directer Jacques Tourneur, cunningly straddles the explanation between scientific diagnosis and ethnic necromancy, also configures a bare-bones JANE EYRE plot to leaven the narrative, although Frances Dee flourishes as a gamely virtuous can-doer, and theater dab-hand Edith Barrett upstages the rest with a layered rendition as Mrs. Rand, Paul's mother, whose evasive culprit identity actually counterpoints her palpable bonhomie, the film per se is too much an obsolete novelty to be seriously reckoned as a masterwork, not even with the help of Sir Lancelot's calypso invention, especially when he is unceremoniously introduced as a Janus-faced fabulist (apologizing first, scandal-disclosing later)..
"Betsy Connell" (Frances Dee) is a nurse living in Canada who accepts a job taking care of the wife of a sugar plantation owner named "Paul Holland" (Tom Conway).
Val Lewton produced this horror film(directed by Jacques Tourneur) that stars Frances Dee as Betsy, a Canadian nurse who goes to the West Indies at a sugar plantation to care for the invalid wife of the plantation manager Paul Holland(played by Tom Conway) She has fallen into a catatonic state, but mysteriously walks at night, and is followed by Betsy.
A great use of 69 minutes, the total running time for this taut Val Lewton produced thriller, loosely based on the "Jane Ayre" mad-wife story but given a voodoo twist by setting the action in the Caribbean and making the wife a zombie throughout the whole of the movie, in fact she never speaks a word throughout the whole movie.
Val Lewton and Jacques Tourneur's I Walked with a Zombie is another of their compellingly atmospheric films.
Betsy Connell (the stunning Frances Dee) is a just registered nurse arriving at a tropical island to care for a comatose Jessica Holland (Christine Gordon), wife of plantation owner Paul Holland (Tom Conway who previously was in Cat People).
I Walked with a Zombie starts in Canada where a nurse named Betsy Connell (Frances Dee) is offered a job in which she would have to travel to an island named St. Sebastian in the West Indies to care for Jessica Holland (Christine Gordon) the invalid wife of a plantation owner named Paul (Tom Conway), she accepts the position.
Betsy feels sorry for the Holland's, when medical science fails to provide a cure & not knowing what to believe anymore she turns to the ancient tribal Voodoo rituals of the natives to try & cure Jessica...Directed by Jacques Tourneur & produced by the legendary Val Lewton for RKO pictures I Walked with a Zombie is one of the finest early horrors out there that I have seen, if not the finest.
"I Walked With A Zombie" is about Nurse Betsy Connell (Frances Dee), who leaves her home to the West Indies for a care giving/nursing job, taking care of the catatonic, mute wife of Paul Holland (Tom Conway, of the early horror masterpiece "The Seventh Victim", and "Cat People"), the owner of a sugar plantation.
Lewton and his director Jacques Tourneur have crafted a masterful little 69 minute thriller in famous Lewton "shadows in the dark' format.Nurse Betsy Connell (Frances Dee) comes to the Caribbean island of St. Sebastian to take care of the wife of plantation owner Paul Holland (Tom Conway).
Basically young Canadian nurse Betsy Connell (Frances Dee) has come to the West Indies, Caribbean island of Saint Sebastian, to care for the wife of sugar plantation manager Paul Holland (Tom Conway).