Dark Dignitaries: When Karloff met Lewton Part II: The Body Snatcher
As part of this week's Boris Karloff blogathon , we continue to take a look at the Uncanny One's work with distinguished producer Val Lewton. With work on Isle of the Dead coming to halt only days into the shoot due to Karloff needing to have a spinal operation, Lewton began working on his next film – The Body Snatcher . In early 1944, the ‘period thriller’ began to gain popularity again. Titles such as Gaslight and The Lodger had proved immensely popular with wartime audiences who relished the opportunity to step back in time to find their chills and thrills. After the 1930s cycle of horror films, Lewton had helped ‘Americanise’ and modernise horror with the contemporary Cat People , and many other filmmakers had followed suit; however it soon came to pass that period films were hot again, and Lewton, not content to just remix past glories, was eager to try and make his own mark on the period horror film. Lewton thought it appropriate to return to the world of literatu...