Another Lewton Snatched From The Pit

The Body Snatcher Back For a 1952 Reissue with I Walked With A Zombie

The Body Snatcher Is Its 1945 Self Again

The Body Snatcher is out recently on Blu-Ray. I overuse the phrase, but this really is like seeing it for the first time. They went to the camera negative for a new transfer, and results look it. There is detail that I guess has gone missing since 1945. To how many does The Body Snatcher matter so much? My own history with it is long, a first late show view in summer 1964, commercials and bleary eyes attendant, repeats after on stations that barely registered. About the only benefit you got from these encounters was dialogue, The Body Snatcher rich in that, being, most agree, Boris Karloff’s best film performance. Visuals were a forfeit as with all the Val Lewtons, as how could you see them other than on television or 16mm? A seminal book was Carlos Clarens’ An Illustrated History of the Horror Film, referred to before and will be again, being the nature of seminal books. By dint of his title, Clarens had stills to put across points, three of them highlighting “eerie, elusive moods of the Val Lewton films.” I’d stare at that page and imagine what the movies once looked like, the images nothing like pea soup served on NC midnights. Here was realizing how impact of time could diminish films.

Note the Quality Difference: Rich B/W Tones for the 1945 Release, Washed-Out and Dupey by 1952's Reissue 

Even publicity stills were vulnerable. RKO revived The Body Snatcher for 1952 bookings beside I Walked with a Zombie. In fact, most of the Lewtons, being “exploitation” titles as defined by RKO sales, were 50’s encored. The Body Snatcher had performed well in 1945, less so in 1952. Key dates stalled, most limited to a split-week, Variety grading results as “modest” or “N.S.G.” (not so good). There were new accessories for the reissue, a one-sheet duo-toned rather than full color as the 1945 original had been. 8X10 photos were contrasty and looked to be generations away from rich imagery used to promote The Body Snatcher’s initial release. So who cared where fast play-off with crumbs to count was expected outcome? TV release in 1956 was further insult, 16mm prints so dark at times you had to guess from the soundtrack what was going on. What non-theatrical supplied was no better, Films Inc. giving The Body Snatcher “two stars’ for price purpose, $25 where the audience was less than 100, $30 when 101-250 showed up, and so on. An only advantage here was seeing The Body Snatcher on a screen (or wall) rather than fed through the tube at home, 16mm the degraded format in either case.

Here Is a Record Of The Many Years One Midwest TV Station Used The Body Snatcher

I had two 16mm prints over years of collecting. The second one came from a Midwest TV outlet that had bought a large RKO package early on and kept index card record of dates they ran The Body Snatcher. The cards came with films I bought, each an education as to how stations made maximum use of prints they leased. A first broadcast date was 12-30-58, the last on 1-6-98. Nearly forty years, the print still intact, pretty good condition in fact, but muddy as all of them were. This extended to video cassettes that came in the early 80's, Nostalgia Merchant's release from 16mm, so no improvement there. Turner channel broadcasts were an uptick, not a significant one. DVD release as part of a Lewton box got barely beyond what was tendered before, major overhaul an only option for quality demands of a digital age. Lewton got part-way there when Cat People and Curse of the Cat People began streaming in HD, that deal sealed with Blu-Ray. As follow-up to The Body Snatcher, Screen Factory has announced The Leopard Man for Blu release. We might safely hope for the rest of Val Lewton in months to come.