My favorite moment in Cat People was a first of a kind thrill that later filmamkers consciously tried to emulate. It's the scene where Alice believes she is being stalked by the leopard at night through the park. She stops under a bridge and is looking towards her left when suddenly there's a hiss and a bus enters the frame from the other direction. So many other directors tried to emulate the scare of that shot - the misdirection plus sound plus shadowy atmosphere - that it became known as the Lewton Bus and they would say give me a Lewton Bus moment here or do a Lewton Bus shot.

BTW, I think the movie gets better and better with repeat viewings - as do most of the Val Lewton films.

In the Shadows: The Trash Epics B/W Challenge 2017


Final Score: 257 Points
Films Watched: 64

1) Man Beast (1956) Jerry Warren / 3rd view 4/1 / Rating: 7 (2 points)
2) The Tall Target (1951) Anthony Mann / 2nd view 4/1 / Rating: 9 (2 points)
3) Make Me a Star (1932) William Beaudine / FTV 4/1 / Rating: 5 (4 + 1 = 5 points)
4) Dead of Night (1945) Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden, Robert Hamer / FTV 4/2 / Rating: 7 (3 + 1 = 4 points)
5) Gojira (1954) Ishiro Honda / 6th view 4/2 / Rating: 9 (2 points)
6) Nosferatu (1922) F.W. Murnau / 12th view 4/3 / Rating: 10 (5 points)
7) Dracula (1931) Tod Browning / 11th view 4/4 / Rating: 10 (4 points)
8) Cry of the Werewolf (1944) Henry Levin / FTV 4/4 / Rating: 6 (3 + 1 = 4 points)
9) The Queen of Spades (1949) Thorold Dickinson / FTV 4/5 / Rating: 8 (3 + 1 = 4 points)
10) The Doll (1919) Ernst Lubitsch / FTV 4/5 / Rating: 9 (5 + 1 = 6 points)
11) Never Let Go (1960) John Guillermin / FTV 4/6 / Rating: 8 (1 + 1 = 2 points)
12) Kohlhiesels Tochter (1920) Ernst Lubitsch / FTV 4/6 / Rating: 8 (5 + 1 = 6 points)
13) I Don't Want To Be a Man (1918) Ernst Lubitsch / FTV 4/6 / Rating: 9 (5 + 1 = 6 points)
14) Dead Reckoning (1947) John Cromwell / FTV 4/7 / Rating: 6 (3 + 1 = 4 points)
15) The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) Robert Wiene / 6th view 4/7 / Rating: 10 (5 = 5 points)
16) The Strong Man (1926) Frank Capra / FTV 4/7 / Rating: 6 (5 + 1 = 6 points)
17) Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (1926) Harry Edwards / FTV 4/7 / Rating: 6 (5 + 1 = 6 points)
18) Long Pants (1927) Frank Capra / FTV 4/8 / Rating: 7 (5 + 1 = 6 points)
19) Tess of the Storm Country (1914) Edwin S. Porter / FTV 4/8 / Rating: 6 (5 + 1 = 6 points)
20) The Hoodlum (1919) Sidney Franklin / FTV 4/9 / Rating: 8 (5 + 1 = 6 points)
21) The Man From Planet X (1951) Edgar G. Ulmer / 3rd view 4/9 / Rating: 7 (2 points)
22) The Poor Little Rich Girl (1917) Maurice Tourneur / FTV 4/10 / Rating: 8 (5 + 1 = 6 points)
23) The Old Dark House (1932) James Whale / 4th view 4/10 / Rating: 9 (4 points)
24) Beyond the Time Barrier (1960) Edgar G. Ulmer / 2nd view 4/10 / Rating: 6 (1 point)
25) Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake (1959) Edward L. Cahn / 2nd view 4/10 / Rating: 6 (2 points)
26) Hallelujah (1929) King Vidor / FTV 4/11 / Rating: 8 (5 + 1 = 6 points)
27) The Most Dangerous Game (1932) Ernest B. Schoedsack, Irving Pichel / 4th view 4/12 / Rating: 9 (4 points)
28) Three's a Crowd (1927) Harry Langdon / FTV 4/12 / Rating: 5 (5 + 1 = 6 points)
29) Island of Lost Souls (1932) Erle C. Kenton / 6th view 4/13 / Rating: 10 (4 points)
30) White Zombie (1932) Victor Halperin / 6th view 4/13 / Rating: 9 (4 points)
31) The Chaser (1927) Harry Langdon / FTV 4/13 / Rating: 4 (5 + 1 = 6 points)
32) Mark of the Vampire (1935) Tod Browning / 6th view 4/14 / Rating: 7 (4 points)
33) His First Flame (1927) Harry Edwards / FTV 4/14 / Rating: 6 (5 + 1 = 6 points)
34) The Dawn Rider (1935) Robert N. Bradbury / FTV 4/14 / Rating: 7 (4 + 1 = 5 points)
35) The Desert Trail (1935) Lewis D. Collins / FTV 4/14 / Rating: 7+ (4 + 1 = 5 points)
36) A Southern Yankee (1948) Edward Sedgwick / FTV 4/15 / Rating: 6 (3 + 1 = 4 points)
37) The Fuller Brush Man (1948) S. Sylvan Simon / FTV 4/15 / Rating: 7 (3 + 1 = 4 points)
38) Alias Jimmy Valentine (1915) Maurice Tourneur / FTV 4/15 / Rating: 8 (5 + 1 = 6 points)
39) Mighty Joe Young (1949) Ernest B. Schoedsack / 5th view 4/15 / Rating: 9 (3 points)
40) King Kong (1933) Ernest B. Schoedsack, Merian C. Cooper / 10th view 4/16 / Rating: 10 (4 points)
41) The Son of Kong (1933) Ernest B. Schoedsack / 4th view 4/16 / Rating: 7 (4 points)
42) The Lost World (1925) Harry O. Hoyt / 3rd view 4/17 / Rating: 9 (5 points)
43) The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953) Eugene Lourie / 3rd view 4/17 / Rating: 8 (2 points)
44) Fantomas: In the Shadow of the Guillotine (1913) Louis Feuillade / FTV 4/18 / Rating: 7 (5 + 1 = 6 points)
45) The Flying Serpent (1946) Sam Newfield / FTV 4/19 / Rating: 5 (3 + 1 = 4 points)
46) The Lost City (1935) Harry Revier / FTV 4/17-4/20 / Rating: 7+ (4 + 1 = 5 points)
47) The Ship of Monsters (1960) Rogelio A. Gonzalez / FTV 4/20 / Rating: 8 (1 + 1 = 2 points)
48) Bluebeard (1944) Edgar G. Ulmer / FTV 4/21 / Rating: 8 (3 + 1 = 4 points)
49) Mad Love (1935) Karl Freund / 6th view 4/21 / Rating: 9 (4 points)
50) And Then There Were None (1945) Rene Clair / 4th view 4/21 / Rating: 10 (3 points)
51) Witness For the Prosecution (1957) Billy Wilder / 2nd view 4/22 / Rating: 10 (2 points)
52) Monster From Green Hell (1957) Kenneth G. Crane / FTV 4/22 / Rating: 5 (2 + 1 = 3 points)
53) Them! (1954) Gordon Douglas / 4th view 4/22 / Rating: 9 (2 points)
54) The Mask (1961) Julian Roffman / FTV 4/23 / Rating: 6 (1 + 1 = 2 points)
55) Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959) Alain Resnais / 2nd view 4/24 / Rating: 10 (2 points)
56) Zero For Conduct (1933) Jean Vigo / 2nd view 4/24 / Rating: 8 (4 points)
57) Daikaiju Baran (1958) Ishiro Honda / 2nd view 4/24 / Rating: 7 (2 points)
58) The Fuller Brush Girl (1950) Lloyd Bacon / FTV 4/25 / Rating: 7 (2 + 1 = 3 points)
59) The Yellow Cab Man (1950) Jack Donohue / FTV 4/27 / Rating: 6 (2 + 1 = 3 points)
60) Murder She Said (1961) George Pollock / 2nd view 4/28 / Rating: 7 (1 point)
61) L'Atalante (1934) Jean Vigo / 3rd view 4/30 / Rating: 10 (4 points)
62) The Invisible Man (1933) James Whale / 4th view 4/30 / Rating: 7 (4 points)
63) The Whispering Shadow (1933) Colbert Clark, Albert Herman / FTV 4/21-4/30 / Rating: 7 (4 + 1 = 5 points)
64) The Devil-Doll (1936) Tod Browning / 3rd view 4/30 / Rating: 7 (4 points)

KEY:
Films from the 60's - present: 1 point
Films from the 50's: 2 points
Films from the 40's: 3 points
Films from the 30's: 4 points
Films from the 20's or earlier: 5 points
FTV's: 1 point

Hey, we ended with the same film. Plate of shrimp?

Favorite rewatch - Nosferatu (1922). I just never get tired of it.

Favorite FTVs - the three silents I watched by Ernst Lubitsch, particularly The Doll (1919) and I Don't Want to Be a Man (1918) - both funny and very sexy for a silent from the teens.

Favorite Horror FTV - The Queen of Spades (1949) - great performances, atmosphere & story. I rated it an 8 but still might change it to a 9.

Yeah, I love The Beast with Five Fingers - ever since seeing it as a kid. There was probably a forty year period where I didn't see it but still remembered it fondly. When I bought the DVD a few years ago I was very pleased to see how well it held up. Robert Florey and Peter Lorre intended the entire film to be a lot more like the long nightmarish scene with Lorre attacked by the hand - closer to hallucination than realism - but the studio had other ideas and they grudgingly complied.