Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

The Seventh Victim Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov October 11, 2024

Mark Robson's "The Seventh Victim" (1943) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the release include archival audio commentary was recorded by critic Steve Haberman; new program critic Imogen Sara Smith; audio excerpts from Adam Roche's eleven-parts series about Val Lewton; vintage trailers; and more. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

It is strange to see that a lot of people have sought to establish a legitimate relationship between The Seventh Victim and Rosemary's Baby. I do not see it. I recognize the key element that would trick one into speculating that the two should be related, but I do not see the connection. The Seventh Victim has much, much more in common with Angel Heart. In fact, the latter pretty much looks like an elaborate, notably bolder reimagination of the former. I find this pretty strange, too, because I have never seen these films grouped together.

Even though The Seventh Victim has a running time of only seventy-one minutes, it manages to do so much and so well that it easily creates the impression it is twice as long. Its narrative is broken into three sections -- the first is the shortest, while the second and third share approximately the same length.

In the first, Mary Gibson (Kim Hunter), a pupil in a private school, is informed that her older sister, Jacqueline (Jean Brooks), has stopped paying her monthly tuition and disappeared in New York. Unable to continue her work without paying for the tuition and concerned about Jacqueline, Mary decides to travel to New York and begin looking for her. This is where the second section begins. In New York, Mary quickly learns that Jacqueline has sold her business and visits the restaurant where she was last seen. Soon after, she meets her sister’s husband, Gregory Ward (Hugh Beaumont), renowned psychiatrist Dr. Louis Judd (Tom Conway), and for the first time begins to grasp the serious nature of the mystery she is trying to solve. In the third section, Mary finally reunites with Jacqueline, who confesses to her that she has become a target for a group of powerful Satanists.

What are some of the big similarities between The Seventh Victim and Angel Heart? In both films, the main protagonists are dispatched to foreign places that force them to trust their instincts and gradually pull them into very disturbing rabbit holes. In both films, religious and occultist material is overlapped to create a heavy atmosphere. Both films establish their identities while working with a heavy sense of paranoia. Also, both films wrap up their stories with an unusually bleak twist. Obviously, The Seventh Victim comes from a drastically different period and cannot go as far as Angel Heart does, but they deliver the same message. If you offer your soul to the Devil, you must be prepared to lose it -- plus a lot more. This is not the message of Rosemary’s Baby.

Mark Robson makes the most of what he was given to work with, which was obviously not a lot. For example, large parts of The Seventh Victim, especially those where Robson makes New York appear like a chameleon that constantly juggles different identities, could have been inserted into a much bigger film noir. Also, there is a fine sequence with a terrific Psycho-esque vibe. At the same time, the intimate material tends to look surprisingly elegant. All of this material has a lovely natural flow, too.

The cast is very good. For quite some time, Hunter looks like an authentic outsider trying to figure out how everything works in New York, and the deeper she goes into the rabbit hole, the more attractive her struggle to rationalize what she hears and witnesses becomes. Brooks, who has considerably less time in front of the camera, gives a wonderful performance, too. Her face is the main entrance to the other side, where all the spooky developments are. The male leads are good as well.

It makes sense that large parts of The Seventh Victim have an unmissable lush noirish quality because Robson’s director of photography was Nick Musuraca, who lensed such stylish films as Golden Boy, Cat People, and Out of the Past.

The Seventh Victim Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.37:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, The Seventh Victim arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.

The following text appears inside the booklet provided with this release:

"These new 4K restorations (for I Walked With a Zombie and The Seventh Victim) were created from the 35mm original nitrate original camera negatives. The negative of The Seventh Victim had large amounts of mold throughout. Digital restoration helped mitigate the damage, but there is still some mold residue present in the picture. The original monaural soundtracks were remastered from a 35mm safety composite fine-grain for I Walked With a Zombie and a 35mm original soundtrack positive for The Seventh Victim.

Mastering supervisors: Lee Kline, Giles Sherwood.
Colorist: Mishel Hassidim/Resilion, New York.
Audio restoration: Criterion Collection."

I viewed the 4K makeover of The Seventh Victim in native 4K and spent time with the 1080p presentation, testing different areas of it and upscaling it to 4K as well.

The 4K makeover is excellent and looks great on 4K Blu-ray and Blu-ray. On my system, all areas, the brighter and darker ones, had a rich, very attractive appearance in native 4K and 1080p. Also, because of the note about the mold, I expected to see fluctuations affecting delineation, clarity, and depth, but at the end liked how The Seventh Victim looked even more than I Walked With a Zombie. Image stability is excellent. There are no distracting age-related imperfections either. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

The Seventh Victim Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this release: English LPCM 1.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

I viewed The Seventh Victim in native 4K and then spent time with the 1080p presentation on the Blu-ray. The comments below are from our review of the 4K Blu-ray release.

The audio is very healthy. I had the volume of my system turned up a bit more than usual -- mostly because I noticed a bit of light hiss on I Walked With a Zombie -- and on this track the mid- and upper registers were excellent. If there were any age-related anomalies before it was restored, and I think it is logical to speculate that there must have been, it is absolutely impossible to tell now.

The Seventh Victim Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Secret History of Hollywood - this alternate audio track features excerpts from Adam Roche's eleven-part series about Val Lewton from his classic-movie podcast, The Secret History of Hollywood, which shares stories about the production of The Seventh Victim.

• Commentary - this archival audio commentary was recorded by critic Steve Haberman in 2005.

• Immogen Sara Smith on Val Lewton - in this new program, critic Imogen Sara Smith discusses the production histories of I Walked With a Zombie and The Seventh Victim. The program was produced for Criterion in 2024. In English, not subtitled. (47 min).

• Shadows in the Dark: The Val Lewton Legacy - this archival documentary explores the legacy of Val Lewton. Included in it are clips from interviews with Joe Dante, Guillermo del Toro, William Friedkin, George A. Romero, John Landis, and Robert Wise, amongst others. The documentary was produced in 2005. In English, not subtitled. (54 min).

• "The Origins of the Zombie, From Haiti to the U.S." - presented here are excerpts from the PBS Digital Studios series Monstrum, exploring the West African and Haitian origins of vodou and zombification. The show is presented by Dr. Emily Zarka. In English, not subtitled. (13 min).

• Jean Brooks and Tom Conway - presented here are two audio excerpts from Adam Roche's eleven-parts series about Val Lewton. In English, not subtitled.
  
  1. Jean Brooks. (54 min).
  2. Tom Conway. (70 min).

• Trailer One - a remastered trailer for I Walked With a Zombie. In English, not subtitled. (2 min).

• Trailer Two - a vintage trailer for The Seventh Victim. In English, not subtitled. (2 min).

• Booklet - 20-page illustrated booklet featuring essay by Chris Fujiwara and Lucy Sante, as well as technical credits.

The Seventh Victim Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If Val Lewton's intent was to produce an occult film noir, then The Seventh Victim must have made him very happy. This film has a split personality that is very interesting and very effective, and at least as far as B-films are concerned, it is undoubtedly one of the best of its kind. Angel Heart does a lot of the same genre bending but in a grander, far more disturbing fashion. Criterion introduces a fantastic new 4K restoration of The Seventh Victim, paired with another 4K restoration of Jacques Tourneur's I Walked with a Zombie. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.