Jacques Tourneur (; French: [tuʁnœʁ]; November 12, 1904 – December 19, 1977) was a French and American filmmaker, active during the Golden Age of Hollywood. He was known as an auteur of stylish and atmospheric genre films, many of them for RKO Pictures, including the supernatural horror films Cat People (1942), I Walked with a Zombie (1943) and The Leopard Man (1943), and the film noir Out of the Past (1947). He is also known for directing the war film Days of Glory (1944), which marked Gregory Peck's debut film role, and the British horror film Night of the Demon (1957), which was released by Columbia Pictures as Curse of the Demon.
Tourneur is considered a significant influence on the horror film genre.
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Early life
Tourneur was born in Paris, France, the son of Fernande Petit and film director Maurice Tourneur. At age 10, he moved to the United States with his father, and he became a United States citizen in 1919.
He started a career in cinema while still attending high school as an extra and later as a script clerk in various silent films. Both Maurice and Jacques returned to France after his father worked on the film The Mysterious Island in 1925.
Career
Tourneur began work as an editor and assistant director. He made his debut as a director on the French film Tout ça ne vaut pas l'amour in 1931. In 1934, Tourneur went to Hollywood, where he had a contract with MGM Studios. While working as the second unit director on the film A Tale of Two Cities he met film producer Val Lewton.
Tourneur made his American feature debut as director in the 1939 film They All Come Out. After Tourneur was dropped by MGM in 1941, he was picked up by Lewton to film several acclaimed low-budget horror films for RKO Studios including Cat People and I Walked with a Zombie.
Cat People, his first commercial success, although considered a B movie and made on a limited budget, was distinguished by a style of lighting and cinematography that has been imitated countless times. Tourneur was promoted to the A-list at RKO, directing films including Out of the Past and Berlin Express. In the 1950s, Tourneur became a freelance director, filming various genre films including Wichita, Anne of the Indies, Way of a Gaucho, Nightfall, The Flame and the Arrow, Stars In My Crown and Night of the Demon. His last two films, made for American International Pictures and starring Vincent Price, were The Comedy of Terrors (1963) and War-Gods of the Deep (1965).
After his final days working for film, Tourneur began directing television episodes. Tourneur filmed episodes of The Barbara Stanwyck Show, Bonanza, The Twilight Zone, and The Alaskans. Tourneur's final director credit was for an episode of T.H.E. Cat in 1966. Tourneur then retired and returned to France.
Appraisal
In a 2019 retrospective, the Lincoln Center wrote of Tourneur "[he] ranks among the most fascinating yet most elusive filmmakers of his time... Tourneur mixed the uncanny with the psychological, located even the most outlandish premises within familiar spheres, and roguishly circumvented financial constraints through his singular artistry."
In The American Cinema, Andrew Sarris wrote Tourneur brought "a certain French gentility to the American cinema... Tourneur's first films for Val Lewton - Cat People and I Walked with a Zombie - possessed a subtler dramatic force than those of Wise and Robson. Out of the Past is still Tourneur's masterpiece, a civilized treatment of an annihilating melodrama... All in all, Tourneur's career represents a triumph of taste over force."
According to the American Cinematheque, "Tourneur singlehandedly elevated horror as an artform."
Personal life
Tourneur became estranged from his father after beginning an affair with his then-lover, the French actress Marguerite Christiane Virideau (1905-1993), notable for having supplied the voice for Snow White in the French dub of the Disney classic. After moving to the United States, they married on 22 April 1934, remaining together until his death.
Death
Tourneur died in 1977, aged 73, in Bergerac, Dordogne, France.
Posterity
La Mort en direct, a 1980 film by Bertrand Tavernier, is dedicated to the deceased film director Jacques Tourneur.
"There are films that watch us grow old." Statement by Serge Daney quoted by Serge Le Péron in Jacques Tourneur Le Médium, a film by Alain Mazars, 2015.
By naming the main character Jessica Holland in his film Memoria (2021), Apichatpong Weerasethakul pays tribute to Jacques Tourneur's film I Walked with a Zombie.
Filmography
Director
Feature films
Short films
1955-1961 : General Electric Theater, 4 episodes
1955 : "The Martyr"
1955 : "Into the Night"
1960 : "Aftermath"
1961 : "Star Witness: The Lili Parrish Story"
1956 : The Jane Wyman Show, 3 episodes
1956 : "The Liberator"
1956 : "Kristi"
1956 : "The Mirror"
1957 : Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, 1 episode
1957 : "Outlaw's Boots"
1957 : The Walter Winchell File, 3 episodes
1957 : "The Steep Hill"
1958 : "House on Biscayne Bay"
1958 : "The Stopover"
1958 : Cool and Lam, CBS Productions
1958 : Northwest Passage, 8 episodes
1958 : "The Gunsmith"
1958 : "The Burning Village"
1958 : "The Bond Women"
1959 : "The Break Out"
1959 : "The Vulture"
Assistant director or editor
1929 : Le Navire des hommes perdus (Das schiff der verlorenen menschen), directed by Maurice Tourneur
1930 : Accusée, Levez vous, directed by Maurice Tourneur
1931 : Maison de danses, directed by Maurice Tourneur
1931 : Partir, directed by Maurice Tourneur
1932 : Au nom de la Loi, directed by Maurice Tourneur
1932 : Les Gaités de l'escadron, directed by Maurice Tourneur (Editor)
1933 : Les Deux Orphelines, directed by Maurice Tourneur (Editor)
1993 : Lidoire, directed by Maurice Tourneur.
1933 : Obsession, directed by Maurice Tourneur (uncredited)
1933 : La Fusée, directed by Jacques Natanson (Editor)
1933 : Le Voleur, directed by Maurice Tourneur
1934 : Rothchild, directed by Maurice Tourneur (Editor)
1935 : A Tale of Two Cities, directed by Jack Conway, war sequences, (séquence de la prise de la Bastille).
