Fiche technique
| Durée | 68 minutes |
| Année de sortie | 2024 |
| Genre | Horror |
| Pays |  - United States |
| Réalisation | Jacques Tourneur |
Présentation
I Walked with a Zombie is a 1943 American horror film directed by Jacques Tourneur, and starring James Ellison, Frances Dee, and Tom Conway. Its plot follows a nurse who travels to care for the ailing wife of a sugar plantation owner in the Caribbean, where she encounters supernatural phenomena such as voodoo and the walking dead. The screenplay is based on an article of the same title by Inez Wallace, and also partly reinterprets the narrative of the 1847 novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. It was the second horror film from producer Val Lewton for RKO Pictures.
Bande-annonce
Synopsis
Betsy Connell (Frances Dee), a white Canadian nurse, relates in a voiceover how she once "walked with a zombie."
Betsy is hired to care for the wife of Paul Holland (Tom Conway), a sugar plantation owner on the Caribbean island of Saint Sebastian. Saint Sebastian is home to a small white community and descendants of African slaves. On the way to the plantation, the black driver tells Betsy that the Hollands brought slaves to the island, and that the statue of "Ti-Misery" (Saint Sebastian pierced by arrows) in the courtyard is the figurehead from a slave ship.
At dinner, Betsy meets Paul's half-brother and employee, Wesley Rand (James Ellison), who clearly resents Paul. While getting ready for bed, Betsy hears crying. When she investigates, a woman in a white robe walks towards her, her eyes staring. Betsy screams, waking everyone. Paul takes charge of Jessica Holland, the woman Betsy is to care for. The next morning, Dr. Maxwell tells Betsy that Jessica's spinal cord was irreparably damaged by a serious illness, leaving her totally without the willpower to do anything for herself.
On her day off, Betsy encounters Wesley in town. While he drinks himself into a stupor, a calypso singer (Sir Lancelot) sings about how Jessica was going to run away with Wesley, but Paul would not let them go. Then she was struck down by the fever. Betsy meets Mrs. Rand (Edith Barrett), Paul and Wesley's doctor mother.
That night at dinner, Paul tries to persuade Wesley to reduce his drinking (at Betsy's suggestion), but he accuses Paul of trying to impress Betsy and of driving Jessica insane in the first place.
Later, Betsy is drawn to the sound of Paul playing the piano. He apologizes for bringing her to the island and admits that he may have been the cause of his wife's condition. Betsy has been falling in love with her moody employer. She determines to make him happy by curing Jessica.
Betsy gets Paul to agree to try a potentially fatal insulin shock treatment on Jessica, but it has no effect. Housemaid Alma (Theresa Harris) then tells her that a voodoo priest cured a woman of a similar condition. Betsy takes her patient without permission through cane fields past a crossroads guarded by an eerie Carre-Four (a reference to the loa Maitre Carrefours[citation needed]) to the houmfort (a place where voodoo worshipers gather).
There, they watch a man (the Sabreur) wield a saber during a ritual. People are given advice through a shack door by a voodoo priest. Betsy is shocked to find that the priest is Mrs. Rand. Mrs. Rand explains that she uses voodoo to convince the natives to accept conventional medical practices and tells Betsy that Jessica is incurable. Outside, the locals stab Jessica in the arm with the sword as a test. When she does not bleed, they are convinced she is a zombie.
Betsy takes her home. Paul is furious, but is moved when he realizes that Betsy was trying to cure Jessica. The local authorities investigate the next day, and the natives demand that Jessica be returned to them for "ritual tests.” Later, Carre-Four approaches the residence, but Mrs. Rand orders him to leave.
Paul suggests that Betsy return to Canada, regretting entangling her in his family problems and fearful of demeaning and abusing her as he did Jessica. Betsy reluctantly agrees.
The next day, Doctor Maxwell reports that the unrest has sparked an official inquiry into Jessica's illness. Mrs. Rand shocks everyone by claiming that Jessica is a zombie. Although she had never taken voodoo seriously before, Mrs Rand reveals that when she discovered that Jessica was planning to run away with Wesley and break up her family, she felt herself possessed by a voodoo god. She then put a curse on Jessica. Paul, Maxwell and Betsy dismiss her story, but Wesley becomes obsessed with freeing Jessica. He asks Betsy if she would consider euthanasia, but she refuses.
Using an effigy of Jessica, the Sabreur draws her to him from afar. Paul and Betsy stop her, but they are not around when he tries again. Wesley opens the gate, letting Jessica out. Then he pulls an arrow out of the statue of Ti-Misery and follows. As the Sabreur stabs the doll with a pin, Wesley thrusts the arrow into Jessica. He then carries her body into the sea, pursued slowly by Carre-Four. Later, the natives discover the bodies of Jessica and Wesley floating in the surf.
Distribution
| Acteur | Rôle |
|---|---|
| James Ellison | Wesley Rand |
| Frances Dee | Betsy Connell |
| Tom Conway | Paul Holland |
Sources
Cryptozoology - 9 juin 2021 - Voir l'historique
Publicité
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