TSPDT

Key Production Countries: USA, UK
Key Genres: Thriller, Action, Drama, Western, Horror, Film Noir, Crime, Adventure, Romance, Romantic Mystery, Costume Adventure, Swashbuckler
Key Collaborators: Albert S. D'Agostino (Production Designer), Roy Webb (Composer), Dana Andrews (Leading Actor), Joel McCrea (Leading Actor), Val Lewton (Producer), Mark Robson (Editor), Jack Okey (Production Designer), Walter E. Keller (Production Designer), James Bell (Character Actor), Virginia Mayo (Leading Actress), Tom Conway (Leading Actor), Patricia Roc (Leading Actress)

"Tourneur used to say that he never turned down a script, and he thus tackled a wide variety of genres, from film noir's quintessential and beautifully composed Out of the Past (1947) to the stunning colour photography of the Western Canyon Passage (1946), to dramas, war films, and sword-and-scandal epics. In almost every case, he managed to put his mark on the production both aesthetically and thematically, often using architecture or machinery to convey the psychological state of his characters." - Frank Lafond (501 Movie Directors, 2007)

"Jacques Tourneur, son of the late Maurice Tourneur, brings 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." - Andrew Sarris (The American Cinema, 1968)

"The best pictures which he directed were those of suspense and genuine terror, though he also did well with those that had a great deal of action. He wisely resisted scenes with long patches of dialogue. When confronted with such scenes, he typically frowned and said, "It sounds so corny." - DeWitt Bodeen (The St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia, 1998)

"Jacques Tourneur ranks among the most fascinating yet most elusive filmmakers of his time. After working as an editor for his father and a director of shorts and B-features at MGM in his adoptive America, Tourneur eventually found a home in Hollywood with the success of his 1942 horror movie Cat People. He went on to make a series of striking low-budget pictures in the 1940s and ’50s: distinct, atmospheric works in a variety of genres (including the landmark 1947 noir Out of the Past), all notable for their wit, irony, and simultaneous precision and ambiguity. 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." - Film at Lincoln Center, 2019

"Never a major director, Jacques Tourneur nonetheless possessed an unassertive and eloquent visual style that enabled him to transform decent scripts into superior films. Although much of his work was in the B-movie field, his subtle inventiveness and unerring taste frequently made for intelligent entertainment." - Geoff Andrew (The Film Handbook, 1989)

"Jacques Tourneur’s most famous contributions to the development of Hollywood film are found in his signature approach to the horror genre in the 1940s. Although commonly overshadowed to this day by his boss at RKO, celebrated producer Val Lewton, Tourneur singlehandedly elevated horror as an artform in this period, employing an unusual visual style (characterized by gothic imagery and startling silhouettes) and atmospheric mood." - American Cinematheque, 2021

"Tourneur was rarely given the opportunity to stretch himself as a director. In addition, he generally worked less effectively in colour, as suggested by his many undistinguished efforts during the 50s. But he returned to black-and-white and horror for his last outstanding work, a chilling and powerful screen adaptation of M.R. James' Casting the Runes, retitled Night of the Demon (1957)." - Joel W. Finler (The Movie Directors Story, 1985)

"Perhaps the gentlest director of action films in Hollywood history. His early reputation was made with, eerie, subtle, intelligent, Val Lewton-produced horror thrillers (Cat People, 42; I Walked with a Zombie, 43). He brought out the little things which add up to humanity in his characters, good or bad, and knew how to employ expressive lighting and camera movement when necessary." - William R. Meyer (The Film Buff's Catalog, 1978)