The Criterion Collection has released a 4K UHD Special Editon of Val Lewton’s I Walked with a Zombie and The Seventh Victim, two of the horror meister’s classic films from 1943.

Producer Lewton, a longtime story editor for David O. Selznick, was hired to head RKO’s new horror unit in 1942 where he turned out a series of well-received low cost, highly profitable B pictures in response to the near bankrupt position the studio was put in by the box-office failures of Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons.

I Walked with a Zombie was directed by Jacques Tourneur (Out of the Past). Set on a Caribbean island, Frances Dee is a Canadian nurse who sight unseen takes a job of caring for the mysteriously ill wife of sugar plantation owner Tom Conway. The wife is hovering between life and death as the result of an incident involving her planned leaving of the island with her husband’s half-brother (James Ellison). The natives consider her a zombie (neither living nor dead) and perform voodoo to hasten her demise. Edith Barrett (Vincent Price’s first wife) is a standout as Ellison’s mother and Conway’s stepmother, a respected doctor.

The atmospheric production is one of Lewton’s best.

The Seventh Victim was directed by Mark Robson (Peyton Place). Set on the isle of Manhattan, Kim Hunter is a young girl who comes to the big city to find out what happened to her sister (Jean Brooks) who seems to have disappeared. She finds that her sister has become part of a group of devil worshippers who have killed six people and are planning the murder of a seventh. Tom Conway, Hugh Beaumont, Evelyn Brent, and Isabel Jewell are all either members or victims of the cult. The mystery involves figuring out who is who, what is what, and who will be the seventh victim.

Among the extras are the 2005 documentary, Shadows in the Dark: The Val Lewton Legacy.

Kino Lorber has released five major films on Blu-ray, two of which are restored versions of previous releases, and three of which are new to the format.

Oldest among the releases is 1947’s Body and Soul, previously released by Olive.

Directed by Robert Rossen (The Hustler), Body and Soul was nominated for three Oscars, Best Actor (John Garfield), Original Screenplay (Abraham Polonsky), and Editing, winning for the latter. Shockingly overlooked was James Wong Howe’s cinematography, credited with giving the film the screen’s first realistic prize fighting scenes.

Garfield’s performance was rightly considered the best of his career. Also providing outstanding performances were Lilli Palmer as his girl, Hazel Brooks as the other woman, Anne Revere as his mother, and Canada Lee and future director Joseph Pevney as his friends.

The release includes an incisive commentary by producer Alan K. Rode.

Receiving its first Blu-ray release is Monsieur Vincent, winner of a special 1948 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

Directed by Maurice Cloche, the film star Pierre Fresnay (The Marseilles Trilogy, Grand Illusioin) as St. Vincent de Paul, the 17th Century French priest who devoted his life in service to the poor and sick, dying saying he wished he could have done more.

The film, which presents vivid parallels between the horrors of 17th Century France and the equally gloomy post-WW II era in which it was made, was selected by the Vatican in 1995 as one of the most important religious films.

Film historian Samm Deighan provides excellent commentary.

1962’s Burn, Witch, Burn was previously released in its U.S. version only. This release includes both the U.S. release and the British release which was titled Night of the Eagle.

The films are identical except that the U.S. version includes a two-minute-plus audio-only introduction which suggests that the malicious content of the film might be real. The British version leaves such things up to the imagination of the viewer. British actor Peter Wyngarde had the lead and top billing in the British release. American actress Janet Blair had top billing in the U.S. release.

Extras include a fascinating interview with Wyngarde plus two commentaries on both versions of the film.

1983’s Cross Creek is based on the 1942 memoir of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings from her arrival in Cross Creek, Florida in 1928 to her inspiration for the Pulitzer prize-winning 1938 novel, The Yearling.

Mary Steenburgen gave one of her best performances as Rawlings with strong support from Peter Coyote as her second husband; Norton Baskin, who she married in 1941; Rip Torn as her headstrong neighbor, the inspiration for Gregory Peck’s character in the 1946 film version of The Yearling; Dana Hill as the girl who was the inspiration for the boy in The Yearling; and Alfre Woodard as her maid. Baskin has a cameo as an old man.

Torn and Woodard were nominated for Oscars as were the film’s Costume Design and Musical Score.

Julie Kirgo and Peter Hankoff provide excellent commentary. The documentary Cross Creek: A Look Back with Steenburgen is imported from the 2002 DVD.

1984’s Garbo Talks is a film that is rarely mentioned in conjunction with either its director (Sidney Lumet) or its star (Anne Bancroft).

The film’s best asset is the cinematography of Andrzej Bartkowiak (Speed) as the film follows Ron Silver as Bancroft’s son in his quest to find the elusive Greta Garbo to fulfill Bancroft’s dying wish to meet her idol.

Both Bancroft and Silver are excellent, and Howard Da Silva as a photographer, Harvey Fierstein as a passenger on a Fire Island ferry, and Steven Hill as Bancroft’s ex-husband have nice cameos, but the supporting female characters from Carrie Fisher and Catherine Hicks to Dorothy Loudon and Hermione Gingold are ill-used. Only unbilled Betty Comden as Garbo gets by with her dignity intact.

Commentary by Howard S. Berger and Steve Mitchell is provided.

Happy viewing.