The 7th Victim (1943) and the Taxil Hoax (1897)

 

The 7th Victim (or The Seventh Victim) of 1943 is a horror film-noir that possibly deserves more attention than it gets. Directed by Mark Robson (though horror master Jaques Tourneur was initially earmarked to direct, which would have been interesting to see) and produced by Val Lewton, Charles O'Neal and DeWit Bodeen's script explores a Satanic cult in New York, decades before Ira Levin and Roman Polanski's classic Rosemary's Baby (1967 book 1968 film). The cults do share some similarities in that they dwell in New York apartments and not burnt-out churches or secluded groves or graveyards and consist of middle-class professionals who would not turn heads in suspicion of nefarious doings. In the 7th Victim the cult do not hold the lofty aims of the Bramford cabal's heralding of the Antichrist into the world, but seek simply to punish an acolyte of their cult for alleged betrayal. 

 

 

 

Les Mystères de la franc-maçonnerie dévoilés par Léo Taxil (1896) 

 

The sect in The 7th Victim are referred to as Palladists - which were a real-life occult order... or were they? Sometimes fact is as strange as fiction and as equally untrue. In 1891 a mysterious man by the name of Leo Taxil informed the world that within the Orders of Freemasonry existed a secret creed established in Paris in 1737. This sub-rosa sect was allegedly called the Order of Palladium and the Sovereign Council of Wisdom or in informal parlance the devotees were referred to as Palladists and according to Taxil were Theistic Satanists. Allegedly the Palladists were high-ranking Masons who not only worshipped Lucifer but  were in direct communication with infernal demons. Taxil revealed an accomplice in his whistle-blowing to be a Doctor Bataille a surgeon of the French merchant navy and infiltrator of sinister Masonic Lodges across the world. He later introduced into the narrative (but not in person as promised) Diana Vaughan a High Priestess of Palladism turned rogue. 
Thing is neither Dr Bataille nor Diana Vaughan actually existed - and neither did Leo Taxil for that matter. In 1897 Leo Taxil revealed himself to be an author named Marie Joseph Gabriel Antoine Jogand-Pagès and the Order of Palladium to be a hoax. He claimed the story to be an exercise in mockery towards both the Freemasons and towards the Catholic Church who had professed a deep adversity-cum-paranoia of Freemasonry and said he thought that the parody he conceived, which at times reveled in the scandalous and grotesque, would be recognised as such from its inception but when it wasn't and he realised it was a bountiful source of income he rolled with the hoax for nearly a decade. 

Beyond the name of the Palladists The 7th Victim and the Taxil Hoax share another similarity in that both Taxil's Diana Vaughan and The 7th Victim's Jacqueline Gibson (played by Jean Brooks) were both marked for death for betraying the occult sect. Whilst Vaughan however was sanctioned for invoking St Joan of Arc which put the Masonic-compliant demons at their speed, Jacqueline Gibson merely gossiped to psychiatrist (and burgeoning parapsychologist/'occult detective') Dr. Louis Judd about the cult. Taxil's Hoax however with its invention of Diana Vaughan predated 1908's The Order of Women Freemasons in having a females of rank within ritual-participatory Freemasonry.  

Jean Brooks as Jacqueline Gibson

Tom Conway as Dr Louis Judd

 

The name of Dr Louis Judd may be familiar to old-time Noir Horror fans for the character also appeared in Bodeen & Lewton's The Cat People (1942). Though The 7th Victim was the later film, due to events occurring in Cat People, it is suggested as a prequel rather than sequel, but the plots of both films are standalone and apart from the character Judd, unconnected narratively.  

 

Kim Hunter as Mary Gibson

 

 

 

 

Minus the simian make-up, The 7th Victim also stars Kim Hunter (known in later life as the Chimpanzee scientist, Dr Zera in the Planet of the Apes films) as Mary Gibson, the younger sister of Jacqueline, and Erford Gage as Jason Hoag, a poet who is drawn into the dark web due to his attraction for Mary. 

The 7th Victim is a mixed bag - the photography is beautiful drenched in shadow as it is and the premise is promising, but despite the competent acting it may feel like there is something a little missing. Its nihilistic tone and subtle sapphic undertones mark it out as an interesting cult film and whilst remakes are generally more miss than hit and are often little more than cash-ins, away from 1940s cinematic restrictions in the right hands a modern adaptation of The 7th Victim could be something very interesting. (The late great David Lynch could've made something fascinating of the premise, I think.)

The 7th Victim © Sara Deck