Bodeen started his career as a stage actor and playwright, achieving moderate success with plays such as "Escape to Autumn" and "Thing of Beauty" before transitioning to a reader in Hollywood.
One of his plays, "Embers at Haworth", caught the attention of Val Lewton, who was working on an adaptation of Jane Eyre at the time.
Lewton hired Bodeen as a research assistant to work on the script with Aldous Huxley, and later invited him to join his unit to produce horror movies within a budget of $150,000.
Bodeen was part of a close-knit group that included director Jacques Tourneur, editor Mark Robson, composer Roy Webb, and writer Ardel Wray.
The group spent several weeks accumulating experience in the genre by viewing classic horror films from the previous decade, including Paramount's Island of Lost Souls.
Their first and most successful collaboration was Cat People, which was imposed upon them by RKO studio chief Charles Koerner, who wanted a film with a cat motif.
Bodeen wrote the script as a study of psychological terror, and the film was completed in just 24 days and came in well under budget.
Koerner was initially disappointed with the first cut, but changed his mind once the film began to break records at the box office.
Bodeen worked on two more entries in the series, The Seventh Victim and The Curse of the Cat People, before co-writing the sentimental feel-good film The Enchanted Cottage with Herman J. Mankiewicz.
After his second contract with RKO expired in 1947, Bodeen free-lanced and then concentrated on writing teleplays, earning several nominations for Writer's Guild Awards.
He was a regular contributor to film journals and also authored several books on Hollywood stars, as well as one on "The Films of Cecil B. DeMille".
