The Leopard Man (1943)

"The Leopard Man" is a silly plot enlivened by the direction of the master Tourneur.The story is something to do with nightclub performers who hire a leopard for their show. The leopard gets loose, and people start dying, assuming that this is the work of the beast. But is it?The filmmakers don't really draw this mystery out and make it centre stage. For one thing, the leopard doesn't look big enough to hurt anyone, so you're not really encouraged to think it may be the murderer. The movie seems more interested in the goings on behind the scenes of the nightclub, which isn't very interesting, and will seem like a distraction to most viewers.Jacques Tourneur has a way with suspenseful scenes, which enlivens a mostly pretty boring movie with a silly story. When you finally find out who the killer is, it's not shown like it's supposed to be the surprise it obviously is. It's like Tourneur could work with individual scenes, but trying to glue all the parts of this movie together into a cohesive whole was either beyond him or not worth his time.

No, it's not another one of those Dr. Moreau things. In this one, a real leopard is the central figure. A man rents a leopard for an act for his female singer, but her rival lets the thing go. Soon there is a killing and there is great remorse for ever having had the thing in the first place. Now, the leopard has to be found. There is a whole lot of effort to locate the animal; meanwhile the first girl is killed. The location of the leopard and the time of its death are significant to the conclusion of this movie. This pairing of Lewton and Tourneur has brought us some of the most atmospheric thrillers ever made. Even B movies come to life because of a master's touch.

Publicist Dennis O'Keefe (Jerry) turns up with a leopard for his girlfriend Jean Brooks (Kiki) to use in her act and to draw attention away from her rival act Margo (Clo Clo) the castanet dancer. Bad news – the leopard escapes and a body count follows. Can the town stop the killings? This film has three memorable killing sequences that are super tense and will have you going "Oh no!" as well as many other scenes where there is killing potential and you just don't know what will happen. It's well shot, its short length keeps you interested and the cast do fine. You may guess how things will pan out but this doesn't affect the enjoyment of the story. I wouldn't say it's obvious although I did guess correct towards the end.What a bitch mother that Kate Drain Wilson (Senora Delgado) is. Imagine doing that to your daughter! Poor daughter Margaret Landry (Teresa Delgado) encounters a very real nightmare. As does the girl in the cemetery.So, get out your castanets and start clicking but don't go freaking out leopards with them. They just might remember who you are.

A drama with Jean Brooks, O'Keefe, Isabel Jewell as the fortuneteller, James Bell as Galbraith, Abner Biberman as the owner of the leopard, Ben Bard as the police officer, Brandon Hurst, to mention only what have been the acting highlights for me. Tourneur knew, with the surest sense of subtleness, nuance, degree, how to elicit their performances, even for bit parts, in a movie as graceful, as it is refreshing in its eeriness and lightness, in its exciting sharpness. It intrigued and delighted me.Margo's evening with William Halligan represents exquisitely this masterful sense of the graceful semitone. O'Keefe was, as I wrote elsewhere, a mediocre player, the director doesn't change this, but uses to good effect his handsomeness, J. Tourneur takes and enhances what was needed for the movie; O' Keefe doesn't reveal a hidden depth (like Heston in an Welles masterpiece), but gets the occasion to do his best. All the players are advantaged by the graceful direction.I answered to people being obliged, needing to work in an insignificant, smothering town, and longing for Chicago, for distant urban life, though in J. Tourneur's movie the town is carefully shown as a stylish place, and even has a museum, with a curator like Galbraith played by James Bell.Tourneur's movie is a disclosure of what the cinema may be meant to be.