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Leopard Man [VHS]

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The escape of nightclub performer's leopard is followed by a series of mutilations--but are these the work of the leopard or of a serial killer stalking a small southwestern town? Although not one of producer Val Lewton's better known films, director Tourner endows the story with considerable atmosphere, and the result is a moody and intriguing film that holds it own with the more celebrated CAT PEOPLE and I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE.

Like other Lewton films, THE LEOPARD MAN relies more upon what it suggests than upon what it actually shows. This film is particularly effective in building suspense in a series of scenes that show various characters walking--a saucy Spanish dancer strolling along the street, a frightened teenager making a night-time trip to the grocer, a young woman rushing through a cemetery at night. The cinematography is elegant in its simplicity, and the sound design is quite remarkable. Hard to find, but Lewton fans will find it worth seeking out.

One of a series of low-budget horror films produced by the legendary Val Lewton for RKO in the mid-1940's. This is not the best of the lot, which includes, among others,"I Walked with a Zombie", "The Seventh Victim", "The Cat People", all of which are arguably superior to "Leopard Man". Nevertheless, the entire series may add up to the single best horror series in all of American cinema. Mood, atmosphere, literate scripts, and spine-tingling suspense, characterize all these films, including "Leopard Man". (Notice in this film the really creative use of sound to add suspense to key scenes, such as the girl's lonely walk through the countryside, and the dancer's late night walk home. Perhaps no one other than Orson Welles with his radio background, understood the dramatic effect of sound upon the visual medium of film.)

The story itself concerns an escaped leopard menacing a small New Mexico town, where a series of mysterious killings may or may not be its work.There are several really riveting scenes in which the black and white photography and fluid camera work of celebrated director Jaques Tourneur achieve a high level of both suspense and genuine artistry. For these scenes alone the movie is worth the price. Unfortunately, the overall result is uneven, brought down by spotty performances, particularly from male lead Dennis O'Keefe, a shaky script with a few holes in it, and an unconvincing ethnic town caused no doubt by budget limitations. Nevertheless, for viewers tired of graphic slasher films, this is a great opportunity to see how horror can be achieved through atmosphere and imagination which after all is a lot scarier than blood and guts.

The first time I saw this film was on telly. I was sick and at home from school. It caught my young mind and has remained a favourite ever since. Recently I found it on VHS and I do hope it will be put on on DVD, along with the other Lewton-Tourneur classics. Jacques Tourneur directed this horror tale strangely set in New Mexico. Jerry Manning(Dennis O'Keefe) encourage his star Kiki Walker (Jean Brooks)to get attention for her night club act, to stroll in decked out in a stunning evening gown and with a panther on a lease. He said it will give the aspiring singer/dancer the publicity grabbing attention needed to launch her career. So she makes the entrance, only a competitor performer, scare the cat with rattling castanets, sending the animals to run and escape. Everyone hunts for the animal in the following week. However, killings start to happen supposedly the cat killing.

The set up for each victim, so people not connects to the story other than as the victim, but they are well drawn, giving the viewer a deep empathy for the killing. There are several, heart-pounding scenes of horror, brilliant uses of shadow and light that mark the films of Lewton and Tourneur. Curse of the Demon, I Walked With a Zombie and The Leopard Man are beautiful made Black and White films, deserving DVD format and true appreciation.

"We're not going to catch a train, darling. We're going to stay right here and catch a murderer." -- Kiki to Jerry

RKO could not have guessed the meager budgets afforded producer Val Lewton during the 1940's would result in a period of cinematic creativity in the horror and suspense genre so influential that many decades later they are considered the standard by which all others are judged. Behind the camera, Jacques Tourneur collaborated on many of them, using suggestion rather than gore to create some of the most elegant films of horror and suspense ever made. They were a hybrid of what is best in both genres, streamlined and often filled with a dark poetic beauty which separated them from others. Based on a Cornell Woolrich tale adapted by Ardel Wray, this somewhat less familiar film in Lewton's stable of masterworks is one of the best.

Jerry Manning (Dennis O'Keefe) wants to promote his girl Kiki's (Jean Brooks) show business career but needs a gimmick. Spanish native Clo-Clo (Margo) is getting all the attention as she gives the tourists a little splash of local color and flavor with her dancing and canastas. Jerry's publicity stunt goes tragically awry, however, when the black leopard he has Kiki escort to her cafe table to the shock and awe of customers escapes. Young Teresa (Margaret Landry), sent by her callous mother into the night for corn meal will discover in one of the most uncomfortable and harrowing scenes ever filmed just how deadly the cat can be. The genius of this horrific scene, ending with a shot of blood oozing under the family's front door, is that everything takes place on the other side, where the viewer cannot see.

Tuulikki Paananen portrays the breathtakingly lovely young Consuelo. She will become the next victim as she falls asleep while patiently waits for her boyfriend. Waking too late to get out of the graveyard, branches moving above her bring fear to her heart that proves well-founded. Again, everything is in the unseen, suggestion at horror more effective than gore. Using wind and shadows throughout, with Roy Webb's score increasing the tension, a remarkable atmosphere of suspense is reached without a single slaying being directly seen by the viewer. It is an extraordinary achievement made all the more so by its deceptive simplicity, genius borne from necessity. Lewton and Tourneur took a page from old radio, letting the imagination provide more horror than anything they could have shown onscreen would have.

Jerry has began to suspect that only the first killing was done by the leopard, however, and he and Kiki delay heading for Chicago to fall deeper in love while solving the mystery. Discovering the leopard's death has been hidden by someone to cover their own beckoning call to darkness he and Kiki set a dangerous trap, as the town readies itself for an ancient procession. A dash of romance at the conclusion is the perfect dessert for the viewer. The leads are enjoyable, and Margo, who starred in Lost Horizon, is outstanding as a girl you dislike at first, then warm to as Tourner reveals a heart more tender than she'd like others to believe. Isabella Jewell is fine as her card-reading friend who can't seem to keep the death card from popping up. Everyone is revealed to be a bit softhearted in this one, balancing the overall darkness of the story.

A truly magnificent classic film, and one fans of this genre cannot miss.

Given that Halloween is coming up I figured why not review a scary movie. My choice may not be the most popular, but, because you've probably already seen all the popular scary movies why not see something different? That's why I chose "The Leopard Man".

"The Leopard Man" is not really a scary movie. At least it's not a horror film in the sense we moviegoers think of today. Like all of Val Lewton's and director Jacques Tourneur's films it is a very subtle piece of work.

Remember the ending scene in "Rosemary's Baby", when Mia Farrow finally finds out the truth about her baby. Remember how everyone talked about the baby's eyes being bright red and the shocked expression on Farrow's face as she saw the child. In that scene we didn't have to see what the baby looked like. We already had chills running up and down our arms. This is because of the power of suggestion. Sometimes the things we don't see can scare us the most.

"The Leopard Man" is a movie built around this concept. All of the violent moments are off-screen. The movie plays off the power of our imagination. Now while that may sound scary and suspenseful it doesn't always work. A movie such as "The Blair Witch Project" followed the same formula but never involved me. Movies that take this approach can run the risk of not involving us. A story, whatever the genre, must contain characters we want to watch. And "The Leopard Man" does a moderate job of that.

For those who don't know "The Leopard Man" is the story of a struggling actress, Kiki Walker (Jean Brooks) whom at the advice of her agent, Jerry Manning (Dennise O' Keefe) engages in a publicity stunt that goes wrong. In order to up stage a dancer (Margo) Kiki walks into a club with a leopard to divert all the attention away from Margo and onto herself. The leopard breaks the leash and runs away. Now this small New Mexico town is in a panic as the wild animal roams the streets and soon people are found dead.

"The Leopard Man" as I said does a moderate job of creating interesting characters. Unlike most modern horror films "The Leopard Man" does attempt to create characters the audience can come to know before they meet their fate. But "The Leopard Man"'s ultimate achievement in my opinion is the wonderful lighting. It really creates the perfect mood. The film is mostly shot in dark backgrounds as the threat of the leopard looms large. I seriously doubt anyone who watches this will be truly scared but I think they may be entertained.

I've seen a few of Val Lewton's films, mostly the ones Jacques Tourner directed such as "Cat People" and "I Walked With A Zombie" and they have all been enjoyable to watch to various degrees. If you're looking for something to watch Halloween night it wouldn't be a mistake to check out this or other Lewton films. If you've never seen them before you may find that you'll enjoy them. These are not simple minded slasher films but movies that give the audience some credit and respects the idea that we have the power of imagination.

Bottom-line: Entertaining Val Lewton/Jacques Tourner collaboration that may very well be my favorite of their films. Not scary by today's standards but a very well made film.

Val Lewton directs yet another B-thriller that will make your spine tingle. Dennis O'Keefe stars as a man who is the result of a leopard loose in a small mexican village. The night after the leopard is lost murders begin to take place. Val Lewton makes sure he makes you be gripped with suspense when a young girl is followed home by something in the shadows and when a young woman is stalked through a dark cemetry. All this leads up to a suspenseful climax where the real killer is revealed! Dennis O'keefe, Margo and Jean Brooks star in this nostalgia film.

A promotor of variety hires a tame little panter in order to enhance the show of his girlfriend in a little village far from the big cities of the USA, but the panter is frightened by the jealous, irresponsible harassment of a local Mexican dancer and scapes. There's an ambiance of superstition and an appeal to the supernatural, and a series of murders with mutilation, but the "leopard" is as much doubtful responsible of only the first of a serie of these cruel killings, and the promotor soon suspects there's nothing of extraterrestrial evil, and with his experience over rarified nigth clubs, he thinks a madman is the true killer hidden between the people. The film is made with little means but has talent enough for interesting everyone and is much better than terror movies of today by suggesting much and showing very little.

Sure, The Leopard Man is a cheap B movie, fodder for all those double bills during the Forties, but I like it a lot. It only runs 66 minutes and it packs a lot of craftsmanship into that time. What seems unusual to me is that the film, made to be filled with dread and to be a little scary, is also filled with sadness of a sort. This doesn't change its B movie status, but for me it gives the movie more depth than I expected.

Jerry Manning (Dennis O'Keefe), a promoter and boy friend of Kiki Walker (Jean Brooks), a performer at a nightclub in a small New Mexico town, rents a black leopard as an attention-getting gimmick for Kiki. She makes an entrance during the performance of a rival, Clo-Clo (Margo), a castanet-clicking dancer. But Clo-Clo isn't intimidated. When she advances on the leopard clicking her castanets, the leopard pulls free and dashes out of the open-air dance floor. Hours later, a young girl is found, slashed and mauled. Then another. Then another. Could all this be the work of the leopard...or of a psychotic individual pushed over the edge by opportunity and lust? Jerry Manning, a tough guy who thought he'd come up with a great stunt, finds himself wracked with guilt. The police don't believe him when he says the leopard couldn't have killed all three girls, so he and Kiki set out on their own to find the killer.

The craftsmanship is evident quickly. Within the first six minutes we've learned all we need to know about the set up. We've also met almost all the main characters. We're brought quickly into the horror with the first death. The atmosphere is established with all those dark, dark streets, hidden doorways and, with Clo-Clo, the sound of her castanets that she clicks and trills wherever she walks.

What I thought was unusual is that Tourneur took the time to let us get to know the three victims. The first is just a young girl from a poor family, perhaps 15 or 16, sent out by her mother to buy a sack of cornmeal so the mother can make tortillas for the evening meal. It's already dark, the mother is working hard and hasn't the time to indulge her daughter, who is reluctant to go. We see the girl try to get a nearby shop-owner to open the store, and when she's refused she has to set out for a larger store further away. We see her talk to the kindly owner, play briefly with a bird, and then set out fearfully on the long walk home. Then we're back at the house. The mother is working at the stove. She hears pounding on the locked door and pleas from her daughter to let her in. Then we see blood slowly pooling under the door. It's a vivid, startling sequence. With the next victim, 17 or 18 and from a wealthy family, we've watched the girl awaken to her birthday, shared with her a note from her boyfriend, shared her excitement at the prospect of an innocent and exciting tryst at a cemetery. But she just misses her boyfriend, it gets dark, she's locked in as the moon comes out. And soon she hears rustling in the trees. The third victim is a woman we've come to like. She's afraid of no one. She makes her own way. And then we learn she has a small child and a man she hopes to marry. She loses some money on a dark, lonely street and feels she must go back to find it. These were three people Tourneur managed to give personalities to.

"What sort of man would kill like a leopard and leave traces of a leopard..." says one character. When we find out, we're still a bit saddened. This was no raving monster with steel claws taped to his hands, just a quiet guy who was the victim of his nature and his obsessions.

Dennis O'Keefe had a long run in the movies but died fairly young. He had bit parts in hundreds of films before he started to get major roles. I've always liked him. He had an easy going personality, and could play farce (Getting Gertie's Garter, Brewster's Millions) as easily as he could play tough guys (Raw Deal, T Men). He does a fine job in a movie he co-wrote, Cover-Up.

Rival entertainers meet in a club in New Mexico Kiki Walker (Jean Brooks) brings in a leopard to upstage Clo-Clo (Margo). But Clo-Clo gets the last laugh when she chases the leopard off with her castanets.

All is fun rivalry until people start dying. Naturally the local authorities think it is the leopard. But Jerry Manning (Dennis O'Keefe) who rented the leopard has a theory that this is the work of a demented person. This theory is sort of supported by Dr. Galbraith (James Bell) the local museum curator. To make matters worse the leopard's owner, Charlie How-Come (Abner Biberman) does not remember where he was at the time.

As with the cat people it is what you don't see that can harm you. And the simile turning of a card can mark you for death.

You may recognize Dynamite the leopard that was also used in the movie "Cat People".

Produced by Val Lewton (7 May 1904, Yalta, Crimea, Russian Empire (now Ukraine) ) whose story telling device is unique in that this is more of a psychological film that does not focus on any one person as they are all pawns in a much larger story. Some time it verges on the surreal.

Now that you have seen the film read the book "Black Alibi" by Cornell Woolrich.

The Val Lewton Horror Collection (Cat People / The Curse of the Cat People / I Walked with a Zombie / The Body Snatcher / Isle of the Dead / Bedlam / The Leopard Man / The Ghost Ship / The Seventh Victim / Shadows in the Dark)