Cheap Leopard Man (Video) (Jacques Tourneur) Price

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Customer Reviews of Leopard Man

"I've met a lot of funny ones in bars and nightclubs."
"The Leopard Man" is set in a small New Mexico town. In an attempt to upstage a popular flamenco dancer, nightclub performer, Kiki Walker (Jean Brooks) rents a black leopard. Unfortunately the stunt goes out of control and the leopard escapes. Soon a young girl is found mauled to death, and it seems that the leopard is the culprit. A posse is formed, but the body count starts rising.

"The Leopard Man" is based on Cornell Woolrich's novel "Black Alibi." Woolrich--a hard-boiled detective writer--is considered one of the great writers whose novels were made into popular film noir. The film capitalizes on the use of black and white by emphasizing darkness and shadows. There are several masterful scenes in which reflections from water and light illuminate fear on the victims' faces. The film was extraordinarily gripping, and even though very little blood is seen, the tension prior to each kill builds to an almost unbearable crescendo. Part of the film's strength is found in the poignant portrayals of the victims. The film was relatively short--only 66 minutes long--but well worth watching--displacedhuman

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Memorable But Neglected Lewton Classic
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.

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evil isn't from outside
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.