After two masterful horror films (Cat People and I Walked With a Zombie), Val Lewton and Jacques Tourneur's last collaboration is an underwhelming thriller. Based on Cornell Woolrich's novel Black Alibi, The Leopard Man (1943) offers little beyond the requisite stylish killings.Nightclub entertainers Jerry (Dennis O'Keefe) and Kiki (Jean Brooks) arrive in Santa Fe introducing a leopard into their act. Kiki's rival, castanet-rattling dancer Clo-Clo (Margo), scares the leopard and it escapes into town. After the animal kills a young girl, authorities launch a hunt. The killings continue, but Jerry doubts that the leopard's involved. He enlists naturalist Dr. Galbraith (James Bell) for help, finding Galbraith a little too interested in the case.
The Leopard Man starts with a brilliant set piece: a Mexican girl stalked by an escaped leopard. Tourneur outdoes the park scene in Cat People with shadows, two glowing eyes under the bridge and a jump scare with a train, culminating in blood seeping under the doorframe. Brilliantly shot and paced, it's a textbook horror scene. Indeed, it's such a striking scene the rest of the film can't compare.
The main problem is that, unlike other Lewton efforts, the protagonists are thinly sketched nullities. The show biz protagonists aren't interesting enough to carry the film, while the victims are anonymous Mexicans. The movie offers little between murders; auteurists can find intertextual strands like Clo-Clo's fascination with tarot cards or the doctor of questionable sanity, which amount to little on their own. The third act twist isn't much of a shock, though Tourneur
Dennis O'Keefe and Jean Brooks are stiff leads; Margo, at least, evinces style and sex appeal that transcends her flat character. Abner Biberman (His Girl Friday) steals his scenes, playing the leopard's owner with a compelling mix of pain and self-doubt. James Bell is stuck playing that most '40s of screen villains, a twisted intellectual.
Val Lewton's best films are art on a budget. The Leopard Man seems content being a stylish, slightly-above average B Movie. It's disposable entertainment but disappointing from these filmmakers.
