(1943) Directed by Jacques Tourneur; Written by Ardel Wray and Edward Dein; Based on the novel, Black Alibi, by Cornell Woolrich; Starring: Dennis O’Keefe, Margo, Jean Brooks, Isabell Jewell, James Bell, Margaret Landry, Abner Biberman, Tuulikki Paananen, and Ben Bard; Available on Blu-ray and DVD
Rating: ****
"Time is strange. A moment can be as short as a breath or as long as eternity. Don’t linger. The gates are locked at six.” – Cemetery Gatekeeper (Brandon Hurst)
Horror manifests itself in many forms. Is it the act itself, or the suggestion of the act that is the most horrific? As Alfred Hitchcock once observed, it’s not the gunshot but the anticipation of the gunshot that’s the most blood chilling. Jacques Tourneur understood this all too well, preferring suspense, shadows, and suggestions over explicit depictions of violence. The Leopard Man (based on the Cornell Woolrich novel Black Alibi),* his final collaboration with producer Val Lewton, was no exception. Like their previous films, Tourneur made up for any budget deficiencies with oodles of atmosphere and palpable psychological terror.
* Fun Fact #1: When Lewton originally purchased the rights
to the novel, the working title was Cat People, which he ended up using
for his most famous film in 1942.
The story begins in a nightclub, where Kiki (Jean Brooks) tries to upstage fellow performer Clo-Clo (Margo) with a black leopard.* The leopard is spooked by the clicking of Clo-Clo’s castanets, fleeing the club, and into a sleepy New Mexican town. When a young girl is savagely mutilated, the leopard is believed to be the killer, despite its owner’s assertion that the wild cat wouldn’t likely attack people. Another brutal death occurs, with everyone but Kiki’s manager, Jerry Manning (Dennis O’Keefe), convinced that the leopard is the culprit. But with no concrete evidence to support his suspicions, he’s on his own to ascertain who or what the murderer is. He consults Dr. Galbraith (James Bell),** a former zoology professor who runs a museum of indigenous art, who only casts doubt on the nature of the murders.
* Fun Fact #2: According to a 1943 Hollywood Reporter article, several extras refused to work with the leopard, named “Dynamite.” Of the 100+ extras who were called, only half accepted the job.
** Fun Fact #3: According to film historian Constantine
Nasr, RKO reportedly wanted Lon Chaney, Jr. to be cast as the enigmatic
professor, but Lewton couldn’t negotiate a deal.
In a film with many tense, unsettling scenes, one of the most chilling sequences involves Teresa (Margaret Landry), a teenage girl, who’s sent out in the night to purchase corn masa for tortillas. Despite her protests over an escaped leopard stalking the streets, her mother sternly admonishes her not to return without the masa. Fearing she’s being stalked, Teresa hurries home, only to discover the front door of her house locked. We hear her desperately clawing at the door, while her mother and brother try in vain to unlock it, followed by a pool of blood collecting under the door. Tourneur reminds us it’s not what we see, but what we don’t see that’s terrifying (our mind fills in the blanks). The next victim is Consuelo (Tuulikki Paananen), a young woman visiting her father’s grave, who becomes accidentally locked inside the walls of the graveyard, inadvertently trapping her with the unseen killer. The sound of Clo-Clo’s castanets permeate the soundtrack, ratcheting up the tension. When she becomes the third victim, her castanets become the equivalent to Poe’s “Tell Tale Heart” for the murderer, a constant, nagging reminder of his warped conscience.
* Fun Fact #4: According to another Hollywood Reporter
blurb, RKO and producer Lewton utilized a “fright-detector” during a sneak
preview, to measure “both the quantity and intensity of audience screams, gasps
and emotional reactions.”
Manning is reluctant to get involved, but his conscience gets the better of him. After he initially declines to join the sheriff’s posse searching for the leopard, he has an abrupt change of heart, deciding to start his own investigation. Despite his unshakeable exterior, he’s compelled by an overwhelming sense of guilt to discover who the real murderer is. Besides Manning, guilt plays a major hand in the lives of several characters: Teresa’s mother for sending her daughter out on the fateful night, Consuelo’s boyfriend, who failed to meet her on time, and the leopard’s owner, Charlie How-Come (Abner Biberman), who becomes convinced that he might be directly responsible for the murders.
The Leopard Man defies easy categorization. Is it horror? I think so. Is it noir? Absolutely. Or perhaps it belongs in the catch-all category, suspense? Of course. The film ticks many boxes, proving low budget doesn’t necessarily corollate with low thrills. Tourneur and crew employ a masterful play of light, shadow and sound to create a pervasive atmosphere of dread throughout. The poetic dialogue sets the film a notch above many of its contemporaries, transforming what could have been a simple potboiler into a thoughtful study of the darker side of human nature. Despite its solid reputation with film fans and scholars alike, The Leopard Man somehow managed to get overlooked and overshadowed by Tourneur’s other collaborations with Val Lewton (Cat People, I Walked with a Zombie, The 7th Victim) at the time, with tepid critical reception (even Lewton and Tourneur had a low opinion of the film). As with many classics reviewed on this blog, however, time proved the film’s worth, ranking favorably among Tourneur and Lewton’s other (deservedly) vaunted works.
Sources for this article: Shout Factory Blu-ray commentary
by Constantine Nasr; “Extras Refuse to Work with Leopard,” The Hollywood
Reporter (Tuesday, February 23, 1943); “Fright-Detector Used to Check
Emotions,” The Hollywood Reporter (Friday, April 9, 1943)
.JPG)
