THE LEOPARD MAN
US, 1943, 66 minutes, Black and white.
Denis O’ Keefe, Margo.
Directed by Jacques Tourneur.
The Leopard Man is one of several short small budget horror films produced by Val Lewton and directed by Jacques Tourneur in the early 40s. Others included The Cat People and I Walked With a Zombie. The story is by Cornel Woolrich who wrote such stories as The Night Has a Thousand Eyes as well as The Mississippi Mermaid and The Bride Wore Black (filmed by François Truffaut and the novels were written under the name of William Irish). This is an entertaining horror film about a mysterious animal and a comment on society, religion, superstition, greed. Dennis O’ Keefe is the star.
1. The reputation of Val Lewton and his group of horror films of the forties? B-budget and brevity, atmosphere, the blend of natural and preternatural?
2. The film's title and its focus, the leopard and the world of the cats, the discussion about the cat family, panthers and leopards? The focus on Charlie as the Leopard Man with his sideshow? The transferral of this to the curator of the museum? The cat in popular fear, in the circus? The explanation of ancient myths and the sinister presence of cats especially the Mexican tradition? The leopard as symbol? how well was it used, explained? As with the Tarot Cards?
3. How credible was the plot? Explicable on natural lines? Was there more?
4. The use of a contemporary setting for horror? Contemporary America and the style of the forties? New Mexico and the blend of American and Mexican? Both aspects in the town, personalities, families? The film's highlighting of the difference of the two traditions and their blending e.g. the two different dances and the focus given to the Spanish tradition dancing and castanets? The use of cards and the use of reason and research? The contrast between external hardness and interior kindness? The circus and the ordinary, sanity and insanity, formalities especially with Consuelo and the modern with Raoul? Jealousies and balance? The ordinary day-by-day nightclub atmosphere compared with traditional ceremony with masks and processions, the museum? The suggestion of so much ambiguity? The lack of explanation?
5. How well did the film sketch Its characters the hero and his presence in New Mexico, the modern world of advertising, exploitive? Hard exterior and his explanation of this? Softness and kindness? His being made to feel guilty, his helping, his coming through the experience to understanding? To admitting his humanity, to love, the happy ending? A hit at the tough American hero, showing that he was a romanticist?
6. The treatment of the heroine? Her initial jealousy and comparisons, her giving the money at the funeral, her attitude towards the killings, sense of responsibility, help? Insight and admitting the truth?
7. How credible was the villain? His presence in the town, his way of speaking, his strange past and the giving up of teaching to retire to the museum suspicious? The museum itself and his researches, his knowledge of the cat family, his different explanations throughout the film for the leopard's behaviour? The sending of the flowers? His being trapped, his explanation of the killings; What had possessed him? And yet the modernity of his death and Raoul being charged by the police?
8. The film spent a great deal of attention on the victims: the long presentation of Theresa and her being sent out, fears, discussion with the shopkeeper, the train and its fright, the pathos of her death? Consuelo’s birthday with the flowers with the permission to go to the cemetery? Raoul's waiting, her being locked ing her fears and watching the trees? The dancer and her jealousy, her being responsible for sending the leopard out? Her family background, the, cards and their continually pointing to death? The scene with the flower, her night with the elderly man who gave her the money and her going back to get it, death?
9. The film's visual presentation of death, suggestion, explanations, fate?
10. The attention given to the families and their grief to give a credible picture of these deaths?
11. The minor characters in the nightclubs the blonde waitress who would have been an entertainer, Raoul and his shooting, Charlie and his admission of drunkenness and wanting to be locked up, the police and their attitudes?
12, The title of the original novel was 'Dark Alibi' ? its meaning? Death, murder, the sinister aspects of human nature? The symbolic animal for fear and death?
