The Leopard Man

Last of the three films with which Jacques Tourneur got producer Val Lewton's series of low-budget horrors at RKO off to a marvellous start, based on Cornell Woolrich's novel Black Alibi. Is it the leopard from a travelling zoo which has escaped after a publicity stunt, or something more sinister wreaking havoc in the Mexican border town? This slim question is transformed by Tourneur's fluent and expressive use of shadows into a stylistic tour de force. A film for lovers of pools of darkness.