The Leopard Man
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The Leopard Man |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1943 |
| length | 66 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Jacques Tourneur |
| script |
Ardel Wray Edward Yours |
| production | Val Lewton |
| music | Roy Webb |
| camera | Robert De Grasse |
| cut | Mark Robson |
| occupation | |
| |
The Leopard Man is in black and white twisted American feature film directed by Jacques Tourneur . Val Lewton produced the film, which is assigned to the genre of the horror genre, in 1943 for the RKO studio . Ardel Wray and Edward Dein wrote the script based on the novel Black Alibi by Cornell Woolrich . It is one of the first American films to deal with the subject of psychopathic serial killers, but without using the term
action
The action takes place in New Mexico and begins when Jerry Manning hires a black leopard to get his friend, the nightclub singer Kiki, an accessory for her show. Her rival, Clo-Clo, who works in the same club, does not want to be overshadowed and scares the big cat so much that it flees and escapes into the night.
The leopard's owner, Charlie How-Come, who calls himself "The Leopard Man", presses Manning to pay him back the damage. Shortly thereafter, a young Latina is mangled. She had met the leopard the night before. Manning and Kiki blame each other for being negligent with the predator. After attending the funeral, Manning joins a pack who want to hunt the cat. Soon after, a woman is accidentally trapped in a cemetery at night. Before the cemetery attendant can unlock the gate, she too is torn to pieces. Manning and Charlie begin to question whether a leopard was really behind this killing. In a one-to-one conversation, Charlie said to Manning that it would be better to be locked away, although he couldn't remember anything because of being drunk.
Meanwhile, the dancer Clo-Clo, who throws herself at rich men in bars, goes to a fortune teller who prophesies her imminent death in connection with the color black. This panics them. She is murdered by a man on the street at night. Charlie realizes that he can't be the killer because he was sober at the time. Manning remembers a conversation he had with his friend Dr. Galbraith had led. He had told him that there are forces that are stronger than you are. He suspects that Galbraith is the culprit. He and a few friends use psychological tricks that make Galbraith nervous and remind him of the murders. When cornered by Manning and a friend, he confesses to the murders and is shot by the friend. The police arrest him.
production
Tourneur had already celebrated a considerable success with Cat People in 1942 and several colleagues from this film crew worked on this film. The budget for the film was $ 150,000.
The black leopard "Dynamite" had also played in Tourneurs Cat People.
The marketing of the film tried with trailers and film posters to give the impression that the killer was a wer-leopard , a hybrid between human and leopard. However, this has nothing to do with the plot.
criticism
Most of the reviews were positive but emphasized that the film lacked the density of cat people .
TV Guide 's criticism praised the film and emphasized the low budget, which everyone involved would have made a lot of. Robert De Grasse delivered a remarkable camera work.
Turner Classic Moviess criticism praised the film for its effect on the audience and also emphasized the low budget. On Rotten Tomatoes , the film has an 88% positive rating based on 17 reviews.
Awards
- 2006: Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films nominated for the Saturn Award in the Best DVD Collection category (as part of the collection with the films Katzenmenschen, The Curse of the Cat People , The Corpse Thief , Bedlam, I Followed a Zombie , Das Ghost Ship, The Seventh Sacrifice, Death Island)
- 2005: Satellite Award nominated for the Saturn Award in the Outstanding Classic DVD category (as part of the collection with the films Katzenmenschen, The Curse of the Cat People , The Corpse Thief , Bedlam, I Followed a Zombie , The Ghost Ship, The Seventh Victim, The Death island)
See also
- Leopard murders, a method of murder in Africa in which the killing by a big cat was faked
Individual evidence
- ^ Preston, Scott: The Strange Pleasure of the Leopard Man: Gender, Genre and Authorship in a Val Lewton Thriller . CineAction 71. Archived from the original on December 3, 2009. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
- ↑ Chris Fujiwara: Jacques Tourneur: The Cinema of Nightfall , Baltimore 2001.
- ↑ The Leopard Man at Rotten Tomatoes
