"The Leopard Man" is a silly plot enlivened by the direction of the master Tourneur.The story is something to do with nightclub performers who hire a leopard for their show. The leopard gets loose, and people start dying, assuming that this is the work of the beast. But is it?The filmmakers don't really draw this mystery out and make it centre stage. For one thing, the leopard doesn't look big enough to hurt anyone, so you're not really encouraged to think it may be the murderer. The movie seems more interested in the goings on behind the scenes of the nightclub, which isn't very interesting, and will seem like a distraction to most viewers.Jacques Tourneur has a way with suspenseful scenes, which enlivens a mostly pretty boring movie with a silly story. When you finally find out who the killer is, it's not shown like it's supposed to be the surprise it obviously is. It's like Tourneur could work with individual scenes, but trying to glue all the parts of this movie together into a cohesive whole was either beyond him or not worth his time.

No, it's not another one of those Dr. Moreau things. In this one, a real leopard is the central figure. A man rents a leopard for an act for his female singer, but her rival lets the thing go. Soon there is a killing and there is great remorse for ever having had the thing in the first place. Now, the leopard has to be found. There is a whole lot of effort to locate the animal; meanwhile the first girl is killed. The location of the leopard and the time of its death are significant to the conclusion of this movie. This pairing of Lewton and Tourneur has brought us some of the most atmospheric thrillers ever made. Even B movies come to life because of a master's touch.

In Val Lewton films, there's always at least one scene that sticks in the mind. 'The Isle of the Dead' features the awakening of a body buried in a casket, in the 'Body Snatchers', we have the unforgettable finale. Here we have several , including the increasingly distraught teenage girl returning home, pounding at the door of her home with her mother heartlessly refusing to let her in – followed by silence, and the spreading of a pool of blood beneath the closed door.Charlie (Abner Biberman) is nice, he likes his big cat. It earns him a good living and he clearly adores it. Alongside the animal itself, he is 'The Leopard Man's most likable character. Dennis O'Keefe is a good leading man. Sad-eyed Jean Brooks plays Kiki Walker. Only the maracas-playing Clo-Clo (Margo) annoys – her jealousy that the cat would steal her thunder and her teasing of the animal causes killings and other unfortunate events to spiral, yet she shows no sign of giving a darn – until she gets her comeuppance, that is.The implication of a man/leopard hybrid is completely absent in the story – in fact the revelation the feline has been dead before some of the killings take place, and that the murderer is a mere human, is a little disappointing (only the trailer implied a lycanthropic plot line). It's true to say this is not Lewton's most effective production: the modern day setting is less suggestive of Gothic flavour than other, period pieces. Having said that, he and Director Jacques Tourneur ensure there are some chilling set-pieces, my favourite being the sombre funeral procession, with murmuring, candle-holding mourners making their way across a barren, windswept studio set, led by black robed lamenters.

A great story from a great storyteller, "The Leopard Man" has all the earmarks of a Tourneur film. He creates tension and suspense without allowing it on screen - all the dread and horror is in the mind of the viewer. This, of course, is diametrically opposed to the way horror is portrayed in movies nowadays, which is to drench the screen with buckets of blood and gore.This is a Val Lewton low budget picture, Lewton being the man who could produce quality films at bargain prices for RKO. He chose Dennis O'Keefe as the hero of the piece, one of Hollywood's most unsung and underrated actors. O'Keefe had not yet hit his stride as a top 'B' film actor, and "Raw Deal" and "Woman On The Run" were yet to come. Good support comes from Margo, Isabel Jewell, and James Bell, one of the most recognizable faces in movies and on TV.The only flaw in this picture is the weak ending, which dropped my rating from an eight to a seven. Can't have everything, I guess, but this picture comes very close. That came with "Out Of The Past", several years later, which to my mind is the best Noir film ever made.