The Leopard Man (1943)

In a small New Mexico town, a black leopard escapes into the night. When a young girl (Margaret Landry) is mauled to death by the leopard, a posse is formed to find the creature. But when other young girls are killed by the leopard, a man (Dennis O'Keefe) suspects that it may be human hands rather than leopard's claws behind the killings. The third and final collaboration between producer Val Lewton and director Jacques Tourneur may not have the critical and cult following of their previous two (CAT PEOPLE, I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE) but it's got some memorable moments that rank with the best of Lewton's oeuvre. For those of us who first saw the film as impressionable youngsters, the leopard's eyes shining in the pitch dark or the helpless screaming girl beating at the door and the pool of blood seeping under the door are images never ever forgotten. The film makers wisely give us just enough backstory on the victims so that we know them and care about their fate (which is a recurring theme in the film) rather than anonymous pretty young things there merely to be bumped off. The superb atmospheric camera work is by Robert De Grasse. Based on the novel BLACK ALIBI by Cornell Woolrich. With Jean Brooks, Isabel Jewell, James Bell, Abner Biberman, Jacqueline DeWit and Dynamite as the ill fated leopard.