The Leopard Man

Tourneur’s third collaboration with Val Lewton is this adaptation of Cornell Woolrich’s novel Black Alibi, concerning a black leopard that escapes during a publicity stunt and becomes the suspect in a killing spree upending a quiet New Mexico town. Like in Cat People and I Walked with a Zombie, The Leopard Man stations real sentiments about racism, xenophobia, and fear of the other within its somewhat outlandish horror narrative, and makes particularly chilling use of music and sound: the trilling of castanets never conjured such dread as in this film.

Preceded by:
The Man in the Barn
Jacques Tourneur, USA, 1937, 35mm, 10m
This bizzare short presents a conspiracy theory that John Wilkes Booth successfully fled to Oklahoma after assassinating Abraham Lincoln.

Explore the Jacques Tourneur brochure flipbook or read below.