Blu-ray Review: The Leopard Man (1943)
Kiki Walker (Jean Brooks) is losing her audience at the New Mexico club in which she performs to a Latin dancer named Clo-Clo (Margo), so her manager, Jerry (Dennis O’Keefe), gets the shit-hot idea to add a leopard into her act…and seriously, what could go wrong shoving a large, angry cat into a noisy room of half-drunk folks? Naturally, the answer to that is everything, as Kiki’s rival spooks the beast which exits stage left and goes on a maul-spree around the countryside…but there may be more to the killings than appears on the surface. Filled with a nice sense of mounting tension, creepy atmospherics (no surprise with the legendary Val Lewton serving as producer of the film), and even a dash of mystery, The Leopard Man is a damn solid low-budget shocker. O’Keefe makes for a fine square-jawed hero, the supporting players are charismatic and their characters have surprising depth (especially Margo’s Clo-Clo who has aspirations of wealth and
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