Frightful Felines Vol. 2

As promised, to all of you eager readers, here's my handle on The Leopard Man, made in 1943.

It begins in a swanky night club in New Mexico.

In order to 1up another performer and her incessant castanet playing (SPOILERS: really she doesn't get killed fast enough END SPOILERS), Kiki gets a leopard from her boyfriend Jerry to win the crowd over. An ill conceived gimmick indeed. The Castanet Lady scares the poor cat and he runs away. No, I don't remember or want to know her name. Damn you, Castanet Lady. Out of fear of a loud nearby train, the leopard ends up killing a young woman on her way back home. Later another woman is mauled in a cemetery, but Jerry and Charlie, the owner of the leopard, doesn't think it was the cat's doing. There wasn't any motive for the leopard to do it. It obviously didn't hunt for food since the body was still there and nothing in the cemetery could have startled it that much. Jerry and Charlie suspect murder.

Despite the Castanet Lady, I enjoyed this film, though I'm not sure if it left as much of an impression on me than Cat People did. It was only a little more than one hour. That could be it. Or maybe it was some of the so-so performances. Speaking of acting, IMDb told me that the same black leopard was also in Cat People. He really shined in both movies.

Frightful Felines Vol. 1

I was recently recommended two films produced by Val Lewton, Cat People and The Leopard Man. At first, it seemed odd to have cats as your main source of scares in a film, given all of the current overwhelmingly cute pictures and macros on sites like Stuff On My Cat. Still, the movies, Cat People especially, are cult classics. So here's my take on Cat People, complete without the easy sophomoric sexist jokes.

It starts with Irena sketching a panther in her local zoo. Oliver picks up a drawing haphazardly tossed by Irena. The two meet and all of the sudden they're a married couple. However, Irena acts pretty distant when the two get physically close, saying she's cursed. According to Serbia folklore a group of witchy women were driven out by King John (the Serbian version). She believes she came from those outcasts and that if she kisses her love she'll morph into a panther and maul him. Time passes and patient Oliver begins to relay his concerns to a female coworker Alice. Irena ends up seeing Oliver and Alice eating together and you can bet there will a catfight,er...conflict.

I liked it more than I thought I would. Later scenes are creepy without really showing anything (that seems to be the general praise this film has, see below and Rotten Tomatoes new list). And the actors sell their parts with conviction. If they didn't this film would just be ridiculous. I'm sure others could go into the motifs and imagery, but that's going a bit far. It's just a fun time.

A sequel was made, called Curse of the Cat People, and is supposed to be decent enough. Maybe I'll get to it later, but before then, The Leopard Man on Frightful Felines Vol. 2.