Saturday, April 4, 2009

The Leopard Man (1943), Jacques Tourneur.


A little flabby, a little sluggish. Set, strangely, in a little open-air nightclub in Mexico that caters to American tourists. Dull but pretty Jean Brooks brings a leopard on a leash into her act in an attempt to upstage her more talented colleague, a spicy flamenco dancer. Leopard gets away and begins chewing on the local folk. Features flaky museum curator, who philosophizes that life is much like a ball floating in a fountain jet: "we know as little about the forces of the universe that move us as that ball does." Uh, OK professor. Interesting to see the same ingredients for B-movie horror (exotic setting, strange evil presence, rational/scientific authoritative figure) but slightly rearranged.

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