“The Leopard Man” showcases Margo, in a sensual performance as a flamenco firecracker. Never heard of her? Me either. She is so sharp and entrancing that I could not believe she would not have been wildly successful. Her gaze is direct and unapologetic as the dancer who, despite her love of poor men, is looking for a sugar daddy. She compels respect for her unwillingness to lie down under economic oppression and sympathy for her clear vision of what she has to do. Why were we deprived of Margo’s shining star? Well, she was blacklisted and her career never recovered. But we have her here, forever. Thank you Val.
There is also the dime-store, tall, not-quite-top-tier male lead, Dennis O’Keefe, whose all-American, forthright manner moves him beyond the cardboard leading man his character was in danger of becoming.
Director Jacques Tourneur, the great stylist of light and shadow, who helped create and then commit to celluloid the otherworldly vision of Lewton, only briefly soared into the A-list in the mid-1940s. Despite his later success, Tourneur did his most creative and inventive work in the pressure cooker of Lewton’s low-budget domain.
Finally, be sure to notice Dynamite, the black panther who also co-starred in Val Lewton’s “Cat People.”
“The Leopard Man” can be profitably watched with any other Lewton movie, but “Cat People” (1942) is thematically the closest.
