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The one of the principal characteristics of Val Lewton's horror movies was a reliance on set-piece suspense sequences. During the course of the first three "Lewton" movies, there are at least four set pieces that stand among the most excruciatingly tight suspense sequences ever filmed. Two are from Cat People: the Central Park stalking and the swimming pool sequence. One is from I Walked With a Zombie: the walk through the cane field as the voodoo drums beat. The fourth is from The Leopard Man: the stalking of Theresa Delgado. For my money, it is the single best suspense sequence in movies. It goes something like this: poor Theresa has been sent out to buy bread by her mother. She is scared to go because night has fallen and there is an escaped black leopard at large. She gets to the store without incident, buys her bread, and begins home. Suddenly, the streets seem deserted and her footfalls are loud in her ears. The night has taken on a physical aura of menace. After she emerges from a tunnel, she looks back and sees the two eyes of the leopard staring back at her. The leopard growls and begins to lope after her. She drops her burden and begins to run for home. She is almost there. The scene then cuts to her mother's kitchen. Theresa makes it home, but the door has been locked behind her. She pounds on the door, screaming as her mother ambles to unlock it. Suddenly, there is a huge thump on the door, then silence. Then a trickle of blood seeps under the door.

This sequence is there for the taking in Cornell Woolrich's Black Alibi, upon which this movie is based. There are other sequences in other Woolrich's novels that are nearly as good, yet no one else ever translated them as completely and as effectively as Lewton and Tourneur and screenwriter Dewitt Bodeen. I wonder why.

Were that one unforgettable sequence the only thing to recommend in The Leopard Man, The Leopard Man would still be a classic. The rest of the movie is pretty good. The film follows a series of deaths which, at first, seem to be the work of the escaped leopard. As the evidence builds, it becomes clear that there is a human monster hiding behind the leopard's claws. All of this is handled with the taste and consumate skill that the Lewton movies are known for. The stalking sequence, though, causes the movie some problems. It makes such an impact so early in the movie that the audience might not recover from it. And if they do, there is nothing else in the movie to compare with it. Oh, it stages a couple of other suspense sequences, but they are hollow echoes of the first one. Fortunately, there are other elements to take up the slack. The ending of this movie (which is unique to the movie--Woolrich didn't write it) has a certain lyrical quality to it that balances out the murderer's final confession (which resembles Peter Lorre's confession at the end of M). Like all of Lewton's movies, The Leopard Man is VERY interested in abnormal psychology and its exploration of this element is delicate and fascinating. All told, The Leopard Man is not quite as good as Cat People or I Walked with a Zombie, but there's no shame in that I guess. It's still one of the best suspense movies ever made.