Another unique, shadowy B-movie from producer Val Lewton and director Jacques Tourner (their third and final film together). This one’s roughly half-horror and half-murder mystery. A leopard—the same one used in Cat People—runs loose in a small New Mexico desert town. When a series of violent deaths start happening in the streets each night, everyone assumes it’s the leopard. However, B-movie stalwart Dennis O’Keefe suspects a human murderer. Typical of Lewton and Tourner, this is slow-moving yet absorbing and with artful scares. The first murder is impressively disturbing for its time. After this, RKO Pictures bumped Jacques Tourner up to directing bigger budget films.
Based on a Cornell Woolrich novel.