Leopard Man
1943

Film making is a complex event. Many different people from different arts need to come together to make the film. The director keeps all the pieces moving in the same direction (hopefully). Each person in the company who reads the scrip may come to a different interpretation of the story and the characters in it. Costume designers, set designers, cinematographers all will find ways to exploit the variables in their field to advance both text and subtext.

Lewton tended to work with the same people over and over. They were clearly people who seemed to be in agreement about the aesthetics of work. This allows people to become used to each other and anticipate one another’s actions. As a result work went quickly and the films were done in remarkable time with little money being spent. (Hitchcock managed the same with Psycho using his TV crew to film it).

Remember that film is communication and the author(s) of the film are sending “coded” messages to the audience. In all communication there must be a sender a receiver and a message which is coded in some form. The techniques involved in decoding these messages are collectively called “hermeneutics”.

In communication the sender encodes a message and the receiver is supposed to decode it. The production end of film making is involved in the coding; the film studies end (i.e. the audience) is involved in the decoding.

Each of the people who is involved in the production will code the message into their specific area.

This is particularly important in the Val Lewton/Jacques Tourneur films where the producer and director were very much of the same mind and left very heavy imprints on the films. It is those imprints which interest us in examining what features are commonly found in a Lewton or Tourneur film. The assemblage of those features is thought of frequently as their “style”.

The author of the script creates the work (usually the writer) and is the creative artists. The other people who bring the work to fruition are interpretive artists who interpret the work and find ways to advance the text or subtext through their own area. A costumer say for a play like Camelot, might work out a color scheme in which King Arthur wears clothing which is in various shades of green while Lancelot wears shades of red. Guenevere’s clothing might start out a color like blue, but as her attachment of Arthur grows, her wardrobe might become bluer. As her involvement with Lancelot grows the colors might become more red, in this way demonstrating through the costuming a changing alliance. .

Some directors (and some actors), find ways to do this through props or scenery or any number of things. Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) in On the Waterfront demonstrates a growing attachment to, and an unwillingness to leave Edie Doyle (Eva Marie Saint) by his taking her glove and constantly manipulating it and not giving it back in order to show his unwillingness to let her go.

We have already seen some attention to background detail in some of the films seen. The plethora of cats in Irena’s room in pictures on the wall, on screen and sculpted into statues are often in the scene.

How does this film make use of the camera to advance the films text and sub text?

The story comes from a novel by Cornell Woolrich called Black Alibi. Woolrich was a prolific writer and many of his stories have been made into films – often noir – including Hitchcock’s Rear Window.

One of the best crime writers along with behind only Dashiell Hammett (Sam Spade, Nick and Nora Charles, Erle Stanley Gardner Perry Mason (Edge of Night was based on Mason, but Gardiner wouldn’t give them the rights.) and Raymond Chandler (Philip Marlowe). Many of his stories became noir film is (more than any other). Leopard Man is often seen as the weakest of the three Lewton Tourneur films, but many would disagree. The three films are rather different and each needs to be seen in its own light. Like I Walked with a Zombie, the generic classification of Leopard Man is difficult. Some people think it is a horror film – Is it? Some people think it is a mystery – is it? Why so, why not?

Things to watch for: (a) Are there nourish elements? (b) Narrative structure (c) Typical Lewton/Tourneur approaches. There are a number of famous bits in the film. Can you identify them?

PS Leopard’s real name is dynamite and is the same one in Cat People

AFTER THE FILM

Can you classify the genre?

In mysteries all the murders should be committed by the same person. In this film this isn’t the case. (Galbraith only does 2 the leopard does the first one) NOIRISH ELEMENTS: Noir typified narratively often by:

Leopard Man has typical Chiaroscuro or Rembrandt lighting. There are many images of entrapment - bird cage, walls bushes etc. The city (such as it is) is seen as dangerous (it is where the murders happen) Charlie argues the leopard wants to get to the country away from the noise and lights in the city..

The film is typified by wrong, random or accidental turns which are ultimately deadly. Clo Clo's decision to go to look for the money, Theresa's decision to go to the cemetery even though it is late, Raoul's decision to leave the graveyard, Galbraith's "passing by" the cemetery and so on. There are forces at work, but they are unknowable. The card readings indicate a fixed future, but the way there is not known. CloClo fears something black and suspects it is the car that comes, we are also led to believe it is the leopard but it isn't. The fortune teller says "Sometimes the cards mean one thing - at other times something else.

Although reflections often indicate duplicity, the characters in the film have doubles: Clo Clo as performer, and also as mother and daughter. She is very different with the old man and with her family then at other times. Both Kiki and Jerry put up fronts, The Leopard and the killer are virtually doubles (both do the killings and the man is confused with the leopard); Kiki doubles with the leopard when she says she will wear her black dress so she can "be like him" (the leopard).

Typical Lewton/Tourneur moments

Minorities

Mexicans: seen as free of blame. No one blames Clo Clo for scaring the cat,

Indian: Charlie How-Come: recognizes own drinking problem and wants to be certain he is not responsible. The only one who knows the leopard isn’t doing the killings once it is out of the city where it was frightened. Charlie is the only person who is interested in accepting guilt - even though he didn't do it. His uncertainty about what he might have done causes him to get the sheriff to lock him up (which ultimately proves he didn't do the murders).

The procession involves an atonement for a senseless act of violence committed by Conquistadores (outsiders) on a local peaceful tribe of Indians (locals). Similarly Jerry and Kiki commit a similar act by their publicity stunt with the leopard.

Locals vs. outsiders

Locals are "guiltless" No one accuses the store keeper for not opening up her store, or the gate keeper at the cemetery. Jerry, Kiki and Galbraith are outsiders. Images of fate and chance Clo Clo is connective element. People she passes die as camera moves to follow her story. Right from the start .the camera moves in on Clo Clo, but then shifts direction Ball held by water – no idea of forces propelling it Responsibility and guilt. Outsiders blamed: (Agent Jerry Manning (Dennis O’Keefe) and Kiki Waters (Jean Brooks)

SUBTEXT

Guilt and responsibility – the randomness of events that control people’s lives. Camera moves in odd and "random" ways. The opening shot moves down a corridor and seems to be looking for the origin of the sounds of castanet’s we hear. Just as we see CloClo reflected in the mirror and her coming into view in reality. Kiki pounds on the wall, and the camera suddenly moves in that direction. Clo Clo links the murders together. As she walks on the rather angular street the camera follows her but is sidetracked into the films so called "episodic" pieces - that is the stories about the murders of people we have no connection with until we are drawn into their lives as Clo Clo passes by. Clo Clo passes the window where Theresa Delgado lives. Later Clo Clo tries to get a flower from a florist and the camera wanders off with another customer who introduces the audience to Consuelo, the next victim. Finally it is Clo Clo who is killed and the camera no longer moves in such random ways.