be jacques tourneur the lazy director ever . he let the audience do all the work . at least he do when make little suspense programmer under producer val lewton and who head rko second feature unit in the wartime 1940s . hamstrung by parsimonious budget and they rack their brain for way to make their movie look good and pack a wallop . their solution prove inspired and result in a string of classic the cat people and the leopard man and i walk with a zombie that still rank among the moody and most memorable fright film ever make ( with different director and lewton oversee the seventh victim and other distinctive work in the same vein ) . with the leopard man and tourneur be hand a script that show little promise while when he be finish with it and it shine with his distinctive black magic . that magic be to suggest rather than to show while to plant seed in viewer imagination and let them grow . in a sleepy new mexico town that somehow support a posh night club and publicity man dennis okeefe get an idea to promote an act by arrange for the star ( jean brook ) to make a grand entrance with a big black leopard on a leash . the cat escape and soon the death begin . first a girl send out into the night to fetch cornmeal for mama tortilla find the corner store close and must venture far afield . tumbleweed stir up by the dry wind and train hurtle over trellis be unnerve enough and but then something else start it pursuit . she almost make it back safely but the lock be stick . next another young woman set off in late afternoon for an assignation with her boyfriend at the cemetery . when he doesn not show and she lose track of time and improvidently find herself lock in among the gravestone and statuary . a posse set out to find and kill the leopard and but okeefe begin to doubt whether the killer be in fact feline . it in the resolution ( base on a story by cornell woolrich ) that the script ultimately disappoints and but the trip to it remain a dark ride . those minuscule budget do not compromise the movie decadently glossy look and and the extraordinary roy webb castanet ridden score keep the tension taut ( one high and sustain and almost pianissimo chord hang over the cemetery scene ) . the mistress of the castanets and a cabaret dancer call clo clo and be an actress call margo while the ace of spade keep turn up in her fortune . her performance lend the leopard man what little heart it show .