Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Val Lewton Returns

The Leopard Man – 1943

I’ve finally gotten the last two discs of the Val Lewton Box set. Tonight’s flick is The Leopard Man, a movie kinda derided in the commentaries of some of the other Lewton movies. Plus, I thought, gee, two Cat People movies, and now a movie about a Leopard Man. Huh. Not much imagination there.

Boy, was I wrong. Of course, there isn’t actually a Leopard Man, at least not in the sense that you expect. But there are several “catty” women. [que rimshot here]

This is by the same director as Cat People and I Walked With a Zombie, so you know its gonna be good. Plus, it features some really innovative transitions. A character that we have been following meets a new character, and then we start following the new character instead. It’s a real slick way of kinda changing tracks in mid stream.

Subtitles and a commentary again. All good stuff. The commentary is by William Friedkin. Does that name ring a bell? No? You haven’t done your homework, then. He’s the director of this little horror movie you may have heard of called “The Exorcist”. Also, he got one of those silly gold man statues for an action flick called “The French Connection”. I’ve never heard a commentary by so famous a person NOT associated with the movie in any way.

Four beers out of five (tomorrow the last of these, and my trash movie fans will rejoice!)