++1/2
The third, last, and weakest of the RKO horror films produced by Val Lewton and directed by Tourneur, after Cat People and I Walked With a Zombie. This one is set in a small town in New Mexico where young women are killed after a publicity stunt goes awry and a leopard escapes. Low-key and atmospheric, with a very nice first victim stalking sequence, but ultimately too fragmented and impersonal for its 66 minutes: the story spends itself on an excessive number of characters and the heroes have little more on the line than their guilt over staging the publicity stunt in the first place. Definitely worth a look, however, for fans of this kind of noir. Based on the novel Black Alibi by Cornell Woolrich.
The third, last, and weakest of the RKO horror films produced by Val Lewton and directed by Tourneur, after Cat People and I Walked With a Zombie. This one is set in a small town in New Mexico where young women are killed after a publicity stunt goes awry and a leopard escapes. Low-key and atmospheric, with a very nice first victim stalking sequence, but ultimately too fragmented and impersonal for its 66 minutes: the story spends itself on an excessive number of characters and the heroes have little more on the line than their guilt over staging the publicity stunt in the first place. Definitely worth a look, however, for fans of this kind of noir. Based on the novel Black Alibi by Cornell Woolrich.
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