The Leopard Man [Blu-ray] - Classic Horror Movie for Film Collectors & Movie Night Thrills

This review is for the Blu-Ray edition of 'The Leopard Man' released by Shout! Factory in 2019.I'm giving this release a 5 star rating.For those who are unfamiliar with this movie, it is a 1940's horror movie.*****NOTE***** This review, despite it's length, is essentially spoiler free.BLU-RAY: The picture is very good. It's not a full restoration but I don't think that matters. You will see some very minor flaws throughout. The contrast looks about right. Film grain is evident but overall I think the picture is pretty nice. Unless you are a perfectionist, you should be pretty happy with it. I'm giving it a 7.5/10. The movie is shown in it's original 1.37:1 aspect ratio.EXTRA'S:-The inside cover has an image of the classic movie poster for this movie.-Audio Commentary with Filmmaker William Friedkin - Friedkin is the very well known director of the mega horror classic 'The Excorcist' among others.-Still Gallery-Trailer-SubtitlesPLOT/SUMMARY: This movie is set in 1940's New Mexico. Jerry Manning is a public relations agent for his girlfriend, Kiki. Jerry gets the idea to send Kiki out to perform with a black panther (or leopard). Another performer deliberately scares the leopard and it takes off and escapes out into the night. Immediately after this happens, a young girl is murdered. Several other killings occur in the next few nights and the hunt is on for the big cat. Jerry must pay off the leopard's owner, The Leopard Man, if any harm comes to it. Jerry speaks to a museum curator and is not convinced that all of these killings are the responsibility of the leopard.PRODUCTION/COMMENTS: 'The Leopard Man' was released in 1943 by RKO.-'The Leopard Man' has a reputation for being one of the very first movies to be about a serial killer in which the killer's psychological motives were explored. Other serial killers, for example, Jack the Ripper, had been depicted in movies before. However, 'The Leopard Man' explores the mindset of the killer.-The same cat that was used in 'The Cat People' was used in this movie.-This movie is short at 1 hour 6 minutes. WHAT OTHER MOVIES ARE VAL LEWTON RESPONSIBLE FOR?: When Val Lewton took over the horror division of RKO, he produced a number of memorable movies. Not all of them were great, but most of them were either very good or excellent. These are the movies, and my rating for each. Obviously this is strictly a personal preference and I know others out there would not agree with my favorites. I'm listing them from favorite to least favorite.-I Walked With A Zombie : 5 Stars - This is my favorite of all the Val Lewton movies. I am admittedly partial toward it because I it is set in the Caribbean. I live in South Florida and love it down there.-Curse of the Cat People : 5 stars - In some ways, despite being a sequel, I think this has the most interesting plot of all the Lewton movies. It also has my favorite ending of the Lewton movies.-The Cat People: 4 1/2 stars - Top notch movie, lowered from 5 stars only because you actually see the cat attack. This sort of takes something away from the surrealness and ambiguity.-The 7th Victim: 4 1/2 stars - One of the best of the Lewton movies. While very good, it's a bit more of a straight crime mystery as opposed to a surreal mystery.-The Leopard Man: 4 1/2 stars - Another top notch Lewton movie. It's excellent, I only have it 5th because it's competition for top spot is superb.-The Body Snatcher: 4 1/2 stars - Like all of the Karloff, movies, this one does not really have an ambiguous ending. It is an excellent movie. I rank it beneath the other excellent movies, only because it is more mainstream horror.-Ghost Ship: 3 1/2 stars - The first half is excellent and as good as most of the better Val Lewton films but the second half is a bit disappointing.-Island of the Dead: 2 1/2 stars - I'm not sure what happened here. Boris Karloff is in this but it is not one of his better roles.-Bedlam: 2 stars - I did not like this movie at all. This is the most main stream of the Lewton movies and that is probably a big reason why I do not like it. You might want to get other opinions on this one as others think that this was the pinnacle of the Lewton era.Val Lewton produced two other non-horror movies during his run at RKO for a total of 11 movies for the studio. I THINK JACQUES TOURNEUR IS A GREAT DIRECTOR, WHAT ARE MY FAVORITES?:Tourneur made 3 horror movies for Val Lewton and RKO. These are among my very favorites including the one I like the best. These movies are:Cat People (1942)I Walked with a Zombie (1942)The Leopard Man (1943)After these movies, Tourneur graduated to 'A' movies. However, he would also go on to make one of my favorite 1950's horror movies, 'Night of the Demon' (also known as 'Curse of the Demon') in 1957.In addition to 'Night of the Demon', in 1964, Tourneur would make one of my favorite Roger Corman movies, 'The Comedy of Terrors' which stars Vincent Price, Basil Rathbone and Peter Lorre.Another very notable movie that Tourneur made from the 'film noir' genre is the 1947 ultra classic, 'Out of the Past', starring Robert Mitchum. THE SETTING: I never really felt like the movie was located in New Mexico. To this day, New Mexico is a sparsely populated state. It is well known today that Val Lewton used existing sets and crafted his stories around these sets. I'm OK with that. I think he would have been better off making the location of the movie a big city. There's no reason why he couldn't do that. The streets are obviously not New Mexico. I guess you can say that people in 1943 would probably have no idea what New Mexico was like. The night club, tuxedo's, showgirls, etc., definitely give off the vibe that they are in a New York City (or Chicago) night club.CONCLUSIONS/RATINGS/RECOMMENDATIONS: This movie is not only a horror movie, but it is also can be considered 'film noir'. I'd called it a horror/film noir hybrid. I would venture to guess that if you do not like this movie then you are probably not a fan of pre-WWII movies. The bottom line is that this movie is excellent. Especially when you take into account the budget. I think fans of both horror and film noir will like this movie.I'm giving this release 5 stars. There aren't a lot of extra's but the movie is very well done.Highly Recommended for fans of Val Lewton.Highly Recommended for fans of classic horror.Highly Recommended for fans of film noir.