Dir: Jacques Torneur | Cast: Simone Simon, Tom Conway, Kent Smith, Jane Randolph | 73min | Fantasy | US
Paris-born Jacques Torneur arrived in Hollywood with his director father Maurice who taught him how to script and edit. Hired by RKO horror baron Val Lewton, he went on to make a series of highly artistic B movies that played with psychological innuendo – the first of which was box office hit CAT PEOPLE in 1942 – before broadening his talents into other genres. French actress Simone Simon gives a friskily feline turn as a young Serbian wife who fears she is turning into a black panther. This atmospheric cult chiller is lusciously photographed in elegant black and white by Oscar nominee Nicholas Musuraca, and feels as spooky and suggestive to modern arthouse audiences as it did back in the day. MT
JACQUES TOURNEUR RETROSPECTIVE | LOCARNO FILM FESTIVAL 2017
ALSO ON BLURAY | COURTESY OF CRITERION UK