Niece returns home at the insistence of her mad uncle who tells her that their family, the Brandts, are cursed with "leopardcy" It seems the Brandts are psychically linked to a leopard and when their emotions are sparked bad things happen, typically with those who cause the "change" being savagely attacked. Barbara Shelley is almost the exclusive reason I felt so highly for this film which as you might already have been informed is a relative to Val Lewton's Cat People (emotions flamed result in the animal emerging, ready to attack; the noirish B&W style; the lovely female lead unable to temper the jealousy for the woman between her and the man she desires; the streets of a city harboring a dangerous threat). The opening has a very elusive and cold Shelley in a pub of her childhood/teenage home, returning to meet her uncle and become reacquainted with the home she grew up in, a place of dark memories she left behind. But her greedy rotter of a husband (Jack May) is persistent in Shelley going back to that wretched house she wants no part of if just because she has an inheritance waiting. Her money is all he cares about, and May has been having a torrid affair with their friend (the delicious, fetching Paddy Webster) while her beau (John Lee) drinks himself into stupors. Uncle Brandt (Ernest Milton) stirs up the madness in Shelley who succumbs to his suggestion that she's linked to the family leopard and there's no escape a tragic fate. So Shelley flees into the woods of the mansion while Milton turns the leopard loose to attack him! Once she pets the leopard, with it listening to her when told to sit, that link, according to Milton, was sealed. The rest of the film has former boyfriend, and current psychiatrist, Robert Ayres, trying to cure Shelley, but he instead ends up putting his wife (Kay Callard) in danger. Ayres tries to convince Shelley that all this leopard business is in her head, but is it? Shelley has never been more alluring, ravishing, enigmatic, creepy, and malevolent. You could see immediately something inside her was brooding, a mania certain to surface, an obvious neuroses buried but not far enough for the uncle to not rattle out of hiding. Just a moment: those shoulders, though! Shelley shows just enough skin to entice naughty thoughts. She's always fascinating and compelling: you can't take your eyes off of her. Meanwhile, the direction gets the most out of foreboding night scenes, whether at the mansion or the city. The plot waffles back and forth on whether or not Shelley has ties to a leopard or not
she even "transforms" with hands turning furry until her face is of a feline form. However, this supposed transformation is often indicated as in her mind, although the leopard "on the loose" seems quite separate but "one with her". The conclusion answers that connection when Ayres drives about looking for his frightened wife. Look out for your canaries when Shelley is around! If I had a complaint it would be the title is just too close to Cat People, making the film's influence a bit too obvious. And the psychiatrist asking his scared wife to hang out with someone seriously troubled (and just letting Shelley out period despite plenty of signs something is clearly wrong with her mental state), knowing how the patient loves him, is a bit dubious and questionable. Presentation-wise, this looks fantastic, and Shelley commands the film...maybe not a winner to some, I personally thought it was a gem even with its warts and imperfections. Scene where the housemaid forlornly looks on at Shelley as she gets dressed, commenting about how beautiful she is, raises the eyebrows as does how it teases with us regarding how naked she is under the covers. Shelley has never been more of a femme fatale as she is here.