Simone Simon stars as Irena, a Serbian woman who is new toy the USA. One day at the Zoo she is sketching a black panther when she meets a young man named Oliver Reed (Kent Taylor).
Reed falls for Irena rather quickly and vice versa. She tells him of a strange belief that her people have. They believe they have the power to change into large cats and kill people, especially if they are intimate with someone.
Oliver does not believe this of course and they are both married, which leads to several complications as their relationship is never consummated. This leads Oliver closer to another female friend named Alice (Jane Randolph).
Irena almost manages to kill Jane in a hotel pool and it has to be one of the most terrifying scenes of any American horror film. The scene involving Irena killing a doctor named Louis Judd (Tom Conway) is also expertly done and leaves everything to the imagination of the viewer.
Director Jacques Tourneur was a master of subtle horror and this is his masterpiece. The film handles the delicate subject of infidelity and sexual problems very low key, but one does not need overt sexuality in a movie to make this point.
Simone Simon was one of the most alluring women ever to appear in a film, and this is easily her most remembered performance. Criterion has done an excellent job of restoring this classic and it NEVER looked better than it does here.
If you haven't seen this for a while I suggest you re-visit it and watch one of the greatest American horror films ever made.
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