As I have documented on my ShukerNature blog (click here), physical evidence for the reality of melanistic (all-black) pumas Puma concolor (aka cougars, mountain lions, painters, etc) in North America is conspicuous only by its absence. Certainly, large all-black cats often nicknamed panthers or black panthers (names more correctly applied to melanistic specimens of the leopard Panthera pardus) have been frequently reported from many parts of the United States and Canada too, but none has ever been made available for scientific examination resulting in a confirmed identification (even outside North America, I only know of two verified dorsally black, ventrally paler pumas – one shot in Costa Rica, the other in Brazil; I know of no verified all-black pumas from anywhere). Yet at least on first sight, black pumas have featured in two movies – or have they?
Several times in recent years, correspondents have drawn my attention to a certain brief clip of film, which keeps appearing, disappearing, and reappearing on YouTube. It's not there at present (however, see later below for a means of viewing it), but judging from the comments that were posted beneath it when it was last there, viewers seemed to think that it showed a genuine film of a genuine all-black puma attacking and killing a dog. The reality on all counts is very different.
For reasons that I shall give shortly, this is clearly not a genuine all-black puma, it is simply a normal one that has been dyed black all over in order to resemble North America's elusive mystery black panthers of cryptozoological acclaim. Nor is this a real, non-fiction video – it is merely a clip from the 1977 'Wonderful World of Disney' television movie entitled The Ghost of Cypress Swamp. Directed by Vincent McEveety, it stars Jeff East as dog-owning youngster Lonny Bascombe, and Vic Morrow as wild man Tom Stone, with the puma having been supplied by the company Gentle Jungle to appear in it.
As a massive life-long Disney fan, I used to watch this series avidly as a youngster, as well as its equally excellent predecessor, 'Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color', and as you'd expect, I can still remember seeing the black puma clips from this particular movie. Even so, I have to confess that prior to re-watching it on YouTube in relation to the black puma segments, the rest of it was somewhat of a haze, more than 40 years having passed by since I last viewed it. Curiously, although shown in England, this movie has apparently never been released in the USA, its unfamiliarity therefore possibly helping to explain why clips from it featuring the cosmetically-created black puma have been mistakenly assumed by some online viewers to depict real scenes featuring a real black puma.
The whole movie can presently be viewed online here, with the clip in question beginning at 1.25:07 and continuing (with a brief break during which Lonny goes home to get his gun) for the next couple of minutes before the dog is rescued alive and well by Lonny. This is, after all, a Disney family movie, so naturally all ends well for the dog.
As for its general storyline, The Ghost of Cypress Swamp is set amid swamplands in Georgia, USA, and centres upon a youngster named Lonny, whose dog is attacked by a black puma called Weakfoot. Later, Lonny is captured by a wild man living in the swamps and believed to be dead.
So, why do I not think that this all-black puma is genuine? In a few clips in the film, the black dye has seemingly rubbed off or has been licked off by the puma from parts of its face (or had not fully stained to begin with?), especially around the eyes, and on the mouth and nose (most noticeably at 15:41), revealing its normal paler fur. As already noted above, the only confirmed black pumas were dark dorsally but paler ventrally, not uniformly black (i.e. they were not true melanistic pumas). And if this cat had truly been a black puma, it would have been so valuable and rare that it would have been one of the biggest, most famous stars in Hollywood in its own right, as famous as Lassie and Rin Tin Tin.
So, as film cops always say at the denouement of a crime case: move on people – nothing to see here.
Incidentally, the source for Disney's above-discussed movie was a novel entitled Weakfoot, written by Linda Cline and first published in 1975. It was reprinted a year later, retitled as The Ghost of Cramer's Island. The novel takes place in the early part of the 20th Century, and is set in and around the Okefenokee Swamp, which straddles the Georgia-Florida border in the USA. In the novel, Weakfoot is an adult female black puma who is eventually shot, but her cubs survive, and they too are black.
Continuing with supposed black pumas in movies: the infamous John Wayne/Susan Hayward movie The Conqueror (1956), documenting the life of Genghis Khan and directed by Howard Hughes, also originally contained a segment featuring what looked like a puma with all-black pelage. So I duly watched the movie, only to discover that the segment in question had been largely excised. However, I later learnt from Facebook friend and fellow crypto-enthusiast Ian C. Thomas that the cat was indeed a puma, but once again dyed black. Here is the relevant information, as excerpted from the website Poseidon's Underworld (click here to access it in full). Thanks, Ian!
She [actress Susan Hayward] was supposed to have a scene involving a black panther (a tiny snippet of which still remains) in which she kicked it in the rear, but there were many issues. The panther was so ill-tempered [but wouldn't you be if someone was trying to kick you in the rear?!] that it went to maul her, then it was replaced with a puma painted black, but the beast kept licking all of the paint off itself!
And below is what an article on this film that appeared here on the London Telegraph newspaper's website had to say about that particular scene's attempt to utilise the original black panther:
At some point a distinctly non-indigenous black panther was shipped in to ‘liven up’ the background of one scene. Except that it then attacked Susan Hayward, attempting to take a bite out of her arm.
Several other corroborating accounts concerning the black panther and the dyed-black puma that replaced it in The Conqueror can be found online.
And to view a complete listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE!
Further information concerning the likelihood (or otherwise) of black pumas existing can also be found in my three books on mystery cats – Mystery Cats of the World (1989), Cats of Magic, Mythology, and Mystery (2012), and Mystery Cats of the World Revisited (2020).
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