Of all the Universal Monster movies, I was most looking forward to The Wolf Man. I had seen bits and pieces of Dracula and the Frankenstein movies, but, like The Mummy, knew very little of the actual story of The Wolf Man. I did know that it had a very sympathetic and tragic hero, Larry Talbot, bitten by a werewolf to become one himself.
The story begins in Wales, where the son of the local rich guy comes home after the death of his brother. This is Larry, a TERRIBLE, name for a hero/monster, and right away the trouble begins. No, it's not that he's a werewolf, that happens later. The trouble begins when he finishes the installation of his father's telescope and uses it to peep on a woman who lives in the town. The hero. A peeping tom. Ugh.
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| Yes, this is Larry's POV |
He goes into town soon after and meets the object of his peeping, Gwen, who owns an antique store with her father. Trying to impress her, he buys a huge wolfs-head cane which is made of silver. He also finds out that she's engaged, making his insistence that she go out with him even creepier. Hey, Larry, NO MEANS NO!
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| He's just a man who can't hear NO |
The night, he shows up at the antique shop to take Gwen to the local Gypsy for a fortune-reading. In a remarkable show of good sense, she takes her friend, Jenny, along. Unfortunately for all of them, the Gypsy in question (played by Dracula himself, Bela Lugosi) is a werewolf who kills Jenny and is subsequently killed by Larry's silver cane head, but not before biting Larry.
What follows is pretty much what you'd expect. Larry periodically turns into the Wolf Man and terrorizes the village. What's interesting is that the change is not specifically tied to the full moon, he turns when the wolfbane is in bloom.That part of werewolf lore hadn't been established yet.
What I most liked about the movie is the atmosphere. The Wolf Man came out in 1941, six years after The Bride of Frankenstein, and the opening credits have the feel of a classic fifties science fiction film. And there's an amazing forest, recreated on an entire soundstage, which is one of the largest indoor sets Universal had ever done.
I also enjoyed the Gypsys, who are interesting and seem to know about werewolves, although other than Bela's mother, no one seems to know they had one living among them. The Gypsy mother also saves Larry and Gwen a couple of times; she's the real hero of the film.
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| A father confronts his "son" |
The werewolf transformation was done with stop motion photography and works fine, if not spectacularly. The first time that Larry transforms, he is sitting in his study, wearing a t-shirt, but when he's later seen prowling the forest, he's wearing a button down brown shirt. It was considerate of him to put on a more concealing shirt before he went on his murder spree.
The thing about the Wolf Man is that when he's the werewolf, he's not Larry. Larry doesn't remember anything afterwards and can't do anything about turning into a wolf. (He's very much like the Hulk). But while that makes him tragic, it means there's no intelligence behind the beast. The werewolf isn't clever and has no plan. He just runs around killing the people he comes across, which makes the plot less interesting.
It also seems like the movie is missing a subplot or two. There just isn't that much to it. The Wolf Man goes on a murder spree and is eventually hunted down. He'll be back in a host of sequels, but this movie is too short for what it should have been. In some ways it feels like a Frankenstein retread. I have to admit I was a little disappointed.
Here's Steve's Review: 1001Plus
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