Wolf Man

 

 

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"Even a man who is pure in heart/And says his prayers by night/May become a wolf/When the wolfbane blooms/And the autumn moon is bright..."

Sure, Dracula gave a face and a mythology to the vampire in the 1800s, but the werewolf didn't get similar treatment for quite some time. It was only with "The Wolfman" that the werewolf got his due, creating the template for lycanthropes everywhere -- a haunting, atmospheric story about a mildly creepy man who (through no fault of his own) turns into an unholy mixture of man and beast.

Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr) returns to his ancestral Welsh home after many years away, to reconcile with his estranged dad who looks nothing like him (Claude Rains). He immediately starts acquainting himself with his old home, including being rather creepy towards a lovely woman named Gwen Conliffe (Evelyn Ankers), who is working at her dad's antique store. He even accompanies Gwen and her friend Jenny to a local gypsy camp to have their fortunes told.

But after having her fortune told, Jenny is horribly killed by a wolf; Larry beats it to death with his silver-topped cane, but not before being bitten. You can probably guess what happens next -- the wolf turns out to be the gypsy fortuneteller (Bela Lugosi), and Larry's bite mysteriously heals overnight. And after being warned by an aged gypsy woman (Maria Ouspenskaya) that he has now contracted the curse of the werewolf, Larry finds himself undergoing a terrible transformation at night... and killing.

It's a sign of how good "The Wolfman" is that its dated special effects (hello, lap dissolve!) and prosthetics don't hamper it as a story -- it's an intelligent, slowly-unfolding story about an ordinary man whose good deed backfires in a big way. It's also less "boo! Scary!" horror than psychological horror -- Larry is left wondering if the dead gypsy passed on his horrific curse, or if all the talk of werewolves has given him clinical lycanthropy. In other words -- is he cursed, or is he insane? Not a fun choice.

And George Waggner wraps the movie in suitable atmosphere -- lots of misty forests, quaint rural villages, shadowy chapels and the occasional outbursts of shrieking and offscreen violence. The beginning is a little awkward (enough canned father-son "reunion" conversations!) but kicks into gear when the characters go wandering off to see the gypsies -- and after that, it's a slow bloody build as all the scientifically impossible things come true, and Larry finds himself increasingly trapped.

And while some of the werewolf stuff (including the famous rhyme) was made up for the movie, it adds a note of mythological creepiness, as well as some lovely incantations ("The way you walked was thorny, through no fault of your own...").

And Lon Chaney Jr. did an excellent job bringing a sympathetic edge to the werewolf, turning convincingly from a jovial engineer/aristocrat to a man haunted by his horrific change. The one problem: he isn't very sympathetic at the beginning, since he basically stalks Gwen (looking in her window with a telescope?) and won't get lost when she tells him to. Ankers gives a good performance as a local love interest, and Ouspenskaya gives a spectacular performance as the old gypsy lady -- eerie, sympathetic to Larry's plight, and with a dry sense of humor.

This special edition will be released just in time for the Benecio Del Toro remake, and as such they're also giving it the two-disc treatment. Older features include a feature commentary, Wolf-Man Archives, "Monster By Moonlight", and there's also a disk full of new documentaries -- one of Universal Horror movies, a documentary on the life and movies of Lon Chaney Jr, the life and art of Jack Pierce, and one on werewolf legends throughout history.

Despite a slightly creepy lead character, "The Wolfman" is still an enduring classic -- it's no longer exactly scary, but it is deliciously spooky. Definitely a must-see.

So now I've just finished watching the 1941 The Wolf Man for the very first time.

When one is watching older films you can often consciously remind yourself to make allowances for how films were made in decades past. In this case I have two slight criticisms or reservations to make. Firstly, casting Lon Chaney Jr. as a lord's son seems an odd fit because Larry Talbot is so American. Either cast someone more suitable or tweak the character so that he's not a lord's son, particularly a lord living in England or Europe or wherever. That said I think Lon Chaney Jr. does a fine job as an amicable fellow feeling evermore creeped out by what's happening to him. He telegraphs his dawning horror effectively.

My second quibble is that this film felt abbreviated. I wanted more story and more of the Wolfman. It also felt just a bit claustrophobic because they were stuck on the same soundstage for the Wolfman scenes. As such it doesn't feel as sprawling or as atmospheric as the recent 2010 remake of the film, and I quite liked that film.

Now my reservations are out of the way. Whereas as I felt there were stagey and creaky aspects to Dracula and Frankenstein I felt next to none of that for The Wolf Man. I really liked this movie and it impresses me as a polished, nuanced (for the most part) first-rate production. The writing and acting was good all around and quite convincingly realistic (within the context of the subject matter). And while I felt the film deserved more story and screen time I can't argue with what I felt was good pacing---the story moves right along. This film doesn't suffer in any real way because of its age compared to more contemporary productions. The picture and sound quality was excellent. I also appreciate the film's genuine music for scoring as opposed to the soulless collection of noises that often passes for film scoring today.

Even with my small reservations I give this film five stars. Of the three big names of classic horror (and I liked them all) so far I liked this one best.

Sooner or later, every horror film fan returns to the sources of the genre. The Universal Monster movies produced between 1923 and 1936 are among the very best of these. During this period, the Laemmle family still ran Universal Pictures. Under their stewardship, horror films received a certain cachet -- along with big budgets, great directors, great actors and lavish production values -- on par with other A-list pictures of the time. Only a handful of Universal's horror pictures made after this "Golden Age" match the high quality of their famous predecessors. "The Wolf Man" (1941) is one of the very few to succeed.

Prior to watching this film for the first time, I'd only ever seen Lon Chaney Jr. shamble through the low-rent "Mummy" sequels and the rather poor "Son of Dracula." However, his performance in "The Wolf Man" is an utter revelation! Here, his acting isn't subtle and nuanced (although Claude Rains's is), but it is heartfelt (and heart-rending). It's difficult not to like him in this and I found myself genuinely feeling for his plight; hoping-against-hope that he'd find a way to beat the werewolf curse that had been thrust upon him unawares. Alas, by the end of the movie... well, it's a really good ending. So good, in fact, that Universal kept the Wolf Man around for four more movies. Personally, I don't need to see 'em. I'm perfectly happy with this movie right here!

That's a good thing too, since "The Wolf Man" is the only movie you're gonna get if you buy the two-disc Universal Legacy Series edition. Disc one contains the film (in an astonishingly clear transfer) along with an amusing commentary by film historian, Tom Weaver, a poster/still slideshow and a short documentary hosted by An American Werewolf in London (Widescreen) director, John Landis. Disc two contains a short werewolf documentary, a documentary about Universal makeup legend, Jack Pierce, and the surprisingly non-fluffy (and occasionally disturbing) feature-length "Universal Horror" documentary. Owners of the Universal Legacy Series editions of Dracula (75th Anniversary Edition) (Universal Legacy Series) and The Mummy may be tempted to stomp all over this disc since they'll already own one -- or both -- of these last two documentaries, but then they'd be crushing a rather welcome biography of Lon Chaney Jr. exclusive to this release (so far). Otherwise, this is a pretty amazing little set for an essential film in the Universal horror canon.

As far as my Amazon ordering experience went, I am grateful every day that we live in an age where items like this can be easily obtained online. In the wake of the recent remake, I had hoped to snag a copy of this DVD from local retail shops, only to be told that it wasn't in stock; quite a quandary considering Universal are *not* a notoriously small studio and "The Wolf Man" is a fairly major horror classic. Despite promises they could "order it in" for me within four-to-six weeks (at an average cost of $30 Cdn), I opted to order it from Amazon instead. The DVD arrived in my mailbox three days later (and for $10 less than the local retail price).

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