Le loup des Malveneur

Pierre Renoir has hired Madeleine Sologne to tutor his small daughter. Meanwhile, he spends his time in his unseen laboratory too solve two problems: the longstanding family curse of lycanthropy, and his lack of a male heir. Mlle Sologne falls in love with local artist Michel Marsay even as Renoir, his wife, and his gamekeeper disappear. Have the wolves gotten them, or is it something darker?

Here's a movie from wartime France, looking a lot like the Universal horror movies near the end of their serious cycle. One advantage this has over the American product is the depth of time. The characters speak of centuries, lending a far more gothic air to the proceedings, a sense bad blood instead of unprefigured insanity. Could this be the anomie that afflicted much of French cinema in the period, national shame at the failure in arms, the failure of rational French science to deal with problems?

It adds a frisson to this otherwise unremarkable genre programmer.