The Wolf Man

An all time classic! One of the top notch horror films of the 1940's! Superb Universal atmosphere, superb performance by Lon Chaney Jr. I won't go into the story because we all know it. Let me just say that this movie is chuck full of atmosphere and it's fair share of thrills. If your a youngster, it will still scare you just as it did all those years ago. And for us older folk, it is a great throwback and full of nostalgia. Really makes you remember where you were as a kid the first time you saw it! Rent it, buy it, treasure it! One heck of an enduring classic!

As werewolf movies go The Wolf Man is probably the best. It was written by Curt Siodmak and directed by George Waggner. The script, though it gets the job done, has altogether too many wolf and dog references in it for comfort, many in the first fifteen minutes. A horror movie should never at the outset tell you that it is a horror movie. The title and and cast often give this away anyway, I grant, not to mention lobby cards and reviews. But the idea is or should be to draw the viewer in slowly, enabling him to acclimatize himself to the people and atmosphere so that the horror can, as it were, creep up on him. For all its excellent qualities The Wolf Man does not do this. Otherwise it works fairly nicely.

A thoroughly Americanized Larry Talbot arrives at the estate of his British father, Sir John (A baronet? I wish they'd made this clear). Aside from the fact that he is three times larger than his father and altogether different in temperament (shy and fumbling as opposed to assertive and incisive), the two hit it off well enough. Larry has returned from the States due to the death of his brother, and Sir John clearly wants Larry to take his place (whatever it is) in the village. Larry spies on a young woman through a telescope (Sir John is an astronomer), and goes to her shop, where he buys a cane, with a wolf's head, and asks her for a date. She agrees, but when they meet later on she brings a friend, just in case Larry gets too, well, wolfish. It is autumn and the gypsies are in town. Larry his girl and her friend go to a fortune teller to get their palms read. The palm-reader sees death in the friend's hand and urges her to go. Later on, in the form of a wolf, he attacks and kills the girl, and is in turn killed by Larry with his cane; but Larry is bitten by the wolf, which guarantees that he will become one, too. In time Larry does indeed become a werewolf, but as with everything else in his life only goes half-way. While the animal that attacked him was a wolf, Larry becomes only partly wolf in appearance, though when the transformation occurs he is wholly wolf in spirit, yet walks on two human, albeit furry legs. He is more or less adopted by the dead Gypsy fortune teller's mother, who looks after him, and has a way of turning up in her wagon at appropriate moments. She also recites a poem about werewolfery (or lycanthropy if you will), which I shall not repeat here and which everyone in the village seems to know by heart. Sir John, being a man of science, does not believe that his son is a true werewolf but suffering from some form of mental illness. Yet when the moon rises Larry turns into a werewolf and goes on rampages.

The Wolf Man is quite well made on what appears to be, for its studio, a generous budget; fog swirls everywhere, and the landscape is dominated by gnarled, leafless trees. It's tone is evocative of the Sherlock Holmes films, though not of course the content. There are so many good and bad things in the picture they're difficult to enumerate, and are often jumbled together. Of the bad, the casting of Americans Evelyn Ankers and Ralph Bellamy as Brits. Neither give a bad performance, but they don't belong in this film. It's difficult enough to keep one's disbelief in suspension with Lon Chaney on hand, but the addition of these two is a bit too much. Claude Rains, as Sir John, is a great asset to the movie, giving it a touch class and gravitas. His occasionally supercilious manner is in keeping in with the part he plays; and though he doesn't look at all like Chaney's father, he acts it. Maria Ouspenskaya and Bela Lugosi make marvelous gypsies, and they play their parts sincerely, with none of the hamming one might expect. Chaney's Larry Talbot became, after his Lennie in Of Mice and Men, his most famous role. He is sincere if somewhat phlegmatic in his 'normal' scenes, and early on, before the wolf-bite, lacks the joi de vivre he ought to have, as he is supposed to be a carefree young man. Chaney never seemed carefree. On the other hand his tragic, deeply lined face, sad eyes and prematurely middle-aged appearance suggests a troubled soul,--not an easy thing to fake--and in this regard he is magnificent in the part. His worry, over the prospect of another werewolf transformation, and the damage it will cause, appears genuine, and to a degree seems to come at times from outside the character he is playing, which as we know Chaney had serious personal problems, is a case of art imitating life, and the result is a kind of sad serendipity.

The wolf man is the beast or Freudian "Id" in all of us -- the part of us we don't want others to see, the part of us we may not even want to see ourselves.

Lon Chaney, Jr., gives a touching and sympathetic performance depicting his struggle with the monster within him. Some critics were snide, pointing out that he came across too much like Lenny in OF MICE AND MEN, but to say that is to miss the sense of pathos he brings to his part.

The rest of the cast is an interesting mix of character actors, including Bela Lugosi who has a small but important part and Maria Ouspenskaya who recites the werewolf verses with such conviction as to make you think they are true.

This film is a fable about us all. We all have a spilt personality that can overtake us if we are not careful to know ourselves.

Universal Studios had an impressive list of successes in the horror genre starting in 1931 with Tod Browning's "Dracula". The myth of the werewolf, was firstly adapted in 1935 in "Werewolf of London", but the movie failed to get the public's attention in the same way as the "Dracula" and "Frankenstein" series of movies. However, the moon shined for the wolf in 1941, when a second attempt was done with a completely new story. "The Wolf Man" had a great reception and soon was considered among the finest of the Universal Studios' movies of that era and it is probably the last of the Classics as the horror movies of the 40s started to have lower budget and production values.

"The Wolf Man" is a classic tragedy where a man becomes a beast that must kill every time the full moon shines on the sky. Lon Chaney Jr. is Larry Talbot, who returns home to Wales after spending years in the U.S.. Not only he'll have to adapt to the life in countryside and improve his relationship with his father (Claude Rains); now he'll face the curse of the werewolf after been bitten by the gypsy Bela (Bela Lugosi).

I have always thought that the previous "Werewolf of London" was a vastly superior film in terms of acting, direction and even make-up; however, the film's plot is not captivating and in the end not very attractive. On the other hand, Curt Siodmack's script for "The Wolf Man" is a brilliant masterpiece of horror and fantasy. So perfect that it makes up for all the film's other flaws, as it has an unnatural charm that is simply mesmerizing.

Like a Greek tragedy, the saga of Larry Talbot and his curse works in so many levels that is no surprise that it is the film that not only type-casted Chaney, but also serve as basis for all the future werewolf films. Siodmack basically creates the Werewolf myths out of thin air and gives them form with masterful care. Who can forget Maleva's (Maria Ouspenskaya) words? The "Wolf Man" rhyme is now one of the most famous quotes in film history.

Claude Rains is superb as Sir John Talbot, and gives the role the dignity that requires. Probably Lon Chaney Jr. had a limited range as an actor, but he was the perfect Larry Talbot with his sad looks and overall tragic appearance. Against all odds, Chaney embodied the wolf man and made the part almost mythical. The rest of the cast was definitely not as convincing as those great actors; however, Maria Ouspenskaya and Bela Lugosi are terrific as the gypsies who will play an important part in Talbot's future.

Jack Pierce's make-up is definitely the other star in this movie. The legendary monster maker created a piece that is now considered legendary. The wolf man's make-up is more beast-like and primal than the subtle one that Henry Hull used in "Werewolf of London", but that is because both werewolves are very different between them. While Hull's character was the darkest side of his persona, Chaney's wolf man is a beast that posses his body, and Jack Pierce captured that essence with the limited technology of his time, creating an immortal masterpiece in make-up history.

"The Wolf Man" may not be a perfect film, but the captivating storyline and the mystique surrounding it definitely have earned this movie a huge reputation as one of the best of the Universal Studios films of the 30s-40s era. While there may be better werewolf movies out there, this one will always be remembered as THE definitive werewolf classic. 8/10

The Wolf Man is a film about a man bitten by a werewolf condemned to live the life of his antagonist. Lon Chaney Jr. does an awfully good job transcending the traditional monster out to get everyone with a humane, sympathetic portrait of the titular lycanthrope. This is Universal Studios at its best with a good old-fashioned horror yarn, excellent acting, particularly by supporting cast members Claude Rains, Evelyn Ankers, Bela Lugosi, and the outstanding Maria Ouspenskaya as the old and wise gypsy woman, wonderful sets complete with swirling fog, and special effects that were new and fresh in 1941. This film is fast-paced and deserves its rank as one of the great Universal horror classics.