Movie Review: More Classic Wolf Man Action

More werewolf treats from Universal's legacy edition DVD...

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943) directed by Roy William Neil

The movie starts in Frankenstein style with two grave robbers breaking into a vault. Unfortunately, they are breaking into the Talbot vault where the remains of Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.) are said to have some gold jewelry and cash. The thieves make the classic blunder of robbing the tomb of a werewolf on the night of the full moon. As soon as they open Larry's coffin, moonlight hits him, revives him, and he attacks them as the Wolf Man. He makes it in wolf form as far as Cardiff where he winds up at a hospital in human form with a head injury. The doctor and the policeman involved don't believe his story of turning into a wolf or that he is Larry Talbot (a call back to his home town revealing he died four years earlier). Larry breaks out and searches for Maleva, the gypsy woman who is the only person who knows the truth about werewolfism. She thinks that Doctor Frankenstein can help. When they get to the village of Frankenstein, the mad doctor and his son are dead. There's a cute granddaughter who might have access to Frankenstein's journal. The other locals are not interested in messing with that stuff because of their past experiences. The trio (granddaughter, Maleva, and Larry) investigates the ruins of Frankenstein castle, where they discover the Monster just barely alive. The doctor from Cardiff shows up, wanting to help Larry but then wanting to follow in Frankenstein's footsteps. Mayhem ensues.

This movie follows on from Ghost of Frankenstein, where Chaney played the Frankenstein monster. Here, since Chaney is back to being the Wolf Man, Bela Lugosi plays the Monster. Lugosi is okay in the role, though apparently his speaking lines were deleted because audiences laughed at his accent coming from the Monster. Chaney does well as the emotionally brittle Talbot and he gets more action as the Wolf Man. The plot moves along at a brisk pace and isn't too absurd. It's entertaining but hardly a must see movie.

Mildly recommended.

Werewolf of London (1935) directed by Stuart Walker

This less successful attempt to start a werewolf franchise sees an English botanist named Wilfred Glendon (Henry Hull) travel to Tibet to find a rare flower, the Mariphasa, that only blooms in moonlight. During his travel, he is attacked and bitten by a wolf-like creature. Back in London, he experiments on the flower, while his wife Lisa (Valerie Hobson) tries to keep up the couple's social life. Glendon is obsessed with the flower, along with some other botantists, notably Dr. Yogami (Warner Oland), who has followed Glendon from Tibet to London. Yogami wants the flower to cure two werewolves he knows in London. Glendon scoffs at the idea. Well, he scoffs until he turns into a wolf and attacks some poor street woman. Meanwhile, Lisa has started hanging out with a childhood sweetheart, which probably isn't a good thing for either of them considering her husband's condition.

The plot is interesting enough. The filmmakers do a lot of balancing of scenes--one horror scene is followed by a bit of comedy with minor characters. The transitions weren't jarring but the technique was overused in this film. Glendon was a less sympathetic than he needed to be. He was mildly neglectful and controlling of his wife, not an endearing trait. He also seems to have more control in his werewolf state than later werewolves, so he's a bit more responsible, also not an endearing trait. The werewolf makeup is not as bestial as the Lon Chaney look, though Jack Pierce did both. The makeup is fine but not the iconic look that would come six years later. The other weird things is the characters call the condition "lycanthrophobia" rather than "lycanthropy," which is wrong in many ways. When the first character said it, I thought I misheard, but then it was repeated and was in print!

Mildly recommended--a film for the completist.

She-Wolf of London (1946) directed by Jean Yarbrough

Soon-to-be-married Phyllis Allenby (June Lockhart) is worried about the Allenby Curse. The family has a legend of lycanthropy. A child has just been murdered in a nearby park by a large dog or other animal. She suspects herself and distances herself from her fiance (Don Porter). Her live-in Aunt Martha (Sara Haden) is very protective and supports Phyllis in her illness. Martha has to balance that with discouraging her own daughter Carol (Jan Wily) from marrying a local starving artist. As the park's body count piles up, the drama also heightens.

The movie uses a "less is more" approach to the horror elements. The attacks are barely shown; the gore and horror are only in the dialog, not in the visuals. Unfortunately, the style doesn't really deliver like it does in the Val Lewton films. Instead, it suggests the ultimate explanation of what's going on. So the ending was not the surprise twist that maybe it was intended to be. The actors do a good job but the material is more paint-by-numbers than fresh and original.

Mildly recommended--no wolf transformations or action in this one, it's more of a melodrama. 

Movie Review: The Wolf Man (1941)

The Wolf Man (1941) directed by George Waggner

Estranged younger son Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.) returns to his ancestral estate when his older brother dies. His father (Claude Rains) welcomes him back with open arms, hoping to reunite with his eighteen-year absent son. Larry even takes a shine to one of the local girls, Gwen (Evelyn Ankers), though she is engaged to someone else. The whole village by Talbot Castle is steeped in werewolf lore. Everybody knows the old rhyme: "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." His dad chalks it up to superstition, though he admits there's probably some basis in reality, like the dual personality in people. Larry gets an actually dual personality after he's bitten by a wolf that turns out to be a werewolf, the son of a gypsy woman who is traveling through the village. The woman warns Larry that he will turn into the wolf and gives him an amulet for protection. Larry gives Gwen the amulet since he's more worried about her. He does turn into a wolf and starts murdering people (mostly randomly) at night.

The story moves along at a good pace and is the origin for a lot of the mythology that's generally accepted about werewolves: they need to be killed by a silver weapon; they change in moonlight; the curse is passed through biting. The characters in the movie assume this lore is ancient and accepted, making it seem like it originated somewhere else. Chaney does a great job playing the conflicted, good man who slowly comes to accept that he's been cursed. Everyone around him thinks there's some scientific explanation for what's wrong with him (though most boil down to him being insane) and that there's an actual wolf wandering around in the woods causing the troubles. Their enlightened view leads to a wolf hunt which is the ultimate downfall of Larry. 

The special effects were state-of-the-art for the time and still look decent. Part of the success is that the effects are used sparingly and a lot of the action takes place in a foggy forrest. The actors do a great job taking the story seriously and giving their characters more depth than in the average horror film.

Recommended.