The Wolf Man
(1941), dir. George Waggner, Universal Pictures
Universal’s second werewolf movie had a much larger impact
than the previous Werewolf of London, and managed to set the tone for most future werewolf stories. Screenwriter Curt Sidomark created one of the more
tragic Universal Monsters and basically crafted the bible for werewolf lore.
The influences in this film can’t be overstated in regards to its impact.
Opening in the Welsh countryside, Sir John Talbot (Claude
Rains) welcomes his son Larry (Lon Chaney Jr.) home. It is not an overly warm
welcome, as the only reason Larry has returned home from America is that his
older brother has died, thus making him Sir John’s only heir. Larry is clearly
not comfortable with the pomp and ritual of the country gentry, as evidenced by
his spending the last few years of his life in California making scientific
instruments.
That last part is one of the reasons Sir John is so keen on
having Larry back at the family estate, as Sir John’s telescope needs repair.
Larry tackles the problem and quickly fixes it, but in doing so he spies a
comely young lass apparently getting ready for a date. Using the telescope to
get her address, Larry rushes off to the village to get better acquainted.
Barging into the antique shop where she lives and works,
Larry flirts with her and ends up buying a cane topped with a silver wolf’s
head. The girl, Gwen Conliffe (Evelyn Ankers) is charming, but she makes it
pretty darn clear that she has no interest in dating Larry, especially since
she’s engaged. She still meets with him after closing the shop, bringing her
friend Jenny (Fay Helm) along, possibly to further convince Larry to back off.
Jenny insists on getting her fortune told at a nearby Gypsy camp. The other two
agree and soon the trio is deep within the foggy woods as the full moon starts
to rise.
Jenny has her palm read by the fortune teller Bela (Bela
Lugosi), but only briefly as the man sees something on her hand that makes him
freak out and demand she leave the camp at once. Larry and Gwen leave her alone
as they walk in the woods, with Larry ignoring the whole engaged thing, but his
pick-up artist routine is halted with Jenny’s screams.
Rushing to her aid, Larry arrives as she is fatally mauled
by a massive wolf. When the wolf turns on him Larry is barely able to beat the
beast to death with his cane, but not before the animal bites him. By the time
help arrives, Jenny is stone dead, Larry is passed out, and a shoeless and dead
Bela is lying face down in the mud. Larry is taken home, but he seems to be
fully recovered by the next morning.
That is the least of his troubles, as Larry protests he
didn’t kill a man but a wolf. Colonel Montford (Paul Bellamy), the local law
enforcement, is quick to place the full blame on Larry while Dr. Lloyd (Warren
William) is convinced that the shock of murdering the obviously guilty Bela
simply made Larry think he killed an animal. Word spreads quickly and soon
Larry is treated like a murder in the village wherever he goes.
When old Gypsy woman Maleva (Maria Ouspenskaya) performs a
strange prayer over Bela’s body, she bluntly informs Larry that while Bela’s
troubles are over, his are just beginning. For you see, whoever is bitten by a
werewolf and lives becomes a werewolf themselves. Larry thinks she is full of
nonsense, but he does note that the moon is still in its full phase. From there
things get worse.
This may have been the best film Lon Chaney Jr. ever made.
The man didn’t have that great of a range, but here they keep everything
simple. Even his accent and stiffness can be explained. He does come across as
pretty likeable, endlessly hitting on Gwen notwithstanding, so when he
transforms into a werewolf we feel pity. No pretense and sympathetic, Larry
Talbot would be a stand out in the field on Universal Monsters.
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