She-Wolf of London/Love and Curses

To clarify, this isn't a review of the 1946 Universal film. No, this was among the debut lineup of the extremely short lived Hollywood Premiere Network, Universal's disastrous foray into the syndicated television market of the early 90's. I wasn't aware of this series until 1997 when it reran on the Sci-Fi Channel.

Before I go any further, if you're looking for a review of this that's both funny and informative, I'd suggest going to Phealous's site over in the links and checking out  Obscurus Lupa's Manic Episodes.


American college student Randi Wallace (Kate Hodge) travels to England to study under Professor [although sometimes called 'doctor'] Ian Matheson (Neil Dickson). While camping out on the moors one night, Randi is attacked by what the doctors, including Ian, swear was a large dog. Randi thinks so too...until the next full moon. One transformation later, Randi and Ian are both convinced she's a werewolf.

From there Randi and Ian would search for a cure while battling other supernatural menaces including zombies, ghosts, and plenty of demonic clowns. Before things could properly develop though, the European backers dumped the show after fourteen episodes. Desperate, the suits decided to relocate the show to Los Angeles and rename it Love and Curses. They also slashed the budget in half. They also added the character of sleazy TV producer Skip ( Dan Glivezan), who did nothing but freak me out, as his previous roles as a voice actor made his creepy pick lines sound worse when you imagined Spider-Man saying how he needed a "coot with hooters". The series managed to limp along for another six episodes before being cancelled.

So, how was it? The She-Wolf episodes are generally considered better than the Love and Curses ones and it is easy to see why. The English episodes were shot on location and wide moors and massive manor homes make the same loft/office space local look a bit cheap. The scripts also took a downward quality. Where as She-Wolf had humor to offset the horror, Love and Curses insisted on making everything as camp as possible. Most of the episodes ended with some bizarre non sequitur like Randi and Ian being turned into rabbits or being sucked into a TV show then being spit back out. The L&C scripts also felt rough, as in they could have stood a rewrite or two. Honestly, this is one of those 'I like the concept more than the actual thing'.

According to internet scuttlebutt, the Marvel character Blade came rather close to appearing in a spin off. Not sure if that would have been better than Blade III or not. A DVD of the complete series was finally released, although it is so bare bones you'd think it was a manufactured on demanded. They also use the L&C opening for all the episodes for some odd reason.