US 71m Dir: George Waggner Key Cast: Lon Chaney Jr
Universal were experts in making monsters movies in the 1930s and 40s (and beyond) and this is another excellent film introducing one of their iconic characters.
Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr) returns to his ancestral home to reconcile with his father and falls in love with local woman Gwen Conliffe (Evelyn Ankers) who runs an antique shop. When he hears her friend Jenny being attacked he rushes to the rescue and kills the wolf that attacked her, getting bitten in the process. Later there is no sign of a wolf, only a man, and Larry begins to fear he may have turned into a werewolf.
This is hugely atmospheric with the best scenes taking place in a gloomy wood which surely most hold the title of the foggiest place on planet Earth. There's never a place which feels safe and there are various dodgy people lurking around from the mysterious 'gypsy' woman to various locals out to shoot the animal that is attacking people.
The wolf make-up is really excellent. The look of werewolves has rarely been done well on screen, even in the CGI age, and that's largely because trying to make a human face look canine is really tricky. Here though they go for a middle ground, making the Wolf Man a monster but still showing the humanity behind the monster. It's really effective and there are a couple of clever bits of editing which make the transformations work really well too.
I didn't expect the story to be as strong as it is. Whilst Larry is a bit creepy at times (like spying on Gwen with a telescope) he's a very likeable character and that makes what happens to him all the more tragic. I also really liked that this film looks at the concept with a mental health viewpoint- other character speculate that Larry is traumatised and imagining he is a werewolf and it's only really at the very end that we see the truth.
Hugely atmospheric, excellently designed and with a story that's far better than you might think from the premise- what's not to like?
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