NOTE: Alas, due to the torturous realities of my apparently endles cycle of dialysis/recovery/repeat getting to me and bringing on a period of depression, I have been unable to concentrate on this year's round of essays as intended. Thus, I have t cheat again with a rerun of an older entry, but at least it's a solid one, arguably the Ground Zero of the werewolf movie as we now know it. Please forgive and bear with me as I soldier back to to normalcy. I promise that the last three of this year's entries will be original essays.
— The Management
"Even
a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night may become a
wolf when the wolfbane blooms and autumn moon is bright." Poor Larry
Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.) finds this out in no uncertain terms.
There are very few horror films that could be considered as perfect in
every way and 1941's THE WOLF MAN can be counted among them. Though the
classic Universal horror entries that preceded it are seminal works that
defined the genre for a couple of decades, all of them — with the
notable exceptions of BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN and WEREWOLF OF LONDON (both
from1935) — bore the earmarks of cinema that was only just finding its
way after the advent of sound and the demise of the silent era. They
tended to possess the feel of stage plays, often featured
exaggerated/over-the-top acting and melodrama common to the era, and
also suffered from issues of slow pacing (or at least slow when compared
to what we're used to from the 1940's onward). THE WOLF MAN benefits
from coming a decade after DRACULA and FRANKENSTEIN in that it's a more
modern and sophisticated piece. Though lacking that dark fairytale
quality that flavored its antecedents, THE WOLF MAN more than makes up
for that with moody atmosphere to spare, a pervasive air of impending
dread, and a terrific and grownup script by Curt Siodmak that brings the
audience characters whose actions and motivations are quite realistic,
especially when seen within a horror movie context.
I won't go into the full details but all one needs to know is that THE
WOLF MAN tells the story of a hapless innocent, Lawrence "Larry" Talbot
(Lon Chaney Jr.), who becomes afflicted with the homicidal curse of
lycanthropy and how that condition inevitably leads to his tragic
destruction. Siodmak's much-imitated script set in stone many of the
werewolf tropes that we now consider the very DNA of the sub-genre,
elements such as:
- A protagonist that we cannot help but like and genuinely care about
- Ye olde superstitions and pagan magic colliding head-on with disbelief wrought by modern science and psychology
- Doomed romance
- The involvement of wise/creepy gypsies (Yeah, I know that "gypsy" is now considered an ethnic slur, but I use it here rather than "Romani" because most folks who know the stock type in stories of this nature may be unfamiliar with the accurate ethnic/cultural designation)
- Charms to ward off the curse that serve little or no purpose
- Ill omens that all point to werewolf-related awfulness
- Silver being the surefire way to kill a werewolf
- All of the "modern" characters firmly believing that the afflicted's claims of being cursed with werwolfism are indicators of grievous mental illness
- The protagonist's tragedy being compounded by his death inevitably being facilitated by a loved one
Larry stalks the moors.
THE WOLF MAN is arguably the most influential werewolf film ever made
and its impact continues to reverberate some seventy-four years after
its debut. Though Jack Pierce's pioneering makeup effects have long
since been eclipsed by superior techniques in prosthetic effects,
animatronics, and digital wizardry, it says a lot that THE WOLF MAN
would still be an effective film if the wolfed-out version of Larry had
been achieved with naught but some glued-on barbershop floor sweepings
and creative lighting today. The film's true strength lies in its script and
soul, so if you have not yet experienced this Rosetta Stone of
lycanthropic pop cultural lore, I strongly urge you to see it for
yourself as soon as possible. In its sequels, Larry proved to be
immortal and THE WOLF MAN itself also endures.
Poster from the original theatrical release.
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