The Wolf Man
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| The Wolf Man | |
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| Directed by | George Waggner |
| Produced by | George Waggner |
| Written by | Curt Siodmak |
| Starring | Lon Chaney Jr. Claude Rains Warren William Ralph Bellamy Patric Knowles Bela Lugosi Maria Ouspenskaya Evelyn Ankers |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) | December 12, 1941 |
| Running time | 70 min |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $180,000 (estimated) |
| Followed by | Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943) |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Wolf Man is a 1941 horror film written by Curt Siodmak and produced and directed by George Waggner, starring Lon Chaney Jr, Claude Rains, Evelyn Ankers, Ralph Bellamy, Patric Knowles, Bela Lugosi, and Maria Ouspenskaya. It introduced a character that stands alongside Frankenstein and Dracula as one of the most recognized of the Universal Studios monsters and has had a great deal of influence on Hollywood's depictions of the legend of the werewolf. A remake is scheduled for release in summer 2008. The remake is directed by Mark Romanek, written by Andrew Kevin Walker (writer of the films Se7en and Sleepy Hollow), and stars Benicio Del Toro in the title role. [1]
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[edit] Film overview
Lawrence Stewart "Larry" Talbot (Chaney) returns to his ancestral home in Llanwelly, Wales to reconcile with his father, Sir John Talbot (Rains). While there, Larry becomes romantically interested in a local girl named Gwen Conliffe (Ankers), who runs an antique shop. As a pretext, he buys something from her, a silver-headed walking stick decorated with a wolf. Gwen tells him that it represents a werewolf (which she defines as a man who changes into a wolf "at certain times of the year".)
Throughout the film, various villagers recite a poem that all the locals apparently know, whenever the subject of werewolves comes up:
- 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.
That night, Larry attempts to rescue Gwen's friend Jenny from what he believes to be a sudden attack by a wolf. He kills the beast with his new walking stick, but is bitten in the process. He soon discovers that it was not just a wolf; it was a werewolf, and now Talbot has become one. A gypsy (Roma) fortuneteller named Maleva (Ouspenskaya) reveals to Larry that the animal which bit him was actually her son Bela (Lugosi) in the form of a wolf. Bela had been a werewolf for years and now the curse of lycanthropy has been passed to Larry.
Sure enough, Talbot prowls the countryside in the form of a two-legged wolf. Struggling to overcome the curse, he is finally bludgeoned to death by his father with his own walking stick. As he dies, he returns to human form.
The poem, contrary to popular belief, was not an ancient legend, but was in fact an invention of screenwriter Siodmak. The poem is repeated in every subsequent film in which Talbot/The Wolf Man appears, with the exception of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, and is also quoted in the later film Van Helsing, although many later films change the last line of the poem to "And the moon is full and bright".
The original Wolf Man film does not make use of the idea that a werewolf is transformed under a full moon. Gwen's description and the poem imply that it happens when the wolfbane blooms in autumn. The first sequel, though, made explicit use of the full moon both visually and in the dialog, and also changed the poem to specify when the moon is full and bright. Presumably this is what popularized the full-moon connection in the 20th century. The sequel visually implies that the transformation occurs as a result of direct exposure to light from the full moon. Other fiction has assumed the transformation is an inescapable monthly occurrence and does not examine whether it is caused by light, tidal effects, or some cycle that happens to coincide with the moon's phases.
[edit] Special effects
The transformation of Chaney from man into monster was laborious. A plaster mold was made to hold his head absolutely still as makeup man Jack Pierce used grease paint and glued layers of yak hair to his face. Then several frames of film were shot, the make-up was removed and a new layer was applied, showing the transformation further along. This was done again and again. Talbot’s lap dissolve transformation on screen only took seconds, while Chaney’s took almost ten hours.
After the start of World War II it became impossible for Universal Studios to receive more shipments of yak hair from the orient. As a result the Wolf Man sometimes appears with bare hands in House of Frankenstein (1944) and makes very limited appearances in House of Dracula (1945).
[edit] Themes
As in most of Universal’s classic monsters, the appeal of the Wolf Man lies in the humanity beneath the horror. Lawrence Talbot was tormented with the knowledge that he became a savage beast with a lust to kill; he is the quintessential reluctant monster. Only death could set him free but, as the sequels proved, death is only temporary in monster movies.
Writer Curt Siodmak has written that he was heavily influenced by Greek Mythology while drafting the script for this film. He also drew inspiration from his experience surviving the Holocaust, having seen his neighbors suddenly turn into killers.
[edit] Sequels
The Wolf Man proved popular, and so Chaney reprised his now-signature role in four more Universal films, though unlike his contemporaries he never enjoyed the chance to have a sequel all to himself. Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943) had Talbot’s grave opened on a full moon night, causing him to rise again (making him, in the subsequent films, technically one of the undead). He seeks out Dr. Frankenstein for a cure, but finds the monster (Bela Lugosi) instead. The two square off at the climax, but the fight ends in a draw when a dam is exploded and Frankenstein’s castle is flooded. In House of Frankenstein (1944), Talbot is once again resurrected and is promised a cure via a brain transplant, but ends up shot with a silver bullet instead. He returns (with no explanation) in House of Dracula (1945), and is finally cured of his condition. But he was afflicted once again, in the comedy film Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948). This time the Wolf Man was a hero of sorts, saving Wilbur Grey (Lou Costello) from having his brain transplanted by Dracula (Bela Lugosi) into the head of the monster (Glenn Strange). Grabbing the vampire as he turned into a bat, the Wolf Man dived over a balcony into the sea. This is perhaps why, in Van Helsing (2004), a werewolf is the only creature capable of killing Dracula.
In a recent news post Universal Pictures was "keen to develop" a remake.
[edit] Legacy
It was The Wolf Man that introduced the concepts of werewolves being vulnerable to silver (in traditional folklore, it is more effective against vampires), the werewolf's forced shapeshifting under a full moon, and being marked with a pentagram (a symbol of the occult and of Satanism). These are considered by many as part of the original folklore of the werewolf, even though they were created for the film. Unlike the werewolves of legend, which resemble true wolves, the Wolf Man was a kind of hybrid creature. It stood erect like a human, but had the fur, teeth and claws of a wolf. There had been similar depictions of werewolves in several earlier movies but this was by far the most influential, and subsequent movies have built on this image.
The poem recited is used in each of Chaney's subsequent appearances as the Wolf Man, with the exception of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein; it is also recited by a character in Van Helsing (2004), which featured modernized reinterpretations of the classic Universal Studios monsters. In Van Helsing, the werewolf transforms by ripping off the human skin, revealing the wolfish form. The transformation also works in reverse; the werewolf fur sheds to reveal the human form. The werewolves in this movie were also controlled by Dracula after their first full moon.
[edit] Facts and Figures
- The Wolf Man has the distinction of being the only classic Universal monster to be played by the same actor in all his classic 1940s film appearances.
- The Wolf Man was not Universal's first werewolf film. It was preceded by Werewolf of London (1935), starring noted character actor Henry Hull in a quite different and more subtle werewolf makeup. The film failed at the box office, probably because audiences of the day thought it too similar in many ways to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, for which Fredric March had won an Oscar three years before. Many critics thought Jack Pierce's earlier werewolf looked more menacing than the more familiar version.
- The Wolf Man is one of the monsters without a novel to accompany its movie appearances.
[edit] Universal Legacy Collection DVD
The DVD collection also included the following bonus features:
- Documentary hosted by Van Helsing director Stephen Sommers.
- Monster by Moonlight documentary.
- The Wolf Man commentary from film historian Tom Weaver.
[edit] Trivia
- This film was #62 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
| Iconic Horror Characters in Cinema | |
|---|---|
| Classic: | Creature from the Black Lagoon | Count Dracula | The Fly | Frankenstein's monster | The Invisible Man | The Mummy | Count Orlok | The Phantom | The Wolf Man |
| Modern: | The Alien | Norman Bates | Chucky | Ghostface | Freddy Krueger | Leatherface | The Living Dead | Hannibal Lecter | Regan MacNeil | Michael Myers | Pinhead | Kayako Saeki | Damien Thorn | Jason Voorhees | Sadako Yamamura |
