Movies - The Wolf Man

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	Movies - The Wolf Man

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 the most recognized Universal Studios monsters and has had a great deal of influence on Hollywood's depictions of the legend of the werewolf.

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). On a night of the full moon (which, oddly, is never seen in the film), he attempts to rescue her friend Jenny from what he believes to be a sudden attack by a wolf. He kills the beast with a silver-headed walking stick, but is bitten in the process. He soon discovers that it wasn’t just a wolf; it was a werewolf, and now Talbot has become one. A 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. Throughout the film, Larry is told by Gwen, Jenny, and his father:

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.

(Contrary to popular belief, this poem was not an ancient legend, but was in fact an invention of screenwriter Siodmak. The poem is repeated (with minor changes) in every future film in which Talbot/The Wolf Man appears and is also heard in the later film Van Helsing
)

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.

Special effects

The transformation of Chaney from man into monster was laborious, requiring him to sit still as makeup man Jack Pierce glued layers of yak hair to his face. Then several frames of film were shot, more layers were applied, and so on. Talbot’s lap dissolve transformation on screen only took seconds, while Chaney’s took six hours.

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 very influenced by Greek Mythology while drafting the script for this film.

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 resurected 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.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for The Wolf Man ]

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