Wolf Man

UPC: 025195052764

Studio: Universal Studios

MPAA Rating: NR   Contains:[Mild Violence, Questionable for Children]

Summary: "Even a man who is pure at heart/And says his prayers by night/May become a wolf when the wolf-bane blooms/And the moon is full and bright." Upon first hearing these words, Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney) dismisses them as childish folderol. After all, this is the 20th Century; how can a human being turn into a werewolf? Talbot soon learns how when he attempts to rescue Jenny Williams (Fay Helm) from a nocturnal attack by a wolf. Collapsing, Talbot discovers upon reviving that Jenny is dead-and, lying by her side, is not the body of a beast, but of a gypsy named Bela (Bela Lugosi). The son of fortune teller Maleva (Maria Ouspenskaya), Bela was a lycanthrope, or "wolf man." And now that he has been bitten by Bela, Talbot is cursed to suffer the torments of the damned whenever the moon is full. Arguably the best of the "original" Universal horrors (original in the sense that it was not based on an existing literary property, a la Frankenstein, Dracula and The Invisible Man), The Wolf Man boasts one of the most stellar casts ever to grace a "B" picture: Lon Chaney Jr., Claude Rains, Evelyn Ankers, Ralph Bellamy, Warren William, Patric Knowles, Maria Ouspenskaya and Bela Lugosi. The man-to-wolf transformation sequences -- one of which took a full 24 hours to film -- are thoroughly convincing, thanks to the cosmetic genius of Jack P. Pierce (Chaney had wanted to emulate his father by developing his own werewolf makeup, but existing union rules would not permit this). Alas, after this powerhouse opening volley, the Wolf Man character was relegated to a series of cheap sequels, teaming him with other Universal shock stars: Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman (1943), House of Frankenstein (1944) and House of Dracula (1945). The final ignominy was Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1945), in which Lawrence Talbot (Chaney again), having been cured of lycanthropy in House of Dracula, reverts to his werewolf status -- and has to endure the one-liners of Lou Costello to boot! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Category: Horror

Wolf Man

Format: DVD

Item not yet released. Pre-order this item now.

Runtime: 70 Minutes

Hans J. Wollstein

The Wolf Man may no longer have the ability to frighten even the faint of heart but it remains a literate and quite adult fairy tale of love, lust and redemption, and with the story of the return of the prodigal son thrown in for good measure. And while George Waggner may not have been the most visually exciting of directors, the powers-at-be at Universal made the good choice of filming nearly the entire story on an eerily fog-bound sound stage, thus creating a strangely enticing and claustrophobic realm for their lycanthrope to roam. The sets compliment The Wolf Man's cast of characters, who may pretend to be British, or foreigners living in Britain, but are really the same villagers and bureaucrats that earlier occupied the mittel-European forests and mountains of Dracula and Frankenstein. While Universal far from overextended themselves with production values, the studio cast no less than six present or former leading men, an odd situation that goes a long way in explaining why leading lady Evelyn Ankers was forced to accept seventh billing. Lon Chaney, meanwhile, creates his one truly memorable horror character in Larry Talbot by adding a great dose of his Lennie of Of Mice and Men (1939) to Jack Pierce's standard Universal creature makeup. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Jessie Arnold  Actor 
Olaf Hytten  Actor 
Ottola Nesmith  Actor 
Ernie Stanton  Actor 
Harry Cording  Actor 
Eddie Polo  Actor 
Gibson Gowland  Actor 
Connie Leon  Actor 
Tom Stevenson  Actor 
Margaret Fealy  Actor 
Caroline Cooke  Actor 
Kurt Katch  Actor 
Doris Lloyd  Actor 
Harry Stubbs  Actor 
Leyland Hodgson  Actor 
Martha Vickers  Actor 
Eric Wilton  Actor 
Charles Previn  Composer (Music Score) 
Hans Salter  Composer (Music Score) 
Curt Siodmak  Screenwriter 
Frank Skinner  Composer (Music Score) 
George Waggner  Director 
George Waggner  Producer 
Lon Chaney, Jr.  Actor 
Warren William  Actor 
Claude Rains  Actor 
Evelyn Ankers  Actor 
Ralph Bellamy  Actor 
Bela Lugosi  Actor 
Patric Knowles  Actor 
Maria Ouspenskaya  Actor 
J.M. Kerrigan  Actor 
Fay Helm  Actor 
Forrester Harvey  Actor 

Country: USA