“The Wolf Man” was released on December 12, 1941. The sole new movie-monster franchise from Universal Pictures in the 1940s, the film and its four sequels followed in the tradition of the studio’s Dracula, Frankenstein, Invisible Man, and Mummy movies of the previous decade. Lon Chaney, Jr. played the franchise’s titular monster – both the lycanthropically-afflicted Larry Talbot and his wolfish alter-ego - in all films. The Wolf Man series was the only Universal monster franchise with that distinction. Although it was preceded by 1935s “Werewolf of London”, “The Wolf Man” shares no continuity with that film, other than a vague resemblance in both’s special-effects wolf-man makeups. “The Wolf Man” makeup in fact was designed for the earlier film, but was simplified when “Werewolf of London” star Henry Hull refused to sit through the needed arduous makeup process. Both makeups were designed and executed by Jack Pierce, the meticulous head of Universals makeup department who became famous for creating the studios classic monster makeups. Although many of the werewolf traditions in the film are often attributed to Eastern European folklore, screenwriter Curt Siodmak actually originated them himself. These include a werewolfs vulnerability to a silver bullet (or a silver-tipped cane in the case of the original film), and the curse of lycanthropy being passed on by a werewolfs bite. Both were inventions of Siodmak. And while the series’ later films plainly showed Talbot transforming as a result of exposure to the full moon, Siodmak’s original script is vague on that point. As they discuss the silver wolf-headed cane, romantic interest Gwen Conliffe (Evelyn Ankers) tells Talbot the sculpture represents a werewolf, and that lycanthropism happens at certain times of the year. Reciting the series’ famed poem, the gypsy Maleva (famed Universal contract character actress Maria Ouspenskaya) says, “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.” This implies that werewolfism happens only in autumn, when wolfbane blooms. There is no shot of Talbot transforming by the light of the moon in “The Wolf Man” – this didn’t became a trademark of the series until the first sequel, 1943’s “Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man”. The last line of the poem was changed in that and the following films in the series to And the moon is full and bright. Universal re-made the film in 2010 as “The Wolfman”, starring Benicio Del Toro in the Talbot role. The troubled and much-delayed production received mixed critical reviews and a lukewarm reception from fans, although Rick Baker won a 2011 Best Makeup Academy Award for his special-effects makeups. Talk of a Universal re-boot project circulated on horror forums for months afterwards, but the rumors were unfounded or, at most, greatly exaggerated. On October 9, 2012, the studio did release “Werewolf: The Beast Among Us” on DVD and Blu-ray, but the film is an unimaginative low-budget ($3.5 million) production with no relation to the classic franchise. Horror media review website Shock Till You Drop calls it “a notch above a bad SyFy Channel flick.” Ouch. Universal’s excellent Legacy Collection DVD series includes a Wolf Man set, although it unfortunately collects only the first two of the five entries in the franchise. But, as was their practice with all their franchise monsters, the studio teamed up the Wolf Man with his classic monster brethren in their series of franchise sequels throughout the mid and late-1940s, and so the remaining Wolf Man entries are available in other Legacy Collections. “The Wolf Man” is also available on Blu-ray, both on a stand-alone disc released on September 2 of this year, and as included in the 8-disc Universal Classic Monsters: The Essential Collection released on October 2, 2012. Both packages are loaded with extras, and have received very good to excellent video/audio reviews on Blu-ray. The site calls the latter, “a Blu-ray essential”.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Dec 2014 05:36:19 +0000
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