The Wolf Man (1941)

I've recently been binge watching "The Twilight Zone" and I noticed something. Every time I watch a black and white horror or sci-fi film, it just feels like I'm watching a long episode of "The Twilight Zone". I'm glad to understand all the pop culture references to this film now. I recognize that episode of "Dinosaurs" as being a direct parody of this film. I recall how it was featured in "The Sandlot". Anyway, the movie's great on its own.The best parts are probably the philosophical talks these characters have. I especially love hearing about how the mind affects the body. It's a very clear looking film and the makeup effects are quite nice. I was afraid it would end at an hour in. Something 70 minutes long has to have good pacing. Bela Lugosi only played Dracula twice, but he was in a lot of other horror movies at this time, like here. ***1/2

The Wolf ManUnlike the previous Dark Universal features, its not witty or gripping in either aspects of it; execution and writing, for this wafer thin plot is not even worth the 70 minute of its runtime. The writing is the main factor, why this fails to live up to its predecessors legacy and why it fails on delivering any satisfactory material. George Wagner is definitely not in its A game which result into this overlong repetitive slog which should have been an entertaining experience. Lon Chaney Jr. in the centre of it fails to pull off this horror show despite of being supported by a great cast. The Wolf Man is something that should have been a 15 minute introduction of the amazing horror tale and is unfortunately carried out to be an hour long feature.

George Waggner's "The Wolf Man" isn't the classic horror movie that I honestly expected it to be, but for the most part it does work as a horror movie even though it didn't scare me very much. Lon Chaney Jr. stars as Larry Talbot a British man who comes back from America to Wales after his brother dies in order to spend more time with his father John Talbot (Claude Rains) and during that time his father shows him the new telescope that he got and decides to test it out himself and also during that period when he is testing out the telescope he sees a young blond haired girl named Gwen Conliffe (Evelyn Ankers) and later they go for a walk in the night time together with Gwen's friend Jenny (Fay Helm) to a local gypsy fortune teller in the woods named Bela (Bela Lugosi) who sees her and then sees a suspicious star on her hand and tells her to run away from him as fast as possible because in this film according to legend that in the night time whenever you see a star on someone's hand and you are about to turn into a werewolf the person that you see the star on will become their next victim, and thus Bela turns into a werewolf kills Jenny, and Larry tries to save her by killing him with his cane that he had gotten from the antique shop with a silver handle that kills him but not without getting bitten by him. Then the next night is Bela's funeral, and then we meet Bela's mother Maleva (Maria Ouspenskaya, who was six years Lugosi's senior in real life) who tells Talbot about the legends and he thinks that she is joking and completely dismisses her claims until he turns into a werewolf himself and kills a gravedigger, and the next night almost kills both Gwen and his father who doesn't believe the legends either until he finds out that the werewolf he killed was his own son. The whole movie works as a horror thriller all the way until the ending which was totally ridiculous and should have been altered and rewritten. During that time in Hollywood history the Academy didn't take horror movies about monsters very seriously and considered them devoid of art and of no considerable interest to them. The performances are very good especially with standout work from Chaney, Rains, Ankers, Lugosi, and Ouspenskaya, the screenplay by Curt Siodmak could have been better but was still very good, as well as George Waggner's direction. However the movie doesn't rank among some true horror classics like "Psycho" (1960), "Carrie" (1976), "The Shining" (1980), "Misery" (1990), and "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991), and is Oscar material in terms of music, acting, and cinematography, but even though it is a good movie it isn't a must see film even though I highly recommend it on the reasons that were previously stated.

Lon Chaney Jr. Was at his best. This had a great and a very well known cast. There created horror with outstanding acting and music rather than blood and guts. This is when horror movies were a work of art! Well known actors like Raulph Bellamy, Bella Lugosi, and Claude Riens, played smaller roles than normal, while Evelyn and Lon carried this from beginning to end. We see the creature played by Chaney Jr. in many other movies, but this is the first appearance and where werewolf-ism is best explained.The suspense and down right terror created by the curse and the beast, are among the most memorable and spectacular in silver screen history!