The Wolf Man (1941)

I can't tell you how many times I have seen it but it has to be over 40. Lon Chaney Jr. gives his best performance (he even acknowledged that in an magazine interview once) and is sensational. Not only can he act but he can act with a vengeance. Claude Rains is his loving and sympathetic yet as he puts it himself a stiff necked and demonstrative father who wants to protect his son from well, himself. Evelyn Ankers is outrageously beautiful and captivating. Chaney and her bond like crazy glue to your finger. And the funny thing is they despised each other in real life just like Errol Flynn and Olivia DeHavilland did off the set of Robin Hood. It shows you that in those days actors and actresses really had to ACT. Chaney convinces you he loves this woman but cannot bear the unbearable burden of being cursed and damned to eternal life. Only 90 minutes long but there is enough there to thrill you and it was one of Hollywood's best horror films many consider it to be the best classic horror film ever made. I would say I would have to agree with them.

Fmovies: I was ten when I saw this movie, and this is the only movie that has really scared me. The first time I saw the Wolf Man in full make-up, zip, I pulled the pillow over my head (I was on my bed). My father was watching with me and laughed (he saw this brand new in 1941). "Did I want it turned off?" I peeked out and, "No" everything was fine now. I finished my first viewing with awe at the make-up and transformations. I had seen other horror movies, dozens at that point, but, this was the first that had genuinely scared me. And thus began my love affair with the Wolf Man. Good music, creepy sets, good pacing, excellent cast and acting, believable storyline, transformations and make-up that DIDN'T have, or rely on, a computer to make them look good. Yes, computers have enhanced our viewing pleasures with better special effects, but, have they really replaced the Wolf Man's work, or for that fact, have they really replaced Willis O'Brien's work on King Kong. I own both, love both, and have viewed both at least a hundred time (seriously). If you want gore, blood and splatter, check else where. If you want class and quality, you can't get much better than The Wolf Man.

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.

If you haven't heard this piece of poetry before, you'll never forget it after seeing The Wolf Man for two reasons: it's spooky and just about everybody in the movie recites it at one time or another.Set in a fog-bound studio-built Wales, The Wolf Man tells the doom-laden tale of Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney, Jr.), who returns to the estate of his father (Claude Rains). (Yes, Chaney's American, but the movie explains this, awkwardly.) Bitten by a werewolf, Talbot suffers the classic fate of all victims of lycanthropy. This is a classy horror outing, with strong atmosphere and a thoughtful script by Curt Siodmak-- well, except for the stiff romantic bits between Chaney and Evelyn Ankers. It's also got Bela Lugosi, briefly, and Maria Ouspenskaya, the prune-like Russian actress who foretells doom like nobody's business.

The Wolf Man fmovies. The Wolf Man is a film about a man bitten by a werewolf condemned to live the life of his antagonist. Lon Chaney Jr. does an awfully good job transcending the traditional monster out to get everyone with a humane, sympathetic portrait of the titular lycanthrope. This is Universal Studios at its best with a good old-fashioned horror yarn, excellent acting, particularly by supporting cast members Claude Rains, Evelyn Ankers, Bela Lugosi, and the outstanding Maria Ouspenskaya as the old and wise gypsy woman, wonderful sets complete with swirling fog, and special effects that were new and fresh in 1941. This film is fast-paced and deserves its rank as one of the great Universal horror classics.

This is one of my favorite of all the Universal horrors. Even in 1941, this is not the original werewolf movie. It was already a remake, even at this early date. However, it is by far, the best of the older werewolf movies; the progenitor which has spawned nearly all other movies of this line. It lays down the basic laws concerning werewolves, gives you a history of lycanthropy, and leaves the rest to your imagination. While the effects left a lot to be desired, they are forgiven due to the incredible age of this classic masterpiece.

Lon Chaney was the veritable epitome of lovable; honorable, sweet, and intelligent Americanized man, who is open and endearing, lending these qualities to his character, and making you love him, even as he becomes this horrible, monstrous killer.

"Through no fault of your own.."

This movie is more than a classic. It is an absolute masterpiece of drama, horror, legend, and melancholy sweetness. This was one of the Universal horror classics which shaped the whole genre of horror as we know it.

I highly recommend Universal's The Wolf Man Legacy Collection DVD Box set. It is WELL worth the asking price.

It rates a 9.5/10 from...

the Fiend :.

As werewolf movies go The Wolf Man is probably the best. It was written by Curt Siodmak and directed by George Waggner. The script, though it gets the job done, has altogether too many wolf and dog references in it for comfort, many in the first fifteen minutes. A horror movie should never at the outset tell you that it is a horror movie. The title and and cast often give this away anyway, I grant, not to mention lobby cards and reviews. But the idea is or should be to draw the viewer in slowly, enabling him to acclimatize himself to the people and atmosphere so that the horror can, as it were, creep up on him. For all its excellent qualities The Wolf Man does not do this. Otherwise it works fairly nicely.

A thoroughly Americanized Larry Talbot arrives at the estate of his British father, Sir John (A baronet? I wish they'd made this clear). Aside from the fact that he is three times larger than his father and altogether different in temperament (shy and fumbling as opposed to assertive and incisive), the two hit it off well enough. Larry has returned from the States due to the death of his brother, and Sir John clearly wants Larry to take his place (whatever it is) in the village. Larry spies on a young woman through a telescope (Sir John is an astronomer), and goes to her shop, where he buys a cane, with a wolf's head, and asks her for a date. She agrees, but when they meet later on she brings a friend, just in case Larry gets too, well, wolfish. It is autumn and the gypsies are in town. Larry his girl and her friend go to a fortune teller to get their palms read. The palm-reader sees death in the friend's hand and urges her to go. Later on, in the form of a wolf, he attacks and kills the girl, and is in turn killed by Larry with his cane; but Larry is bitten by the wolf, which guarantees that he will become one, too. In time Larry does indeed become a werewolf, but as with everything else in his life only goes half-way. While the animal that attacked him was a wolf, Larry becomes only partly wolf in appearance, though when the transformation occurs he is wholly wolf in spirit, yet walks on two human, albeit furry legs. He is more or less adopted by the dead Gypsy fortune teller's mother, who looks after him, and has a way of turning up in her wagon at appropriate moments. She also recites a poem about werewolfery (or lycanthropy if you will), which I shall not repeat here and which everyone in the village seems to know by heart. Sir John, being a man of science, does not believe that his son is a true werewolf but suffering from some form of mental illness. Yet when the moon rises Larry turns into a werewolf and goes on rampages.

The Wolf Man is quite well made on what appears to be, for its studio, a generous budget; fog swirls everywhere, and the landscape is dominated by gnarled, leafless trees. It's tone is evocative of the Sherlock Holmes films, though not of course the content. There are so many good and bad things in the picture they're difficult to enumerate, and are often jumbled together. Of the bad, the casting of Americans Evelyn Ankers and Ralph Bellamy as Brits. Neither give a bad performance, but they don't belong in this film. It's difficult enough to keep one's disbelief in suspension with Lon Chaney on hand, but the addition of these two is a bit too much. Claude Rains, as Sir John, is a great asset to the movie, giving it a touch class and gravitas. His occasionally supercilious manner is in keeping in with the part he plays; and though he doesn't look at a