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The
Wolf Man:
The Legacy Collection
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Wolf
Man
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8 |
Meets
The Wolf Man
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8 |
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Werewolf Of London
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7 |
| She-Wolf
Of London |
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2
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9 |
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DVD
Rating is for
entire set
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Guest
Review by Rod
Barnett |
For
decades, many fans of the genre have looked down upon the Universal
horror films produced in the 1940s. The often-stated opinion
is that after 1939's Son of Frankenstein
there really wasn't any 'greatness' in the Universal monster
movies. I have always considered that to be an amazingly narrow
way of looking at the films of the '40s and the fact that this
perception hangs on is sad. I think these opinions are rooted
more in wanting to champion the best of the lot at the expense
of the rest than in serious consideration of the movies themselves.
What I hear in a lot of the criticism of the WWII era films
are fans trying to justify their love of monster movies to people
that think of them as silly nonsense. Fans might think that
by segmenting off the later films as unworthy of praise the
earlier classics could look more prestigious. This is ridiculous!
While I'll gladly admit that She-Wolf
of London isn't an example of Universal at its peak,
dismissing Frankenstein Meets the Wolf
Man or The Mummy's Hand automatically
is simply ludicrous. These films have merits that allow them
to be compared very favorably to their 1930s predecessors. Among
their best elements is their sometimes-overlooked creativity
in bringing our beloved monsters back from the grave and their
sheer fun as entertainments. But the decade's most lasting addition
to the horror pantheon has to be the creation of The Wolf Man.
Easily one of the most enduring monsters of all time and a natural
outgrowth of the monster film cycle and more importantly the
conflicted human psyche. What young man hasn't had that frightening
feeling of change sweep over him at the sight of pretty face
or well-turned leg? Don't most young men (and women as well)
find the thought of their own animal side to be terrifying?
The Wolf Man remains a classic character because we see so much
of ourselves in his tragic tale. We might fear Dracula or pity
Frankenstein's monster but we know the Wolf Man. In the
tale of Larry Talbot we have met the monster and it's the shocked
reflection in the mirror.
After taking their original DVD releases
out of print a couple of years ago Universal has finally re-released
a number of their classic monster films in nice sets centered
around each of the three primary creatures. This has allowed
Universal's video department to correct some mistakes on the
first releases and also give us a few more gems from their beloved
cycle of horror movies. In the Wolf Man set there are
4 movies starting with 1941's excellent The
Wolf Man, continuing with the sequel Frankenstein
Meets the Wolf Man (1943) and adding, almost as an afterthought,
Werewolf of London (1935) and She-Wolf
of London (1946). In the case of Werewolf
of London this secondary status is lamentable —
Universal's
first Lycanthrope story, it
should have had a more honored place in monster movie history.
But the less said about She-Wolf of London
the better!
The Wolf Man
starts with Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney, Jr.) returning home to
the Talbot Estate in Wales. He moved to America many years before
to make his own way in the world because as the second son he
couldn't inherit the family wealth. The accidental death of
his older brother has thrust him into the role of eventual Lord
and his return is met with genuine happiness from his father
(Claude Rains). Soon after his homecoming Larry begins courting
the lovely Gwen Conliff (Evelyn Ankers) and during a visit to
a traveling gypsy camp Gwen's friend Jenny is attacked and killed
by what looks like a huge wolf. Larry rushes to help and beats
the wolf to death with his newly bought silver-headed cane,
but is injured in the struggle. When the corpse at the scene
turns out to be the gypsy Bela (Bela Lugosi), rationalizations
are made and the absence of the wolf is brushed aside. But soon,
true to gypsy Maleva's warnings, Larry is turning into a werewolf
and stalking the countryside at night. As Larry begins to understand
his horrible curse he searches for an escape —
but will
he kill those he loves before he can be stopped?
A great film from beginning to end, The
Wolf Man is far from perfect but it stands up wonderfully
more than 60 years later. A great cast acquits themselves well
and the story moves along quickly (maybe too quickly to be truthful).
On watching this film for the umpteenth time I found only one
element distracting, and I have to admit it may be worse for
some other viewers. I find Chaney's performance a little too
stagy and stilted most of the time. Too often it seems like
everyone else is acting while Lon is ACTING! Maybe I'm too sensitive
to this one thing but it really bugs me, especially when I think
about how much I like his often maligned and underrated performance
in Son of Dracula. At any rate, this
is a fine monster film and its Greek tragedy structure is classic
and classy, adding emotion to a strong story.
Two years later the scriptwriter of The
Wolf Man, Curt Siodmak, came up with an excellent idea
that managed to spawn monster rallies for years to come. Frankenstein
Meets the Wolf Man opens with a fantastically creepy
sequence in which two grave robbers accidentally bring the dead
Talbot back to life under the full moon. Finding himself in
the same situation as before, he despairs until he hits on the
idea that if Dr. Frankenstein knew how to reanimate the dead
he could surely find a way to end his life. Traveling to Europe
he seeks out the gypsy woman Maleva and with her help goes to
Vasaria to find the Doctor. Here he finds that the good Doctor
is long dead but in the castle's ruins he stumbles across the
still living Frankenstein monster (Bela Lugosi). Larry prevails
upon Frankenstein's daughter (Ilona Massey) to help and she
leads him to her father's diary. With these notes on life and
death he convinces Dr. Mannering (Patric Knowles) to use the
forbidden knowledge to drain off Talbot's life energy —
hopefully to kill him. But once Mannering has Frankenstein's
monster and the Wolf Man strapped down he can't resist the chance
to see them at full strength, precipitating the monster brawl
everyone came to see! As a sequel to both Ghost
of Frankenstein and The Wolf Man
this movie brings the supernatural and scientific strings of
Universal horror together for the first time and to great effect.
While this will never be thought of as the best in the series
it's a very good, consistently enjoyable movie and is one of
my all time favorites. The story is engaging and fun with Talbot's
quest to end his life managing to retain it's tragic tone. The
dialog and acting is very good, even though this film began
the constant refrain of werewolf dialog ("You don't understand!
I turn into a wolf!") that became so repeated in subsequent
films that it would become hard not to chuckle when it was trotted
out. In this film I find Chaney doing a much better job than
in the original and the transformation effects are even sharper.
My biggest complaint is the one echoed for decades by fans:
the climactic fight is far too short. I'm also not happy with
the elimination of the Monster's dialog and the explanation
for his awkward movements that was cut out of the film at the
last minute back in '43. I still dream of some lucky person
turning up this cut footage someday, the way others hope for
a print of London After Midnight
to be discovered. Anyone interested in this excised footage
should check out the original shooting script published by MagicImage
Filmbooks a few years ago. It's an eye-opening look at the film
that might have been. To follow the further adventures of Larry
Talbot and his cursed life you'll have to seek out the Frankenstein
and Dracula Legacy DVD sets.
Werewolf of London tells a very
different lycanthropic tale. Henry Hull plays Dr. Wilfred Glendon,
a botanist who searches Tibet for the rare Mariphasa Lupina
flower that only blooms under moonlight. But after finding the
plant he is attacked by a beastly man-sized creature and wounded.
Glendon returns home to England and while trying to get the
Mariphasa to bloom under artificial moonlight, he is visited
by Dr. Yogami (Warner Oland). Yogami carefully tells Glendon
that he knows of his injury and of the Mariphasa's properties
as the only know antidote for "werewolfery". Glendon
scoffs at this foolishness. But later, when he notices his hand
unnaturally transform under the artificial moonlight, he uses
the plant's sap to stop the change. That night his doubts are
erased when he turns into a ravening man-beast and kills a woman
on the streets of the city. Realizing that Yogami is correct
and that when he changes he desires to kill "the thing
that he loves best," Glendon tries to force the Mariphasa
to bloom rapidly to hold off his murderous desires. But Dr.
Yogami is afflicted with the curse as well, and desperately
steals the blooms to forestall his own transformation. Werewolf
of London is a good little monster film and it's a shame
that no attempt was ever made to craft a sequel. The film was
not as well received as later movies in the cycle; there seems
to be one reason that stands out to explain this. There are
almost no likable characters in the film! Nearly everyone is
a mean tempered, testy ass including a pair of gin soaked old
ladies who spend their screen time gleefully knocking the hell
out of each other! Even some of the characters that aren't mean
are simply irritating, causing me at one point to be disappointed
that the werewolf didn't rip out one woman's throat. I don't
want to give the impression that I don't like the movie, but
the meanness of the characters colors everything in the film
and really may have had some effect on its reception at the
time. There are really only two likable folks in the tale and
this makes it pretty easy to know who'll survive to the end
credits. The real misstep is in making Glendon such a cruel
person that his metamorphosis into a hairy beast isn't too much
of a personality stretch. The transformation isn't so much a
'change' as an extension of tendencies already evidenced in
how he treats everyone around him. Still, Werewolf
of London is a fascinating, entertaining film that I
hope more people will now finally see. Over the years I find
myself returning to it because it is such a different type of
werewolf tale and it's cast of non-audience friendly characters
mesmerize me.
Finishing
off the set is She-Wolf of London
(1946). As alluded to earlier, this is the least of the collection
and has few points of interest for monster fans. The film's
story is set in the early 20th century and follows young heiress
Phyllis Allenby (June Lockhart) who is beginning to fear that
the legendary family wolf curse is falling upon her. This Allenby
Curse was supposedly responsible for her parents' deaths; the
possibility of Phyllis turning into a She-Wolf at night seems
a possibility as reports of vicious murders in a nearby London
park make headlines. Of course, any half-savvy viewer will realize
quickly that "Aunt" Martha (Sara Haden) is up to no
good and her pack of ill-tempered dogs are the most likely culprits.
It doesn't help that the film telegraphs this by having Aunt
Martha explain to her daughter 10 minutes into the film exactly
why it would not be a good idea for Phyllis to get married to
her paramour as it would leave them penniless. It seems that
Aunt Martha isn't really related to the Allenby family but is
simply a (too) trusted servant who's been sponging off the girl's
wealth since her parents died. The film lurches along with a
Scotland Yard detective deciding on the flimsiest of evidence
that a werewolf is involved and then being murdered in the foggy
park for his trouble. Of course, there is nothing supernatural
going on and the film wraps up just as any modern watcher will
anticipate with a full gleeful confession from the culprit complete
with mild scenery chewing. Not a film to delight monster film
fans (nor even melodrama fans), She-Wolf
of London is a dismal affair with only some nice photography,
pretty sets and the beautiful Miss Lockhart to distract from
its obvious deficiencies. No attempt to explain the Allenby
curse or to give its details is made, which only compounds the
arbitrary feel of the mysterious elements of the story. It's
a slapdash effort that even at an hour running time feels far
too long. I wish they could have found a reason to include Lon
Chaney's Man
Made Monster in the set instead, but I guess when you call
it "The Wolf Man Legacy" you gotta stick to your guns
whether the films stink or not.
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of the first things to be said about the Wolf Man Legacy
DVD set is that the menu pages could have been better designed.
It appears that the idea was to remind the viewer whenever possible
that there are several films available, but it's nothing but frustrating
to click on a feature only to be told that it's on another disc.
It would have been much better to have the individual menu pages
only display the contents of that particular DVD. It's not as
if we don't know what's in the set. We bought the thing because
it has several movies and lots of extras! The back of the case
tells us where each of the movies are and on which side as well,
so the cluttered menus are pointless. Also, as far as I'm concerned,
the material on the three sides could have been much better grouped.
Maybe the idea was to maximize the DVD bit-rate but there seems
to be little reason to have the excellent documentary Monster
By Moonlight stuck on the disc with Werewolf
of London when its main focus is on The
Wolf Man. But maybe I should stop complaining and just
be glad these films are available. I am very grateful that the
documentary was carried over from the previous Wolf
Man DVD and I recommend it strongly to any fans that've
not yet seen it. Also, Tom Weaver's amazing commentary track for
The Wolf Man is here as well; it's
great at giving a monster fan more information than you would
think could be crammed into 70 minutes. I just wish he could also
have done a track for Frankenstein Meets
the Wolf Man, pointing out
where footage was removed, detailing the production and relating
tales of Lugosi and Chaney working together. (I can dream, can't
I?)
The films all look very good with the expected occasional scratch
and blemish. To me they look and sound better than in previous
releases so I can comfortably get rid of my old laser discs now
especially as they've included the trailers for the films on this
set. Overall this is a must-own set for monster fans, and with
the retail price being so low I can't imagine anyone complaining
about the value. Let's all hope Universal will now do some more
themed DVD sets and maybe center them on their various horror
stars. Anybody else like to see a Karloff/Lugosi set bringing
together The Black Cat, The
Raven, The
Invisible Ray and Black Friday?
5/13/04 |
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