“Even a man who is pure of heart and says his prayers at night may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright.” Yup, just ask Benicio Del Toro. However, before Del Toro got hairy, Lon Chaney Jr. was the tormented lupinus Larry Talbot.
Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney, Jr.) has returned to his ancestral home in Wales to reconcile with his father, Sir John Talbot (Claude Rains). While in town he comes across an antique shop run by Gwen Conliffe (Evelyn Ankers). He’s smitten so he buys a silver-headed walking stick with a wolf motif, which causes Gwen to recall the legend of the werewolf and recite the infamous poem.
That evening Gwen, Jenny (Faye Helm), and Larry go to a gypsy camp. Jenny has her fortune told by Bela (Bela Lugosi) who sees a pentagram in her palm that frightens him. Later, Jenny is attacked by a wolf and Larry kills the beast with his new walking stick, but he is bitten in the process.
Gypsy fortuneteller Maleva (Maria Ouspenskaya) arrives on the scene and reveals that the wolf was really her werewolf son Bela. He was afflicted by the curse of lycanthropy and that curse has been passed onto Larry.
Lon Chaney Jr. would live in the shadow of his famous, late father – Lon Chaney Sr. Chaney Jr.’s signature creature would come out when the moon was bright, but he’d not do the makeup for it unlike his famous father. Lon would never really reach the dizzy heights of his father’s fame but there were some fine performances in his career before it degenerated into cheapjack pictures.
The Wolf Man would become his signature role and he would portray the hairy beast for the remainder of the Universal films. Other actors would don Dracula’s cape or Frankenstein’s neck bolts (Chaney would do both) but Lon would always go back to being Larry Talbot and his monstrous alter identity. It’s easy to see why as Lon adds humanity to Talbot.
He’s a reluctant monster and torn with his curse. Frankenstein also has our sympathies, but he didn’t have much choice in the matter of being stitched together and was mostly mute. Larry knows he turns when the moon is bright and he lives in fear of hurting those he cares about during his moonlight jaunts. Not only is Chaney exquisite casting, but there are grand turns by Claude Rains, Russian acting legend Maria Ouspenskaya, Evelyn Ankers, and even a good cameo by Lugosi (who oddly turns into a wolf, not really a wolf man. Guess the curse affects Hungarians differently).
The other star of the show is screenwriter Curt Siodmak, whose screenplay establishes the wolf man legend that we know today. It’s all Siodmak’s invention, especially that great poem, and doesn’t spring from folklore.
In fact, Universal’s first Wolf Man picture, Werewolf of London, the curse was from exposure to a plant not being bitten by another lycanthrope. The 2010 Wolfman (note the lack of a space now) film owes much to both Chaney and Siodmak.
The Wolf Man is presented in fullscreen. Disc one contains a commentary by film historian Tom Weaver. The 32 minute “Monster by Moonlight” looks at the making of the film hosted by John Landis, the 6 minute “Wolf Man Archives” is a series of posters and promotional material that run to music from the film, and the trailer gallery has 8 minutes of Universal trailers that include one for the new film.
This disc basically replicates the previous release, save for the new Wolfman trailer. Disc two features newer material, starting with the 10 minute “The Wolf Man: from ancient curse to modern myth” talks about the mythology set up by the film. Lon Chaney is discussed in the 37 minute “Pure in Heart.” Makeup master Jack Pierce is given a bio in the 25 minute “He Who Made Monsters.”
The entire Universal horror canon is given tribute in the 95 minute “Universal Horror” from 1998 that is narrated by Kenneth Branagh (and has appeared on other sets methinks, but it’s still a nice look at the classic creepers).
The Wolf Man is aces all around. It may have been done in a B-picture mindset but it’s “A’s” in both performance and longevity. Happily this reissue, timed to whet your canines for the upcoming redo, contains tributes to Chaney, Jack Pierce, and those wonderful Universal horrors. Get ready to howl with delight.
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