THE WOLF MAN (1941)
**/**** Image B+ Sound A-
starring Lon Chaney Jr., Claude Rains, Warren William, Ralph Bellamy
screenplay by Curt Siodmak
directed by George Waggner
FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN (1943)
**½/**** Image B Sound A-
starring Lon Chaney Jr., Bela Lugosi, Ilona Massey, Patric Knowles
screenplay by Curt Siodmak
directed by Roy William Neill
SHE-WOLF OF LONDON (1946)
*/**** Image A- Sound A-
starring Don Porter, June Lockhart, Sara Haden, Jan Wiley
screenplay by George Bricker
directed by Jean Yarbrough
WEREWOLF OF LONDON (1935)
*½/**** Image B Sound B+
starring Henry Hull, Warner Oland, Valerie Hobson, Lester Matthews
screenplay by John Colton
directed by Stuart Walker
Extras A-
by Travis Mackenzie Hoover Pity the poor Wolf Man. In ranking the unholy trinity of Universal monsters, he's the ugly stepchild, lacking both the popularity and iconic weight loaded onto stablemates Dracula and Frankenstein. As far as I know, no teenage outsider ever acted out by pretending to be a werewolf, nor does anyone make a metaphor of lycanthropy the way they do with Frankenstein's Monster. The Wolf Man is a beast without home or purpose, a welcome addition to monster tag teams but otherwise a second-tier entity who failed to capture the public's imagination as something to be taken beyond face value.
But his ascendancy may be at hand. As a cross-promotional effort on behalf of the new Van Helsing, Universal has unleashed a 2-disc "Legacy Collection" on DVD for all three of their cash-cow monsters, meaning that for once, we have many werewolves all in the same place. Two genuine Wolf Man films (The Wolf Man and Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man) grace "The Wolf Man: The Legacy Collection" package, in addition to the Ur-Wolf Man saga Werewolf of London and the only tangentially related She-Wolf of London. In truth, many of the character's actual appearances are scattered across the Dracula and Frankenstein sets in various team-ups and grudge matches, but the monster fan will no doubt thrill to the two proper films and the extraneous wolfiana.
Whether anyone else will get much out of the collection is another matter: the films, stripped of scaring potential by modern frankness, are devoid of residual interest in terms of writing and direction. Dracula had Tod Browning, Frankenstein had James Whale, but the Wolf Man had no stylist in the league of those directors, so his outings are visually average and thematically on the surface. Perhaps this is why people didn't see themselves in the Wolf Man's plight: no effort was made to make him any more than one more monster under the Universal logo. There's a lot of fantasizing–especially in the bogus somewhere-in-Britain of The Wolf Man and the bogus middle-Europe of Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, but no real metaphorical landscape to inhabit and thus not much to cling to on a primal level. There is a werewolf, there are victims, and then it's done.
(Note: All films are in black-and-white and unilaterally presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtracks.)
The Wolf Man. No sooner does Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.) return to Talbot Castle after a long sojourn in California than is he fighting off a wolf that's attacking a friend of his love interest, Gwen Conliffe (Evelyn Ankers). But it's not really a wolf: soon a human body turns up, looking like Talbot's victim, and it becomes clear that Talbot's been tangling with a werewolf. Which naturally means that he'll sprout hair and fangs and kill unsuspecting gravediggers when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon et cetera et cetera. If you've heard it once, you've heard it a million times, though probably from secondary sources–a testament, perhaps, to the appeal or the quality of the film?
No such luck. While the film is made with the clean round edges that denote a studio-era production, there is unfortunately no denying that it's subtext- and atmosphere-free. There's no larger significance to werewolfism beyond imminent danger to others, and there's not enough stylistic razzle-dazzle to make us truly feel that danger. Turns out that director George Waggner is obsessed with squeezing every single character into one frame (so he doesn't have to build any kind of editing rhythm cutting between them) and achieves spookiness only through darkness and dry ice. Granted, the production is professional enough that it doesn't cause audience discomfort, but despite the suave presence of Claude Rains as the Wolf Man's father and a nice turn by Maria Ouspenskaya as a helpful gypsy fortune-teller, the undeniably limited filmmaking ensures that The Wolf Man goes in one eye and out the other.
Though it shows some signs of aging, The Wolf Man's DVD transfer is the most creditable. Some print defects mar the image, but it's a decent restoration job; definition is good (especially for a film that takes place in forests and antique-laden mansions) and the b&w contrast is excellent. Audio sounds clean and robust despite its age and mono status.
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man. At first, you think that Frankenstein vs. The Wolf Man is going to be more like it: there's clearly been more money put behind the film, and director Roy William Neill shows more flair than the original's listless Waggner. As the camera glides ominously over the cemetery where grave-robbers are prying open the Talbot crypt, one can be forgiven for thinking that this might be everything the first film wasn't. But it all goes wrong: Talbot is resurrected under less than clear circumstances after being dead for four years, only to resume his lycanthropic mantle and find himself in a mental hospital, where his wolfy alter-ego escapes and kills a policeman. Now aware that he must die, he searches across Europe (in one lap dissolve) for the gypsy woman who assisted him in the first film. She knows exactly who will help: Doctor Frankenstein. And as they search for that little non sequitur, the film transcends the boxy mentality of the first film only to become ridiculous instead.
Finding themselves in some parody of a middle-European village (complete with lederhosen-clad men and wine festivals), the film settles for one unlikely logical leap to another: Talbot inadvertently revives the frozen Monster (a rubber-limbed Bela Lugosi) in search of some scientific secret or another, is tracked down by the doctor who treated him at the hospital (and who is naturally hot to discover Frankenstein's secret), and manages to alienate the entire village when it's discovered that the Monster is back and that Talbot's not much better. In between the sliding accents and expository dialogue, the film manages to forget the whole reason we showed up in the first place, which is monster-on-monster action; for the most part, Talbot is mostly all about repressing his wolfish side, while Lugosi's Monster is a sad and disoriented creature until the final three minutes. And three minutes, you'll agree, is far from being enough duelling monsters to justify a full movie.
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man is presented in slightly more ragged condition on DVD. Not only is shadow detail a touch muddy this time around, there also appears to be some print damage, with a few specs and some flickering during scenes of deep black. The definition is still quite good, however, and the overall impression is adequate. The sound is as good as on the first film, full and big and without defect.
She-Wolf of London. As I mentioned earlier, most of the Wolf Man's appearances are probably distributed across the other "Legacy" collections, meaning that second-tier werewolf pictures have made it into this one. But that's no excuse for exhuming this tedious and anticlimactic programmer, which owes more to Gaslight than to The Wolf Man and fails abjectly in any event. Taking place in fin de siècle London, it features a young June Lockhart as Phyllis, heir to the Allenby fortune and possibly the Allenby werewolf curse as well. Thus she becomes suspicious when grisly murders occur near her home, coupled as they are with her awakening to bloody hands and muddy slippers. Is she in trouble? Is she a werewolf? Is she insane?
Alas, as the film drags on (it's only an hour, but it feels like an eternity), we begin to wonder if anything is going to happen. There's much ado about Phyllis's "aunt" apparently helping her to conceal her crimes, and even more about Phyllis retreating from her handsome and loving fiancé, but precious little werewolf action: the killings all happen off-screen in order to conceal the "surprise" ending involving the aunt-who-is-not-an-aunt and her daughter. I suppose it wouldn't be cricket to reveal what that ending is, but let it be known that everything has a rational explanation–more than I can say for the highly improbable climax.
She-Wolf of London is given a better transfer than it deserves, looking well-preserved and sporting excellent contrast and shadow detail; there is less debris here than in even the granddaddy of the collection. Again the mono track is dynamic.
Werewolf of London. Jumping back to 1935, seven years before the initial The Wolf Man, we find this curio with an entirely different take on werewolf mythology than the one screenwriter Curt Siodmak cooked up for the definitive film. A botanist is searching for a rare plant in the Himalayas (typically, in a valley from whence no man has returned alive) when he is attacked by a werewolf and contracts lycanthropy himself. The flower he discovers turns out to be the only known antidote to the disease, arousing the attention of what I think is someone's idea of an Asian scientist (Warner Oland, squinting), who swipes the blooms and dooms the poor botanist to killing passers-by. Naturally, the police believe none of this until blood has flowed and mayhem has occurred.
I'd like to say better things about this one than I can. Stylistically, it tries harder than the other films, if in the montage-light manner of early sound filmmaking; it has the most careful cinematography; and it's populated by a Grand Hotel array of supporting characters, giving it a breadth of detail that the actual Wolf Man films lack. Unfortunately, most of those details are highly unconvincing. Even by the standards of '30s pop, the particulars are ridiculous: the pseudo-science is childish and the characters have one trait each that they bandy about like badges of honour. I suppose the actual werewolf make-up is a little more subtle than it would become in the Forties, making the victim look suave and sleek instead of fuzzy and bulbous, adding to the film's aesthetic success. Pity that the narrative couldn't live up to the makeup.
Werewolf of London is the oldest of the films on offer, explaining why it looks the worst for wear. This is not to say it's in terrible condition: the image is pretty sharp and there are no digital problems, although there is more flicker to contend with in low-lux shots. The film's mix is also the least of the four films, yet its tinniness is not enough to merit more than a brief mention.
Commentary on The Wolf Man by Tom Weaver
Credited as "author and film historian" within the cover art, on evidence of his yak-track for The Wolf Man, Tom Weaver is a man who knows his stuff. Respectful of his subject while aware of the film's more risible qualities, Weaver is a fount of information on everything from the original drafts to the ultimate fate of the silver-tipped cane prop. It's all delivered in a jocular style that immediately puts the listener at ease.
"Stephen Sommers on Universal's Classic Monsters: The Wolf Man" (5 mins.)
Van Helsing director Sommers's profession of love for the monster segues fairly quickly into clips from the set of his new movie. Predictably light on substance.
Rounding out the first platter: trailers for The Wolf Man and Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man.
Bonus Material – Disc Two
"Monster by Moonlight" (31 mins.)
More supplements of surprising quality, this John Landis-hosted effort ranks as one of the better retrospective featurettes. Lavishing a surprising amount of attention on the lowly Wolf Man, the piece recounts his origins as a Robert Florey treatment and the involvement of writer Curt Siodmak before moving on to discussions of Jack Pierce's rise and fall as Universal's go-to makeup man and Lon Chaney Jr.'s checkered career. Trailers for She-Wolf of London and Werewolf of London finish things off.
- The Wolf Man
70 minutes; NR; 1.33:1; English DD 2.0 (Mono); CC; French, Spanish subtitles; DVD-9; Region One; Universal - Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man
74 minutes; NR; 1.33:1; English DD 2.0 (Mono); CC; French, Spanish subtitles; DVD-9; Region One; Universal - She-Wolf of London
61 minutes; NR; 1.33:1; English DD 2.0 (Mono); CC; French, Spanish subtitles; DVD-9; Region One; Universal - Werewolf of London
75 minutes; NR; 1.33:1; English DD 2.0 (Mono); CC; French, Spanish subtitles; DVD-9; Region One; Universal
