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The Wolf Man (1941)

Dir: George Waggner

Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr), the long estranged son of Sir John Talbot (Claude Rains) returns home to Britain, from America, after the death of his brother.

While exploring the local village Larry meets Gwen Conliffe (Evelyn Ankers) who works in an antique shop. To get to know her better Larry purchases a silver headed cane in the shape of a wolf and arranges a date to go and see a troop of Gypsies who have recently set up their carnival outside the village.

Along with a female friend, Jenny (Fay Helm), Larry and Gwen go to the Gypsy camp and Jenny goes to see the fortune teller Bela (Bela Lugosi) who scares her with his attitude towards her.
Jenny runs away into the woods and is suddenly attacked by a savage wolf.
Vainly trying to save the doomed girl Larry beats the wolf to death with his new cane but is bitten in the fight and passes out.

Awakening the next morning the head of the local Police, Colonel Montford (Ralph Bellamy), informs Larry that they only found the bodies of Jenny and the Gypsy Bela (who suffered a crushed skull), but no dead wolf.
Learning about the legends of Werewolves from Bela's mysterious mother, Maleva (Maria Ouspenskaya), and how a person bitten by one will become a Werewolf themselves, Larry is convinced that he will turn into a bloodthirsty beast at the next full moon....

 

Chronologically coming last in the line of 'classic' Universal monsters (Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, The Mummy and The Invisible Man), The Wolf Man soon joined his already established brethren of icons to become an influential part of horror film history.
Thanks to the truly superb scripting by Curt Siodmak (taking over from, and completely re-writing, an abandoned original script) "The Wolf Man" has in fact become the most culturally influential of all Universal's monsters.

Siodmak's famous 'folklore' prose...
'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'.
...has become almost mythic in itself and was often wrongly thought to be an actual European folk saying and would be repeated in numerous films over the following decades.
What Siodmak also famously gave us is the belief that only silver can kill a Werewolf, something that would become so deeply implanted into any Werewolf entertainment that it almost took on scientific validity!

But it's not only mythic folklore that Siodmak offers up here, he also delivers a tight plot, interesting characters and effective set-pieces.
We can indeed bemoan the fact that another 5 minutes could not have been added, to the typically short Universal running time, to give us one or two more attack sequences (certainly The Wolf Man is underused compared to Dracula and The Invisible Man, but is given vastly more to do than The Mummy) but there is so much going on in the film that it holds the interest we can overlook, if not forget, this rare fault in the otherwise effective screenplay.
A screenplay that, as he covers the tragedy of a man fated and cursed for no reason, owes much to Siodmak's flight from Nazi Germany where, as a Jew, he was similarly fated to have his life suddenly changed as his very DNA became a curse upon him as far as being able to live his life peacefully in Germany would go.

Claude Rains yet again does a wonderful job as the intelligent, caring, grounded father and Bellamy is great value as the delightfully no nonsense Colonel (his clipped orders, while looking at the bodies of Bela and Jenny, to his scared assistant are a hoot, "Take a note Twiddle"!).
The unforgettable Maria Ouspenskaya helps to create one of Universal's most iconic non-monster characters as the wise but mysterious foreteller of doom and a sadly underused Bela Lugosi (now obviously being pushed out of any kind of leading man status) does an enjoyable job as the first Werewolf.

As for Lon Chaney he does everything that needs doing as far as essaying a likeable character caught in a web of tragedy. But his general hulking physicality and distinctive drawl do not remotely work as far as him being a credible, (estranged or not) son of the slight, very English, very sophisticated, Claude Rains. He basically seems like the son that was dropped on his head at birth. It is telling that this relationship to Rains was not actually in Siodmak's original script.
As The Wolf Man though, Chaney does a wonderful job and his bulk and physicality, that are ill-suited to him being the son of an English Sir, are a bonus here.

Larry Talbot/The Wolf Man is perhaps the most tragic of all Universal's monsters as he is basically a good man who, while doing a good deed, gets cruelly inflicted with a curse that will see him (throughout the sequels, with Chaney always playing him) desperately trying to die, to finally give himself peace.
This tragic desperation and suicidal quest of the character must have been pretty strong stuff for audiences at the time, and the bleakness of such a tragic existence for someone who is basically a human being for much of his screen-time (unlike, the still tragic, Frankenstein's Monster who is always just that...a monster) means that The Wolf Man films become perhaps the most consistently serious of all the Universal cycles.

For all it's classic status I have to say though that the design of The Wolf Man is for me the least successful of make-up legend Jack Pierce's creations.
Pierce does manage to keep some nice facial expression in the Wolf Man for Chaney to work with, but the dog snout nose and rather comical bouffant hairdo that the Werewolf sports have dated badly and take away some of the viciousness of the creature, despite the effective looking fangs. The obvious one piece boots used for the feet are also a letdown as we can clearly see that Talbot's toes are all connected with no gaps between each of them.
Although not as influential or popular the more simplistic looking Werewolf make-up, used on Henry Hull in the earlier "Werewolf of London", makes for a more savage and scary beast.

So we have some faults, and a few logic holes in the plot, but basically thanks to the otherwise effective screenplay, wonderful monster lore, generally very fine acting, good support characters, wonderfully atmospheric sets and cinematography, tight direction (by the great silent German cinematographer George Waggner) and genuinely effective and tragic lead character, "The Wolf Man" manages to retain much of its classic status historically speaking, and also manages to be an enjoyable fright film in its own right.
I'd still put this behind "Dracula", "Frankenstein", "Son of Frankenstein" and especially "The Invisible Man", but Larry Talbot/The Wolf Man manages a very respectable placing in Universal's classic monster canon.

The Universal DVD is a fine release with some great extras, including a wonderfully entertaining, gossip filled, commentary track by Tom Weaver.