Oswald Rabbit – The Mechanical Man

This cartoon from early 1932 featuring a robot that bears a very slight resemblance to a certain monster who made his debut a year earlier in Frankenstein.

The Wolfman – Film Review

 

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.

As a kid I was extremely scared of this movie and werewolves in particular. Even now I have a strange attraction/repulsion to werewolves and werewolf movies. The Wolfman is a classic Universal horror movie from 1941 starring Lon Chaney Jr. as Lawrence Talbot, the man who is unfortunately bitten by a werewolf. Having just watched this yesterday I would say that it is not so much as horror movie, as there are really no instances of tension or horror, however it does work as a great psychological study of a man who is tormented by the things he will do when the moon is full and he changes into a werewolf.

The screenplay was written by Curt Siodmak, a German Jew who fled the Nazi atrocities of the 1930s for America. He is the person responsible for many of the traditions that are today associated with the werewolf legend, such as the transformation at the full moon, the werewolves victim being marked by a pentagram and that the only way to kill a werewolf is with silver. According to the excellent documentary that accompanied the DVD Siodmak wrote The Wolfman as an allegory to the genocide occurring in Europe at the time and how even the nicest of men could become beasts if the conditions were right.

Then there is the performance of Lon Chaney Jr, as Larry Talbot, the man who must carry the terrible curse of the werewolf. His acting seems quite over the top and hammy here but it does add to the fun of the film. The Wolfman became Chaney’s signature role and makes this movie a lot of fun to watch.

Werewolf of London

I noticed in JB Hifi that several of the Universal Monster movies of the 1930s and 40s have been rereleased onto DVD. Among the releases are the usual suspects, Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, and The Wolf Man as well as some lesser known films such as House Of Frankenstein and Werewolf Of London. Unfortunately it seems that neither the classic The Invisible Man nor Son Of Frankenstein have been rereleased but perhaps they will follow. I always meant to pick up copies of these when Universal first released them here in 2002. (I did buy the woeful MRA releases of Frankenstein and Bride, so I finally can get rid of those horrors, pun intended!)

 Werewolf Of London is perhaps the least well known of Universal’s horror film, being overshadowed by The Wolf Man starring Lon Chaney Jr, which was released five years afterwards. I have always been curious about this film but have not had the chance to view it… until now. I enjoy The Wolf Man a lot, even though werewolves are in my opinion the most terrifying of all the monsters. (Ask my brother about the nightmares he inflicted on me as a kid by watching The Boy Who Cried Werewolf late at night in our room when we were supposed to be asleep!)