by A.J.
Night 8: Werewolf Party Night!
“Even a man who is pure in heart
And says his prayers by night
May become a wolf when the wolfsbane blooms
And the autumn moon is bright.”
There’s no doubt that the Universal Pictures Wolf Man is one of the classic movie monsters. Lon Chaney, Jr. is as closely associated with the role as Boris Karloff is to Frankenstein’s Monster and Bela Lugosi is to Dracula. However, it is interesting to learn that The Wolf Man came rather late to the world of the Universal Monsters, being released in 1941, a full decade after Dracula and Frankenstein made their debut. It is also amazing that the simple title “The Wolf Man” had not been taken by another werewolf movie or book. Unlike Dracula, Frankenstein, and The Invisible Man, The Wolf Man is not based on a classic novel. Even though the werewolf is part of the folklore of many cultures, there seems to be no major literary work about werewolves. So, Universal created not just a werewolf movie, but another monster-star that would spawn multiple sequels and become part of the iconography of classic horror movies.
Like many horror movies of this era, The Wolf Man is not very long. The runtime is only 70 minutes, but it does not feel rushed or truncated. Lon Chaney, Jr. stars as Larry Talbot, the son and heir of Sir John Talbot (Claude Rains), who has returned to Talbot Castle in rural Wales after 18 years away in America. Larry’s long absence serves three purposes: 1) it emphasizes the big rift with his father; 2) it makes him a stranger in own homeland; 3) it explains why he is American and his father is British. Larry goes on a date with Gwen (Evelyn Ankers), a local shopgirl, and her friend Jenny (Fay Helm), to a nearby fair to see a fortune teller, Bela, played by none other than Bela Lugosi. Not long after, Jenny is attacked and killed by a wolf. Larry kills the wolf with a silver handled cane, but not before he is bitten. The next day the police find the body of Bela the fortune teller, and Larry’s wound has vanished.
Unlike other movie monsters, Larry Talbot is as much a victim as he is a monster. His character arc is not turning from good to evil, hero to protagonist, or even struggling between opposing forces. Instead, he is mentally and emotionally struggling with a fate to which he is doomed. Chaney does a good job showing those internal struggles the more convinced he becomes that he is a werewolf. Claude Rains as Sir John is the sturdy voice of reason and modernity, offering psychological explanations. Rains previously starred in Universal’s 1933 film The Invisible Man and his presence, as well as Lugosi’s, seems to be the movie’s way of establishing some monster movie credibility.
The Wolf Man has a great gothic atmosphere especially in outdoor scenes in the woods filled with gnarled trees, mist, and heavy shadows. The rural village setting also helps establish this movie as taking place just outside of the modern explainable world. As the werewolf, Chaney stalks through the gloomy woods attacking whoever he finds, though he does not seem to bite anyone; he only wrestles and strangles his victims.
It’s never explained why Bela turned into a wolf and Larry turned into an actual wolfman. There is no mention of silver bullets, but silver is instrumental in killing a werewolf. There is also no mention of the full moon. According to the poem Maria Ouspenskaya as Bela’s mother recites, it is “when the wolfsbane blooms and autumn moon is bright” that a werewolf transforms. This rhyme that everyone in the village knows by heart was the creation of screenwriter Curt Siodmak, though the sequels changed “autumn moon” to “full moon.” It may only be a few lines, but it builds an entire local werewolf mythology.
The thing I found most surprising about The Wolf Man is that the transformation scene only shows Larry’s legs and feet becoming gradually hairier and clawlike with time lapse dissolves. The more famous time lapse dissolves of the Wolf Man’s face are from the sequels. Other night scenes simply cut to him already transformed. The Wolf Man design by makeup artist Jack Pierce is as iconic as the looks he created for the other Universal monsters. There’s no problem noticing the difference between the Wolf Man and any other werewolf. Both at the beginning and the end credits, Lon Chaney, Jr. is credited not as playing Larry Talbot, but as The Wolf Man. Universal sure knew how to create memorable monsters.
The Wolf Man is available to stream on Peacock. It is also probably at your local library.
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