WHAT: The Wolf Man (1941, DCP)
WHEN: October 16, 2024 1 PM & 7 PM
WHERE: Pickwick Theatre, Park Ridge, IL
WHAT ELSE: Pre-show music by organist Jake McDonagh at 6:30 PM; local artist Paul Pandocchi with his Universal monster models; short subjects before the feature.
HOW MUCH: $12/$10 advance or $10 for the 1 PM matinee
Advance Tickets: Click Here and select date and time.
It’s one of the cornerstones of Universal horror. A film whose legend continues to expand– inspiring yet another remake set for release in 2025. But for generations of Monster Kids, it is the 1941 The Wolf Man that remains the definitive werewolf tale. It is the film that established the lycanthropic lore that became the basis for all the werewolf films that followed. And it is the film that gave Lon Chaney, Jr. his most famous role– and one of his best performances. On October 16, 2024, The Pickwick Theatre Classic Film Series gets a jump-start on Halloween by offering this masterpiece of classic horror.
There are several factors that make this film a cut above the B-movie horrors that Universal released throughout the 1940s. The screenplay, the cast, the makeup and the musical score all stand out. In regards to the screenplay, there is nothing wasted in the relatively short 70 minutes of screen time. There are no unnecessary subplots that would bog down modern interpretations. It is so intelligently written and executed that it remains a textbook example of how to tell an effective thriller that not only moves on the screen but has emotion with a sympathetic lead character, Larry Talbot.
Universal tasked Curt Siodmak with the job of writing a wolf man story. The German-born Siodmak would write many horror and science fiction screenplays throughout the 1940s for Universal, but he also wrote I Walked With a Zombie (1943) for Val Lewton. Universal was looking for a new starring vehicle for Lon Chaney, Jr., who had previously appeared in Man-Made Monster (1941). Siodmak was relatively free to do what he wanted– he just had to do it quickly.
Essentially ignoring the previous werewolf film that Universal had made, The Werewolf of London (1935), Siodmak deliberately wrote the new tale as a Greek tragedy with the protagonist being told his supernatural fate. Around this plot, Siodmak fashioned a new mythology with many of the elements we now associate with werewolves. The only thing the film left out was the full moon itself (which was added in the subsequent sequels). It was Siodmak who imagined not only the lore, but also some of the most famous lines in any Universal horror film:
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.
Lawrence Talbot returns home to his father’s estate after the accidental death of his older brother. Shortly after his arrival, he meets the beautiful Gwen, who works at an antique shop run by her father. Larry is told for the first time about the village’s superstitious beliefs in werewolves, which Larry doesn’t take too seriously. He tries to talk Gwen into a date; she acquiesces only because her friend Jenny will be joining them. The trio visit a gypsy encampment where Jenny has her fortune told by Bela. In her palm, however, he alone sees the pentagram sign, marking her as the next victim of the werewolf. He tells her to leave immediately. In a near panic, Jenny runs off into the fog-shrouded woods and is shortly thereafter attacked by a wolf. Larry comes to her rescue too late, but with his silver walking stick, he kills what he believes to be a wolf. In the melee, he is bitten himself. However, the authorities later inform Larry that he had accidentally killed Bela the gypsy. His story is doubted by everyone except Maleva, Bela’s mother, who tells Larry he will become a wolf himself. Beyond the curse, he is made to feel an outcast in the village. His father believes he can cure him by forcing Larry to confront his ridiculous fears of being a werewolf.
The project was specifically designed for Lon Chaney, Jr. who, for the only time in his career, played a Universal monster he could call his own. Though he had shown audiences what a good actor he could be in 1939’s Of Mice and Men– playing the slow-witted Lenny– it would be Lawrence Talbot that would become his signature role. It’s a part he played in four sequels culminating with Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948).
Unlike Dracula or the Frankenstein Monster, Larry Talbot is not only sympathetic but relatable. Although supposedly Welsh in the context of the film, Larry is played by the very likable and all-American Lon Chaney, Jr– the brash hero who won’t take no for an answer in his courtship of Gwen. Throughout the film, Chaney exhibits a wide spectrum of emotions and faces: from eagerness and naivete to barely controlled rage to heartbreaking sadness. There would be other werewolf films, of course, but Lon Chaney would be the only Larry Talbot.
Further elevating the film from its B status is the presence of Claude Rains as Larry’s father, Sir John Talbot. He plays the role with compassion, but with a tough love, refusing to belief the family name could be tarnished by such superstition. Although not very long, his meeting in the woods with the equally outstanding Maria Ouspenskaya (as Maleva, the all-knowing gypsy woman), is one of the special moments in the film.
The rest of the cast is made up of exceptional character actors including Bela Lugosi (with only seven lines of dialogue) as the well-cast Bela, Evelyn Ankers as Gwen Conliffe, Warren William as Dr. Lloyd, Ralph Bellamy as Paul Montford, and Patric Knowles as Frank Andrews. Knowles would appear in the sequel, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943), but as a completely different character.
Although they had great screen chemistry and appeared together in a handful of films throughout the 1940s, Chaney and the British-American Ankers famously did not get along on set. His hard drinking coupled with his tendency to pull pranks and scare his co-star were some of the reasons the more reserved Ankers had bitter feelings towards him.
Adding to Chaney’s performance was his physical transformation into the Wolf Man. The makeup was done by the great Jack Pierce, father of all the famous Universal monsters, including Dracula, Frankenstein and the Mummy. His Chaney make-up was originally designed for actor Henry Hull in Werewolf of London. Hull had protested that the makeup simply made him unrecognizable. As a result, Pierce toned it down and instead saved the design for another day.
To accomplish the illusion, Pierce applied the snout first to Chaney’s face and sealed it with cotton and collodion. (Later artists, by contrast, would use latex or foam rubber to create facial appliances.) Gradually, Pierce built up the wolf man using layers of yak hair applied with spirit gum. The facial hair was then trimmed and singed. Pierce was able to suggest the face of a wolf, though not necessarily a real wolf. Chaney was given slip-on rubber gloves to complete the effect. On film, director George Waggner used a series of lap dissolves with Chaney remaining in place to depict the transformation.
In Universal Horrors (1990), authors Michael & John Brunas and Tom Weaver write,
“Pierce’s creation, made from hard-to-find yak hair and a set of sharp, jutting teeth, took four hours to apply; that includes making up Chaney’s hands and feet. The script called for two full transformations. Chaney was forced to lie prostrate on the ground while the makeup was removed, changing him from a wolf back to a man. Chaney griped that taking the makeup off was even worse than putting it on. ‘What gets me is after work when I’m all hot and itchy and tired, and I’ve got to sit in that chair for forty-five minutes while Pierce just about kills me, ripping off the stuff he put on me in the morning.'”
The film was shot on the famed Universal backlot, which often substituted for various European villages. The exact location in the story was rather nebulous, and though supposedly set in Wales, The Wolf Man exists in some other realm of the imagination. It has a fairy tale quality which is enhanced by the cinematography of Joseph Valentine (who soon after worked with Alfred Hitchcock). The village set, known as the Court of Miracles, still stands and can be seen during the tour at Universal, California.
The monster music was by Frank Skinner and his creative partner, Hans Salter. For this score, music director Charles Previn also contributed. Unlike the early horror classics of the 1930s which used incidental music sparingly– typically at the opening and closing credits– the later pictures had full scores. Bride of Frankenstein (1935), composed by Franz Waxman, contained one of the finest in the genre. But in the late 1930s and throughout the 1940s, it was Salter and Skinner who contributed some of the most atmospheric and macabre music. The Wolf Man offers not only the ominous 3-note cue for the Wolf Man, but the memorable gypsy motifs we associate with Maleva. Fortunately, the music can be appreciated separate from the film by way of the Moscow Symphony Orchestra CD release (orchestrated by William T. Stromberg and arranged by John Morgan).
The Wolf Man was released in the wake of the attack of Pearl Harbor. Despite the bad timing, the film became a tremendous success at the box office. Though The Wolf Man wasn’t an “A” film like other studios’ big productions, it wasn’t a programmer either– like the horrors that followed throughout the decade. It’s exceptionally well-crafted. Fans today can nitpick continuity errors– for instance, Larry in his undershirt transforming into a fully dressed werewolf stalking the countryside– but it’s not serious film criticism.
Much has been made of the film’s subtext in the years since. The screenplay has been viewed as a parable about the Second World War (with all-American Lon embroiled in a European horror he doesn’t quite understand). Some historians go deeper to suggest that part of a boy’s fascination with the werewolf concept is because it is a representation of puberty. Given the short time frame in which the film was made (less than a month), Siodmak most likely did not intend such interpretations or conceive Talbot as a representation of the “marauding Id self,” but it is a testament to the text that such perspectives exist.
The Wolf Man is beloved by the Monster Kids who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s. For some of us who followed, it was through horror host Svengoolie that we first experienced Chaney, Jr. stalking Evelyn Ankers in the foggy countryside. I remember as a kid checking out the Thorne Crestwood House Monster Series books at the library and the wonderful monster books of historian Greg Mank. With magazines, toy figures, and a Wolf Man cane replica that followed, I remain devoted to the film.
In the end, though, it’s Lon Chaney, Jr.’s performance that makes his Wolf Man such an endearing role. It is the pathos he brought to the character that connects with audiences. “There’s something very tragic about that man,” Patric Knowles’ character says of Talbot. Indeed, Chaney played a man with an affliction that transforms him into something he never wanted to be. Few actors have been able to match this. One (relatively) modern equivalent was Bill Bixby’s role as David Banner in the TV series, The Incredible Hulk (which was distributed by Universal Television). It takes a very talented actor to convey this kind of torment given the fantastic nature of the affliction. Like his father, Chaney, Jr. would show audiences many faces, but ultimately, it was the face of Lawrence Talbot that we remember most.
~MCH
