The Wolf Man
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- For other uses see Wolf man
Film overview
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.
(Contrary to popular belief, this poem was not an ancient legend, but was in fact an invention of screenwriter Siodmak. The poem is repeated (with minor changes) in every future film in which Talbot/The Wolf Man appears and is also heard in the later film Van Helsing)
Sure enough, Talbot prowls the countryside in the form of a two-legged wolf. Struggling to overcome the curse, he is finally bludgeoned to death by his father with his own walking stick. As he dies, he returns to human form.
Special effects
The transformation of Chaney from man into monster was laborious, requiring him to sit still as makeup man Jack Pierce glued layers of yak hair to his face. Then several frames of film were shot, more layers were applied, and so on. Talbot’s lap dissolve transformation on screen only took seconds, while Chaney’s took six hours.Themes
Writer Curt Siodmak has written that he was heavily influenced by Greek Mythology while drafting the script for this film.
Sequels
The Wolf Man proved popular, and so Chaney reprised his now-signature role in four more Universal films, though unlike his contemporaries he never enjoyed the chance to have a sequel all to himself. Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943) had Talbot’s grave opened on a full moon night, causing him to rise again (making him, in the subsequent films, technically one of the undead). He seeks out Dr. Frankenstein for a cure, but finds the monster (Bela Lugosi) instead. The two square off at the climax, but the fight ends in a draw when a dam is exploded and Frankenstein’s castle is flooded. In House of Frankenstein (1944), Talbot is once again resurrected and is promised a cure via a brain transplant, but ends up shot with a silver bullet instead. He returns (with no explanation) in House of Dracula (1945), and is finally cured of his condition. But he was afflicted once again, in the comedy film Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948). This time the Wolf Man was a hero of sorts, saving Wilbur Grey (Lou Costello) from having his brain transplanted by Dracula (Bela Lugosi) into the head of the monster (Glenn Strange). Grabbing the vampire as he turned into a bat, the Wolf Man dived over a balcony into the sea. This is perhaps why, in Van Helsing (2004), a werewolf is the only creature capable of killing Dracula.Legacy
It was The Wolf Man that introduced the concepts of werewolves being vulnerable to silver (in traditional folklore, it is more effective against vampires), the werewolf's forced shapeshifting under a full moon, and being marked with a pentagram (a symbol of the occult and of Satanism). These are considered by many as part of the original folklore of the werewolf, even though they were created for the film. Unlike the werewolves of legend, which resemble true wolves, the Wolf Man was a kind of hybrid creature. It stood erect like a human, but had the fur, teeth and claws of a wolf. There had been similar depictions of werewolves in several earlier movies but this was by far the most influential, and subsequent movies have built on this image.The poem recited is used in each of Chaney's subsequent appearances as the Wolf Man, with the exception of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein; it is also recited by a character in Van Helsing (2004), which featured modernized reinterpretations of the classic Universal Studios monsters. In Van Helsing, the werewolf transforms by ripping off the human skin, revealing the wolfish form. The transformation also works in reverse; the werewolf fur sheds to reveal the human form. The werewolves in this movie were also controlled by Dracula after their first full moon.
Trivia
The Wolf Man has the distinction of being the only classic Universal monster to be played by the same actor in all his classic 1940s film appearances.The Wolf Man was not Universal's first werewolf film. It was preceded by Werewolf of London (1935), starring noted character actor Henry Hull in a quite different and more subtle werewolf makeup. The film failed at the box office, probably because audiences of the day thought it too similar in many ways to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, for which Fredric March had won an Oscar three years before. Many critics thought Jack Pierce's earlier werewolf looked more menacing than the more familiar version.
The Universal Legacy Collection
Early in the century, Universal released box-sets of their most famous horror films from the 1930s and 1940s. The films featured in these Legacy Collections include "The Wolf Man" Legacy (or the Lon Chaney, Junior Legacy *), "The Invisible Man" Legacy, "The Mummy" Legacy, the "Dracula" Legacy, and the "Frankenstein" Legacy.
- - four films are featured in "The Wolf Man" Legacy Collection, but only two of them actually involved Lon Chaney, Junior. Those two films are "The Wolf Man" and "Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man". The other two films are 1935's "Werewolf of London" and 1946's "She-Wolf of London".
External links
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