Review of The Curse of the Werewolf (1961) by Kimber M — 23 Nov 2008

I have watched a lot, and I mean A LOT, of Hammer flicks. Hell, I probably own half of them. And aside from the prerequisite blood, there's generally a good effort at telling a story, not always following the original, but a story. Usually there is genuine feeling and emotion in the characters, whether good or bad, which make the movies worth watching more than once.

This movie has a greater than usual level of genuine love and sentimentality in it. Both romantic and familial. I found it odd, but refreshing. Hammer often makes us feel for the "monster" before he kills him off, but in this one we are encouraged to actually embrace and sympathize with him. This has something to do with the way Hammer tampered with the werewolf legend, pure fabrication if one can say that about an already fabricated legend.

Oliver Reed, a quite attractive man with that haunting light eyed- dark haired thing going on, "emoted" this role out of the park.

Overall a rather more multi-dimensional Hammer flick than I'm used to. Very enjoyable.