Review of The Wolf Man (1941) by Ttt C — 04 Jul 2011

The early years of horror, which gave us radio programs featuring The Shadow, The Sealed Book, and Black Museum, were ones that relied heavily on the supernatural. Many tales before that of the crypt, we were greeted with the star studded spectacle that is The Wolf Man, starring Lon Chaney Jr.

Lon Chaney is a hulk, very tall, square headed, his persona is that of a buffoon with good intentions. The first half of the film introduces us to the legends of lycanthropy, the first tragic film to do so.

We are introduced to a bevy of characters, and cameos featuring Claude Rains (The Invisible Man) and Bela Lugosi (Dracula) in order to set a mood best parodied by Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein; the country is foreign, gypsies amble around the grounds, and thunder claps go off at the most convenient of times.

It's classic monster mayhem, sending thrills up ones spine. The second half revolves around the transformation of Chaney into the wolf man, a laughable first attempt at what would become a Hollywood icon.

This version includes a wolf man still wearing human clothing and resembling Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome more than an actual wolf. It's short, not very scary, and a bit clunky, but from a nostalgic point of view, it features big time names, and all the atmosphere of an episode of The Mysterious Traveler.