Review of The Wolf Man (1941) by Nickie L — 26 Apr 2012
In the late 30's after the Lammle family lost control of Universal due to a series of flops and failing to pay back a loan to cover their big budget musical Show Boat, Standard Capital took over and either drastically cut or completely shut down large budget films and turned their focus mainly to low budget westerns and sequels in order to salvage the studio.
Only until 1941 would the studio have the financial security again to explore new territory with The Wolf Man. This is not the first werewolf film Universal had produced. In 1935 they released Werewolf of London, a weak variation on Dr.
Jekyll and Mr.Hyde. After his performance in Man Made Monster and the history his family had in the genre, Lon Chaney Jr. was cast as Larry Talbot, the man who becomes cursed after being bitten by a werewolf.
Talbot is one of the definitive tragic heroes, a man who was only trying to save the life of a friend but ended up as an uncontrollable monster in the process. But despite this, a cheerfulness still remains in him keeping at least his human side restrained.
And once again the holy grail of makeup artist Jack Pierce comes in and transforms Chaney Jr. into an unrecognizable beast for a tragic finale. Chaney Jr. would be the only actor during the Universal horror era to reprise the same character for any and all sequels and spin-offs, though all of which he shared spotlight with at least one other monster.
This review of The Wolf Man (1941) was written by Nickie L on 26 Apr 2012.
The Wolf Man has generally received positive reviews.
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