The Werewolf (1956) Review

Tagline: “It happens before your horrified eyes!”

The Werewolf (1956) Review

 

How’s that for an original title? One of the very first werewolf films ever made, often cited as the first, was the silent short film from 1913 also called The Werewolf, but it’s considered a lost film because the only existing film reels burned up in the Universal Studios fire in 1924. Perhaps producer Sam Katzman (who also produced one of the best-worst giant monster movies ever, The Giant Claw) was paying tribute to the extinct granddaddy of werewolf cinema with the title of this one. Despite being made forty-three years apart, there are two things they have in common: this werewolf doesn’t need only a silver bullet to bring him down, and it doesn’t take a full moon to aid in his transformation, either, though the reason for the latter is vastly different.

The story begins with a stranger walking into a bar in a small town. He doesn’t know his name or if he’s from around these parts, and a thug confronts him outside and tries to take his money, but the stranger kills him in an alleyway and runs off. We don’t see him change into a werewolf, but a little old lady does, and unlike many other werewolf films, these townsfolk become convinced there is a real werewolf on the loose in no time flat. It’s kind of funny they’re so quick to believe it, but that also gets the story going quicker, which is appreciated. The man turns out to be the subject of experimentation from two evil doctors who are trying to create a serum that will allow people to survive a nuclear holocaust. Becoming a werewolf is, unfortunately, just one of the undesirable side effects.

The Werewolf, despite its generic title and bare bones storyline, fits in nicely with the 1950s atomic monster trend, linking this traditionally supernatural beast with the nuclear scares of the time. The irradiated werewolf (otherwise just a normal one) is on the run, but the man’s wife and son show up to identify him as Duncan Marsh; he had been in a car crash and mysteriously disappeared after the doctors found him. There’s not a lot of mystery to the story, nor is there much tension. The majority of scenes are melodramatic dialogue exchanges without a lot of energy, but the werewolf scenes are entertaining, though far and few between.

I didn’t expect a lot from this movie, but the werewolf itself, despite only appearing a few times, is probably among the best cinematic examples from this decade, which didn’t see many lycanthropic films released. If you liked seeing The Wolf Man traversing the foggy woods in the Universal classic, you might enjoy seeing this man-wolf roaming around the forests of Mountaincrest (real filming location: Big Bear Lake), though the woods themselves don’t have quite the same kind of style and gloom. The first time we see Duncan change into the creature the effect is done using the same technique as previous werewolf films, with lap dissolves as more makeup is added. I have to laugh at the first transformation, though, because unlike the older Universal films which took the time to painstakingly line up each transitional shot so the dissolves looked more like a live transition, they couldn’t even line up the dude’s eyes, and he has four eyeballs for a second as the image fades and changes. There are three transformations total, which is pretty ambitious for a low budget film. The makeup isn’t as bad as you might expect, but he does look a little like a drowned rat at times.

Though the violence is tame by today’s standards, in comparison to The Wolf Man from just over a decade earlier, this werewolf kills quite a few more people than Larry Talbot did in his premiere film, though it’s all kept off screen. The best scare is when the evil doctors break into the jail to inject Duncan (who has willingly gone there so he won’t hurt anyone else) and they turn him over in bed, expecting him to be asleep, but he’s already undergone the transformation, and then he kills them both. The funniest moment of all comes earlier, when the townsfolk are searching for the beast in a very cliché angry mob (they even have flaming torches later on) and a guy traps Duncan in a mineshaft. Duncan emerges having turned into the werewolf and another guy shoots at him, then the sheriff runs up to the guy and says, “Who told you to fire that shot?” to which he replies, “That creature up there!” as if he’s saying the werewolf itself told him to shoot it.

Though The Werewolf takes itself extremely seriously, it’s a pretty silly movie that’s unfortunately only punctuated by worthwhile moments amid many dry scenes of uninteresting characters talking. There’s some entertainment value thanks to the titular creature and the environment in which the film was shot, but I’d only recommend checking it out if you have a particular interest in this era of horror and don’t mind a more languid lycanthrope.