It’s only fitting, given Wolf Man was the worst movie I saw from the early months of this year that come Halloween I actually get around to watching the original film for the first time. Of course George Waggner’s The Wolf Man from 1941 is not quite the classic that Tod Browning’s Dracula or James Whale’s Frankenstein were -which set the standard for both monster movies and horror movies for a good few decades. Though unlike those, The Wolf Man had no literary source, and as a monster was an original creation. Curt Siodmak’s script is quite impressive, establishing well its unique setting and building a compelling lore that has become very standard for werewolf fiction. That stands out about the film where its rough-around-the-edges performances and effects leave it trailing its older brothers.
Well that of course and the make-up, which as with Frankenstein is remarkable in how effortlessly distinct it is, and much more elaborate than what Boris Karloff or his successors had to deal with. An instantly iconic look, if it doesn’t actually appear very frequently in the movie itself and is largely kept in the shadows when it does. It and the story beats almost seem to exist to make a movie iconic that otherwise doesn’t quite deserve to be. Elements that are in place as though purely for movies afterwards to take influence from, and so that it can stand next to them as the originator.
A part of this perhaps comes from the fact that the story just seems so simple -in a good, ubiquitous kind of way. It feels like it could derive from a nineteenth century novel like its elder brothers did. It is the story of Lawrence "Larry" Talbot, played by Lon Chaney Jr., who has returned from America to an ancestral estate in Wales to amend relations with his father in the wake of his brother's death. While there, he creeps on a woman Gwen (Evelyn Ankers) until she goes out with him, and after having their fortunes told one night, they are beset upon by a wolf that Larry kills, but not before being bitten by it. There is no wound however, casting suspicion on the story as through subsequent nights new mysterious wolf attacks follow.
The notion that Larry might be a werewolf actually comes up much sooner than I anticipated -I suppose Siodmak and Waggner figured the audience doesn't need the suspense for this foregone conclusion. But very soon after the incident, the Romani psychic conveys to him her belief he is now a werewolf, the one whom he killed having been her son -played by none other than Bela Lugosi. And though he takes some time to accept it, it is clear he knows the truth, arming not himself but Gwen with the silver charm that would protect against him. The film takes its time in showcasing the Wolf Man -in fact it is not until the climactic confrontation when we actually see him in full profile. It’s an interesting choice, given neither Dracula nor Frankenstein applied such an approach to their special effects and given Chaney’s father was notorious for his transformative ‘monster’ roles (“the Man of a Thousand Faces”), one would think that showcasing this creature would be a top priority. Waggner does make a few good choices of suspense with regards to this withholding technique, such as the iconic shot of paw prints on a floor gradually turning into footprints, and we do see bits of the effects manifesting on Larry’s feet before bed one night -and they are still genuinely pretty gnarly for the time. Overall though this movie doesn’t maintain an atmosphere or tension to justify keeping the Wolf Man himself obscure for so much of the runtime.
And it must be said that Chaney isn’t a particularly engaging actor and was likely cast in this role on the merits of his name recognition (the credits even remove the “Junior” from his name to more intentionally draw the link to his father). As the Wolf Man, covered under layers of make-up, he is a bit more interesting and energized in his expressions and movements -he really loved and took ownership of the character, the only actor of this era to reprise his role in every relevant entry of the monster movie cycle. But as Larry Talbot, he’s not charismatic enough to carry the drama of both his family issues and his terror of transformation. In every scene they share together he is upstaged by the great Claude Rains as his father -who even himself is underplaying a part supposedly tied in to family dysfunction (of course there is no explanation as to why with a British father and a home in Wales, Larry has after just a manner of years away an American accent). As far as other notable actors go, Patric Knowles is good-looking but insubstantial as Gwen’s fiancee whom Larry barely notices, and Ralph Bellamy, for an actor of his stature is wasted in the largely circumstantial role of a police captain joining in the hunt for the Wolf Man.
In spite of the dullness though of some of these characters and the movie’s slow burn pace apart from that, there is some reasonable suspense there -especially of a personal nature concerning Larry’s understanding of his new form. The lore plays a part here too, the unique way that werewolves propagate makes for a curious hook that hadn’t really been seen cinematically yet (there had been a prior Universal film, Werewolf of London, but it wasn’t particularly noteworthy). In a sense it could be considered an early body horror film, even if that side of the horror is only alluded to in a couple of scenes.
One place where Chaney does do modestly well is in the fear under his eyes as changes are happening -as well as in the context of his social ostracization, he and Gwen having been off together while the original Wolf Man mauled her friend, casting them as in some indirect way responsible for her death and suggesting an affair. That affair never materializes though, much as Larry’s romantic inclinations are clear. The Hayes Code was a much more powerful force at this time than when Dracula and Frankenstein had been made and Gwen is engaged -she cannot be made into an adulterer, but because Larry is the monster and doomed he can have such licentious feelings towards her. And when he as the Wolf Man targets her, the evocation is very much King Kong-like in nature. It’s worth noting this is the first Universal monster movie in which the monster is fixated on or attempts to abduct an attractive young woman out of some apparent sense of sexual attraction -something that had been a staple of the “monster” characters his father had played in The Phantom of the Opera and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. It is one of the things that humanizes Larry in his wolf form, allows the story another beat of tragedy.
And the make-up then is what keeps the Wolf Man at arms’ length. It was a benchmark for the Universal series -they hadn’t produced a monster movie with prosthetic effects quite this elaborate before, where you couldn’t recognize an actor beneath it all. It was a laborious process for Chaney -hours in a make-up chair, and you can get a sense of that in the movie’s final moments where it all dissolves slowly off of Larry’s body. But it was worth it. If people had been formerly so frightened of Karloff’s appearance as Frankenstein’s monster, this creature with a snout and mandibles, sharp ears and sharper claws, and of course excess fur, did look positively inhuman, and even for his brief exposure here leaves an impression. It is creative work for what resources they had at the time, and though not as iconic as the character’s peers, this version of the Wolf Man still has a significant place in cinema history.
This movie does too, much as it doesn’t quite live up to that significance. It’s got the bones of a classic story, yet even though it is original it feels like a mediocre adaptation of a core text. The execution isn’t quite there in a lot of places, from the underpinning drama of Larry and his family to the performances and the pacing. The handful of beats that have passed down in subsequent werewolf movies or parodies are striking though. And in its resolution there is something potently tragic in a way very different from say the Frankenstein films. Larry Talbot is just about robbed of his agency entirely in an ignoble death that even his father isn’t so shaken by. In any case this Wolf Man is certainly a preferable film to its modern reboot this year (and potentially, though I haven’t seen it, it’s Joe Johnston-directed remake from fifteen years ago). It stands alone, its effects are intriguing and its effect on the horror genre speaks for itself.
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