The Werewolf

Poster tagline: THE HORROR OF ALL MANKIND TERRIFIES THE SCREEN!! SCIENTISTS TURN MEN INTO BEASTS!! YOU SEE IT HAPPENING!! First of all, I have to applaud the producers' decision to replace the contrived studio sets with the real natural scenery of the Montana mountains. The pine forests and here and there the last remnants of snow look very nice in black and white. It's a pity that what starts as a likeable horror film turns into a weepy melodrama towards the end. If only there was a better director behind the camera than Freddy Sears, creator of the most ridiculous monster in the history of cinema (yes, that punk giant bird in The Giant Claw), maybe I can think of a Jack Arnold; if he had made it, it could be a classic today, because obviously no expense was spared, and the werewolf make-up is very nice. The reason that the film fell into oblivion is also due to the fact that in the 1950s there was simply no interest in the werewolf theme anymore (cinemas were dominated by UFOs and radioactive mutated monsters), and the days when Lone Chaney used to run around in a werewolf mask in classic Universal horror films were over. The filmmakers tried to keep up with the times, as the local werewolf mutations were caused by radioactive injections, but otherwise they were a good ten or fifteen years too late thematically. Which I don't give a toss about. It’s a shame, without the poorly acted character of the expressively sobbing wife, I would have given a pleasant 4*. (07.06.2018)