Directed by George Waggner — Starring Lon Chaney Jr., Claude Rains, Evelyn Ankers, Bela Lugosi and Maria Ouspenskaya
After spending years in America, Larry Talbot returns to his family’s ancestral home in Wales. But a chance encounter with a wolf changes his life and leaves him struggling with a terrifying curse.
Next up in my Halloween series covering the classic Universal monster movies is The Wolf Man.
One of the first things that struck me was the cast. I knew Lon Chaney Jr. was playing the Wolf Man, but I wasn’t expecting to see Claude Rains and Bela Lugosi in supporting roles. Rains brings a certain weight and credibility to the movie as Larry’s father, Sir John Talbot. He’s got that formal, old-world presence that makes the family feel important.
Watching the opening of the film, I couldn’t help seeing the Talbots as an allegory for the British royal family. The way Sir John talks about lineage and succession. The older son’s death prompting an “heir and the spare” kind of dynamic. It made for a fun way to look at the film’s central aristocratic family.
The movie also has a strange mix of accents and settings. You have an English aristocratic family, American characters, Eastern European fortune tellers, and a village that sometimes feels like an English town and other times looks like it’s somewhere in the middle of Transylvania. It doesn’t always make sense, but I think you can overlook the inconsistencies and still enjoy all the atmosphere of the movie.
Chaney Jr. is a real standout. Larry has to be a lot of different things throughout the movie. He’s the prodigal son returning home, a confident man of action, and eventually someone who’s completely lost his footing. As the story progresses, he becomes increasingly confused and desperate, and Chaney does a terrific job moving between those different sides of the character. I always imagined this movie being a little more campy, but his performance gives it a surprising amount of pathos.
And then there’s the look of the movie. The forest sequences are terrific. The fog, the shadows, and the lighting create an atmosphere that’s almost dreamlike. I especially loved how they handle the transformation. Rather than showing us everything, the camera stays focused on Larry’s feet as they change. And when the Wolf Man makes his first attack, he’s largely hidden in the shadows. It’s a little like Jaws: sometimes what you don’t see is much more effective than what you do.
The entire sequence from the first transformation to Larry waking up the next morning is beautifully paced. The movie lets us experience the mystery and confusion right alongside him, and the aftermath is just as effective as the horror itself.
What surprised me most was how tragic the ending is. I knew things weren’t going to work out particularly well for Larry, but the final turn involving his father is genuinely effective.
The Wolf Man is much moodier than some of the other Universal horror films I’ve watched. There’s very little slapstick or comic relief to break up the atmosphere. It takes its monster and its tragedy seriously, and I found that made all the difference.
I had a really good time with this one. Chaney is terrific, the visuals are beautiful, and the atmosphere carries the movie from beginning to end.
Verdict: Cursed