WOLFMAN LEGACY DVD SET Review by Rod Barnett

Many fans of the genre have looked down upon the Universal horror films
produced in the 1940's for decades. The often-stated opinion is that
after 1939's SON OF FRANKENSTEIN there really wasn't any 'greatness' in
the Universal monster movies. I have always considered that to be an
amazingly narrow way of looking at the films of the 40's and the fact
that this perception hangs on is sad. I think these opinions are rooted
more in wanting to champion the best of the lot at the expense of the
rest than in serious consideration of the movies themselves. What I hear
in a lot of the criticism of the WWII era films are fans trying to
justify their love of monster movies to people that think of them as
silly nonsense. Fans might think that by segmenting off the later films
as unworthy of praise the earlier classics could look more prestigious.
This is ridiculous! While I'll gladly admit that SHE WOLF OF LONDON isn't
an example of Universal at its peak, dismissing FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE
WOLFMAN or THE MUMMY'S HAND automatically is simply ludicrous. These
films have merits that allow them to be compared very favorably to their
1930's predecessors. Among their best elements is their
sometimes-overlooked creativity in bringing our beloved monsters back
from the grave and their sheer fun as entertainments. But the decade's
most lasting addition to the horror pantheon has to be the creation of
The Wolfman. Easily one of the most enduring monsters of all time and a
natural outgrowth of the monster film cycle and more importantly the
conflicted human psyche. What young man hasn't had that frightening
feeling of change sweep over him at the sight of pretty face or
well-turned leg? Don't most young men (and women as well) find the
thought of their own animal side to be terrifying? The Wolfman remains a
classic character because we see so much of ourselves in his tragic tale.
We might fear Dracula or pity Frankenstein's monster but we KNOW the
Wolfman. In the tale of Larry Talbot we have met the monster and it's the
shocked reflection in the mirror.

After taking their original DVD releases out of print a couple of years
ago Universal has finally re-released a number of their classic monster
films in nice sets centered around each of the three primary creatures.
This has allowed Universal's video department to correct some mistakes on
the first releases and also give us a few more gems from their beloved
cycle of horror movies. In the WOLFMAN set there are 4 movies starting
with 1941's excellent THE WOLFMAN, continuing with the sequel
FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN and adding, almost as an afterthought,
WEREWOLF OF LONDON and SHE-WOLF OF LONDON.
In the case of WEREWOLF OF LONDON this secondary status is
too bad since as Universal's first Lycanthrope story it should have had
a more honored place in monster history.

THE WOLFMAN starts with Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney, Jr.) returning home to
the Talbot Estate in Wales. He moved to America many years before to make
his own way in the world because as the second son he couldn't inherit
the family wealth. The accidental death of his older brother has thrust
him into the role of eventual Lord and his return is met with genuine
happiness from his father (Claude Rains). Soon after his homecoming Larry
begins courting the lovely Gwen Conliff (Evelyn Ankers) and during a
visit to a traveling gypsy camp Gwen's friend Jenny is attacked and
killed by what looks like a huge wolf. Larry rushes to help and beats the
wolf to death with his newly bought silver-headed cane but is injured in
the struggle. When the corpse at the scene turns out to be the gypsy Bela
(Bela Lugosi) rationalizations are made and the absence of the wolf is
brushed aside. But soon, true to gypsy Malvea's warnings, Larry is
turning into a werewolf and stalking the countryside at night. As Larry
begins to understand his horrible curse he searches for an escape but
will he kill those he loves before he can be stopped?

A great film from beginning to end THE WOLFMAN is far from perfect but it
stands up wonderfully more than 60 years later. A great cast acquits
themselves well and the story moves along quickly (maybe too quickly to
be truthful). On watching this film for the umpteenth time I found only
one element distracting me and I have to admit it may be worse for some
other viewers. I find Chaney's performance a little too stagy and stilted
most of the time. Too often it seems like everyone else is acting while
Lon is ACTING! Maybe I'm too sensitive to this one thing but it really
bugs me especially when I think about how much I like his often maligned
and under-rated performance in SON OF DRACULA. At any rate, this is a
fine monster film and its Greek tragedy structure is classic and classy
adding emotion to a strong story.

Two years later the scriptwriter of THE WOLFMAN Curt Siodmak came up with
an excellent idea that managed to spawn monster rallies for years to
come. FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN opens with a fantastic creepy
sequence in which two grave robbers accidentally bring the four years
dead Talbot back to life under the full moon. Finding himself in the same
situation as before he despairs until he hits on the idea that if Dr.
Frankenstein knew how to reanimate the dead he could surely find a way to
end his life. Traveling to Europe he seeks out the gypsy woman Malvea and
with her help goes to Vasaria to find the Doctor. Here he finds that the
good Doctor is long dead but in the castle's ruins he stumbles across the
still living Frankenstein monster (Bela Lugosi). Larry prevails upon
Frankenstein's daughter (Ilona Massey) to help and she leads him to
Frankenstein's diary. With these notes on life and death he convinces Dr.
Mannering (Patric Knowles) to use the forbidden knowledge to drain
Talbot's life energy off to hopefully kill him. But once Mannering has
Frankenstein's monster and the Wolfman strapped down he can't resist the
chance to see them at full strength, precipitating the monster brawl
everyone came to see! As a sequel to both GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN and THE
WOLFMAN this movie brings the supernatural and scientific strings of
Universal horror together for the first time and to great effect.

While this will never be thought of as the best in the series it's a very good,
consistently enjoyable movie and is one of my all time favorites. The
story is engaging and fun with Talbot's quest to end his life managing to
retain it's tragic tone. The dialog and acting is very good even though
this film began the constant refrain of Wolfman dialog "You don't
understand! I turn into a wolf!" that became so repeated in subsequent
films that it would become hard not to chuckle when it was trotted out.
In this film I find Chaney doing a much better job than in the original
and the transformation effects are even sharper. My biggest complaint is
the one echoed for decades by fans- the climactic fight is far too short.
I'm also not happy with the elimination of the Monster's dialog and the
explanation for his awkward movements that was cut out of the film at the
last minute back in 43. I still dream of some lucky person turning up this
cut footage someday the way others hope for a print of LONDON AFTER
MIDNIGHT to be discovered. Anyone interested in this excised footage
should check out the original shooting script published by MagicImage
Filmbooks few years ago. It's an eye-opening look at the film that might
have been. To follow the further adventures of Larry Talbot and his
cursed life you'll have to seek out Frankenstein and Dracula Legacy DVD
sets.

WEREWOLF OF LONDON tells a very different lycanthropic tale. Henry Hull
plays William Glendon, a botanist who as the film begins is searching
Tibet for the rare Marifasa Lupina flower that only blooms under
moonlight. But after finding the plant he is attacked by a beastly
man-sized creature and wounded. Glendon returns home to England and while
trying to get the Marafasa to bloom under artificial moonlight he is
visited by Dr. Yogami (Warner Oland). Yogami carefully tells Glendon that
he knows of his injury and of the Marafasa properties as the only know
antidote for werewolfery and Glendon scoffs at this foolishness. But
later, when he notices his hand unnaturally change under the artificial
moonlight, he uses the plant's sap to stop the change. That night his
doubts are erased when he changes into a ravening man-beast and kills a
woman on the streets of the city. Realizing that Yogami is correct and
that when he changes he desires to kill the "thing that he loves best".
Glendon tries to force the Marafasa to bloom rapidly to hold off his
murderous desires. But Dr. Yogami is afflicted with the curse as well and
desperately steals the blooms to hold off his own transformation.

WEREWOLF OF LONDON is a good little monster film and it's a shame that no
attempt was ever made to craft a sequel. The film was not as well
received as later movies in the cycle and there seems to be one reason
that stands out to explain this. There are almost no likable characters
in the film! Nearly everyone is a mean tempered, testy ass including a
pair of gin soaked old ladies who spend their screen time gleefully
knocking the hell out of each other! Even some of the characters that
aren't mean are simply irritating, causing me at one point to be
disappointed that the werewolf didn't rip out one woman's throat. I don't
want to give the impression that I don't like the movie, but the meanness
of the characters colors everything in the film and really may have had
some effect on its reception at the time. There are really only two
likeable folks in the tale and this makes it pretty easy to know who'll
survive to the end credits. The real misstep is in making Glendon such a
cruel person that his metamorphosis into a hairy beast isn't too much of
a personality stretch. The transformation isn't so much a change as an
extension of tendencies already evidenced in how he treats everyone
around him. Still, WEREWOLF OF LONDON is a fascinating, entertaining film
that I hope more people will now finally see. Over the years I find
myself returning to it because it is such a different type of werewolf
tale and it's cast of non-audience friendly characters mesmerize me.

Finishing off the set is SHE-WOLF OF LONDON (1946). As alluded to
earlier, this is the least of the collection and has few points of
interest for monster fans. The film's story is set in the early 20th
century and follows young heiress Phyllis Allenby (June Lockhart) who is
beginning to fear that the legendary family wolf curse is falling on her
head. This Allenby curse was supposedly responsible for her parent's
deaths and the possibility of Phyllis turning into a She-Wolf at night is
seeming more possible as reports of vicious murders in a nearby London
park become almost daily news. Of course, any half-savvy viewer will
realize quickly that the Aunt Martha (Sara Haden) is up to no good and her
pack of ill-tempered dogs are the most likely culprits. It doesn't help
that the film telegraphs this by having Aunt Martha explain to her
daughter 10 minutes into the film exactly why it would not be a good
idea for Phyllis to get married to her paramour as it would leave them
penniless. It seems that Aunt Martha isn't really related to the Allenby
family but is simply a (too) trusted servant who's been sponging off the
girl's wealth since her parents death. The film lurches along with a
Scotland Yard detective deciding on the flimsiest of evidence that a
werewolf is involved and then being murdered in the foggy park for his
trouble. Of course, there is nothing supernatural going on and the film
wraps up just as any modern watcher will anticipate with a full gleeful
confession from the culprit complete with mild scenery chewing.

Not a film to delight monster film fans or melodrama fans either SHE-WOLF OF
LONDON is a dismal affair with only some nice photography, pretty sets
and the beautiful Miss Lockhart to distract from its obvious
deficiencies. No attempt to explain the Allenby curse or to give its
details is made which only adds to the arbitrary feel of the mysterious
elements of the story. It's a slapdash effort that even at an hour
running time feels far too long. I wish they could have found a reason to
include Lon Chaney's MAN MADE MONSTER in the set instead, but I guess
when you call it The Wolfman Legacy you gotta stick to your guns whether
the films stink or not.

One of the first things to be said about the WOLFMAN LEGACY DVD set is
that the menu pages could have been better designed. It appears that the
idea was to remind the viewer whenever possible that there are several
films available, but it's nothing but frustrating to click on a feature
only to be told that it's on another disc. It would have been much better
to have the individual menu pages only display the contents of that
particular DVD. It's not as if we don't know what's in the set. We bought
the thing BECAUSE it has several movies and lots of extras! The back of
the case tells us where each of the movies are and on which side as well,
so the cluttered menus are pointless. Also, as far as I'm concerned, the
material on the three sides could have been much better grouped. Maybe
the idea was to maximize the DVD bit-rate but there seems to be little
reason to have the excellent documentary MONSTER BY MOONLIGHT stuck on
the disc with WEREWOLF OF LONDON when its main focus is on THE WOLFMAN.
But maybe I should stop complaining and just be glad these films are
available. I am very grateful that the documentary was carried over from
the previous WOLFMAN DVD and I recommend it strongly to any fans that've
not yet seen it. Also, Tom Weaver's amazing commentary track for THE
WOLFMAN is here as well and it's great at giving a monster fan more
information than you would think could be crammed into 70 minutes. I just
wish he could also have done a track for FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN
pointing out where footage was removed, detailing the production and
relating tales of Lugosi and Chaney working together. I can dream, can't
I?

The films all look very good with the expected occasional scratch and
blemish. To me they look and sound better than in previous releases so I
can comfortable get rid of my old Laser Discs now especially as they've
included the trailers for the films on this set as well. Overall this is
a must own set for monster fans and with the retail price being so low I
can't imagine anyone complaining about the value being offered. Let's all
hope Universal will now do some more themed DVD sets and maybe center
them on their various horror stars. Anybody else like to see a
Karloff/Lugosi set bringing together THE BLACK CAT, THE RAVEN, THE
INVISIBLE RAY and BLACK FRIDAY?