The Wolf Man (1941)

  True to my word, I had Rob watch this one with me on Friday while I was waiting for my car to be serviced.  It doesn't really stand up well any more, considering that the movie's idea of effects seemed to be gluing carpet to Lon Chaney's face, but my grandfather remembers when it first hit theaters and it scared the everloving bejeesus out of him so it clearly did well for its time.

Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney) comes back to his ancestral home in England after living in America.  His older brother (Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Film), the heir, has died and Larry's father (Claude Rains) now needs Larry to take over his hereditary duties.  Larry uses a telescope to spy on a hot blonde named Gwen (Evelyn Ankers) before strongarming her into going out with him.  She and her friend Jenny (Fay Helm) want to go and have their fortunes told by the local gypsies.  Jenny goes first but Bela the gypsy (Bela Lugosi) is a werewolf who promptly murders her.  Running to her aid, Larry attacks the wolf with his silver-topped walking stick and gets bitten.  The sheriff (Ralph Bellamy) and the doctor agree that Jenny was killed by some sort of animal but the only body they find is of Bela, bludgeoned to death.  Larry now faces a murder rap because nobody seems to believe that he beat a wolf to death and his bite has mysteriously healed overnight.  Of course, Larry then becomes a werewolf himself and starts murdering townsfolk.  Being a member of British aristocracy, he is less concerned about munching on the commoners until he sees the mark of his next victim (a star that appears on their palm) on lovely Gwen.

Times have changed since the 40's.  Holy crap.  I was born in the early 80's so I really don't have a lot of knowledge of day-to-day life back then that doesn't come from movies but if these are to be believed, people were just plain dumb.  The first major thing for me (and Rob) was how utterly creepy and stalkerish the character of Larry Talbot is, even before he turns into a man-beast.  He spies on Gwen, then goes to her job and asks her about a pair of earrings that are on her dresser upstairs.  He spins some line about being psychic about pretty girls and then tries to get her to go out with him.  She repeatedly says no and yet he still waits outside her shop for her to lock up for the evening then sneaks up behind her and announces he's ready for their date.  She giggles and gives in because it's cute that he's persistent.  Nowadays, she'd have maced him and called the cops.  But apparently date rape had yet to be invented in 1941. 

Later, Larry's dad argues with the cops over their interpretation of what happened the night Jenny was killed by saying "Clearly, Jenny was attacked by an animal.  Bela and Larry both went to help her and in the dark and confusion, Larry killed Bela."  His tone is completely dismissive of the fact that whether he was aware or not, his son killed a man.  He doesn't even argue that Larry didn't kill Bela.  He could not give less of a fuck about Bela being dead, just that it wasn't premeditated.  That's cold. 

Despite these hiccups, I still really like this movie as an example of how the werewolf franchise got off the ground.  It's got a solid performance from Claude Rains and features an incredibly young Ralph Bellamy.  If that name sounds familiar to you, that's probably because you saw it on a several credit lists in the 80's and 90's.  He was one of the two old, rich, douchey brothers from Trading Places and the old, rich, kindly guy trying to keep his company from being bought by Richard Gere in Pretty Woman.  If you've ever wondered what he looked like without all the wrinkles, grab a copy of The Wolf Man.