THE WEREWOLF (1956)

Director: Fred F. Sears

Writers: Robert E. Kent, James B. Gordon

Producer: Sam Katzman

Cast: Steven Ritch, Don Megowan, Joyce Holden, Harry Lauter, Ken Christy, George Lynn, S. John Launer, Eleanore Tanin, Kim Charney, Marjorie Stapp, Larry J. Blake, Charles Horvath, James Gavin, Jean Harvey, George Cisar, Jean Charney, Don C. Harvey, Ford Stevens

A stranger (Steven Ritch) with amnesia arrives in the small town of Mountaincrest. When someone (Charles Horvath) tries to mug him, the stranger savagely kills his attacker and runs off into the forested hills. A witness (Jean Harvey) describes the killer as something inhuman, as does the sheriff’s deputy (Harry Lauter) who is later attacked. Soon rumors spread about a werewolf at large. In a nearby town are two doctors (George Lynn and S. John Launer) that experimented on a car crash victim named Duncan Marsh. Marsh is the werewolf killer and the doctors are responsible for his monstrous condition. The doctors head to Mountaincrest to kill Marsh before their secret is exposed.

The Flashback Fanatic movie review  

The Mad Monster (1942) is a much earlier movie that also had mad science create a werewolf, but The Werewolf is a much better film and apparently more influential. It no doubt inspired more sci-fi takes on classic monsters such as I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957) and The Vampire (1957). The idea of a man that transforms into a monster when angered or stressed was also probably a key influence for Stan Lee and Jack Kirby when they created the classic '60s Marvel Comics character The Incredible Hulk.

Director Fred F. Sears has made a fine little chiller that uses its winter locations of the little mountain town and its surrounding hills and forests to establish the environments of man and of the beast they are hunting. The opening nighttime shot down a small town street as the lone figure of Duncan Marsh approaches while the voiceover (director Sears) tells us about the worldwide history of lycanthropy is simple, direct, and provocative. A couple of kills are nicely staged suggesting more effectively than showing the grisly details of the werewolf’s violence. It’s hard to believe that this director, also responsible for this movie’s exciting co-feature, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956), made the extraterrestrial terror turkey The Giant Claw (1957). Proof positive that the script is the most important element in a film.

The Werewolf is a story as simple and direct as its title. It is only concerned with presenting a scary and tragic situation in a small town. Its novelty lies in the idea that a science experiment, rather than the supernatural, is responsible for this monster. Fortunately, for the sake of horror buffs, the renegade scientists opted to use wolves they exposed to radiation from which to derive their anti-radiation mutation serum. The Wereguinea Pig is a title that just doesn’t grab you.

There are good performances all around. Steven Ritch, as the family man-turned-werewolf Duncan Marsh, earns our sympathy in his very first scene. When his wife (Eleanore Tanin) and kid (Kim Charney) arrive his plight becomes even more miserable. All three of them show the kind of distress this horrible situation would bring to any family. Big Don Megowan, as Sheriff Jack Haines, is just right as the kind of guy that should be in charge. He’s a practical and decent sort that leaves the swagger behind and is open to advice if it makes sense. He cares about trying to do the right thing. His rapport with nurse Amy Standish (Joyce Holden) is nice. They are both already romantically involved and have an easy comfort with each other; we are not going through boy-meets-girl shenanigans that a lot of sci-fi films distract us with.

As a kid, I used to implore my dad to wake me up late Friday nights so I could watch the locally televised horror movies. Many nights I would brush off the prompting by my father, as he tried to get my dead-to-the-world little ass out of bed, and immediately fall back to sleep. Of course, the next morning I would reprimand Dad for not being more persistent trying to rouse me. If memory serves my besotted brain after all these years, The Werewolf was perhaps the first time that he could actually wake me up in time to see a much anticipated midnight fright flick. The movie did not disappoint, and I was well on my way to being a lifelong horror junkie. In another lapse of judgment, Dad also taught me how to make a vodka martini. Because of these two vices, I no longer have any taste or self-control, so you are now dealing with my obsessive outbursts. Like many serial offenders, I’ll just blame it all on the old man.