#film:the wolf man

[365days365movies]

Horror October IV: The Wolf Man (1941) - Recap: Part Two

By the way, I love actual wolves, just to be clear.

In that first part, I was talking about man’s historical perception of wolves, so I put them in a necessarily negative light. But, uh, wolves fuggin’ rule, guys. Don’t know if you’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting a wolf, but I have. And I love them a lot. Now, would I want to meet one in the wild with all of its friends? Um...no. I enjoy living. But they’re extremely important for the environment, and they’re still in desperate need of conservation and of a better rap.

The reputation that wolves have been assigned in folklore is overwhelmingly negative, and that damaged their real-world numbers as well. While they were competitors for some of the same resources that we gathered in droves, and while they did attack humans relatively frequently in Europe, that wasn’t enough cause for what happened to them.

Frequent hunting and habitat destruction led to the extirpation of the gray wolf in most of Central Europe, and essentially all of Western Europe. The North American populations suffered a similar fate, with their populations suffering from the expansion of agriculture, and with the depletion of prey species like the American bison. Eventually, we’d almost completely extirpated them from the contiguous United States, with hold out populations in national parks and smaller refuges. 

But since the 1970s, conservation efforts worldwide have allowed populations to be on the rebound. They’re being reintroduced in the United States, their populations are spreading back into central Europe, and conservation centers and captive breeding programs in zoos have allowed a robust population that can be (and has been) used to supplement the genetics of wild populations of the species. Plus, even the wolf’s reputation culturally has made a turnaround!

For a while, wolves in media have had some positive representation. Even the Romans had Romulus and Remus, while Rudyard Kipling brought in a pack of Indian wolves (Canis lupus pallipes) to raise Mowgli. The social nature of the wolves has long been associated with our societies, so a kinship has popped up over the centuries. 

Reinterpretation has even changed some of the negative depictions of wolves into, at the very least, neutral depictions. One of my favorite orchestral compositions is Peter and the Wolf, by Sergei Prokofiev. Does that make me a basic classical bitch? Yeah, it doesn, but do I care? No, I don’t because it fucking SLAPS. Anyway, in the (EXCELLENT) 2006 stop motion animated film set to the  composition, the wolf is painted in a purely neutral light. How does it end? WATCH IT. Seriously, watch this excellent short film RIGHT HERE. It’s stellar.

And that positive reinterpretation isn’t limited to wolves, surprisingly. Werewolves have also been getting a positive rap in recent films! Far be it from me to praise the Twilight franchise, but...I mean, yeah, werewolves are in it, and they aren’t bloodthirsty monsters. I mean, yeah, Jacob literally falls in love WITH A FUCKING BABY, and that’s goddamn disgusting, but whatever. But if I’m gonna praise positive representation of werewolves, well, fuck Twilight, frankly.

Wolfwalkers, based on the actual legend of the Werewolves of Ossory, is genuinely one of my favorite movies from 2020. I only watched it this year for the first time, but I’m 100% watching it again. It’s gorgeous, it’s touching, it’s a Cartoon Saloon movie, and it’s a look at a real and classical version of the werewolf. If you haven’t seen this movie, you absolutely need to watch it. And if you HAVE seen it, and want to know my full thoughts, check out my recap and review on it (Part One | Part Two | Review)!

Anyway, enough about that. Just wanted to inject a little positivity into talking about wolves (and werewolves). I genuinely love wolves, and I refuse to be a part of promoting negative stereotypes about them or any other animals. Except grey squirrels. They’re absolute DICKS.

YEAH YOU FUCKIN’ MOOCH STOPEATINGMYBIRDSEED

...Check out Part One if you want to!

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Recap: Part Two

So, Larry’s a werewolf now. He immediately kills a gravedigger, like you do, and howls to let people know they’re fucked. The police realize that it’s a wolf that’s killed them, and Larry wakes up the next morning not understanding what’s happened. He asks his seven-years-older father what this whole werewolf thing is about, despite the fact that Maleva JUST TOLD HIM that shit.

Larry’s clearly a little freaked about a few things, and he doesn’t hide it well. They go to church, where Jenny’s mom and the local gossip mill spread rumors about the wolf, and about Larry. However, he’s unable to enter the church fully, and leaves prematurely. Colonel Montford, with a print from the wolf, decides to send the print to Scotland Yard, proving once and for all that this town composed of 99% AMERICAN PEOPLE is SOMEHOW IN THE UK. Guys...come ON.

The cops decide to set traps, as Larry insists that it’s a WEREwolf they’re hunting. The doctor thinks he’s nuts, and nobody pays attention. And sure enough, he gets caught in a bear trap. He’s found by Maleva, who says a prayer over him that dispels the werewolf curse temporarily. He’s freed from the trap, and he escapes through the wood, telling the nearby cops that he’s also hunting for the wolf.

Larry’s now certain that he’s a werewolf, but instead of taking the fuck off FOREVER, he immediately goes to Gwen to tell her that she’s leaving forever. He sees a pentagram on her hand, meaning that she will be his next victim, just as Bela saw it on Jenny’s hand. He takes off, then runs to his father, who obviously believes none of this shit. He believes that Maleva’s filled his head with nonsense, and is driving him mad. However, in order to prevent his son from going to the cops, he ties him to a chair, for his own good, and so he can see that nothing will happen.

Sir John heads out to join in the hunt, where he is met by Maleva. He tries to tell her off, only to hurry back to the stand when he hears gunshots, worried that the werewolf is in fact his poor son. And indeed, Larry’s escaped the hunters, now in the form of a werewolf. Unfortunately, Gwen’s ALSO in the woods looking for him, and Larry quickly finds her.

The Wolf Man attacks Gwen, but Sir John catches up, beating him to death with Larry’s silver cane. And as the werewolf dies, Maleva catches up and says the prayer that dulls the curse, causing him to turn back into human Larry. Gwen lives in the end, and Larry lies dead at Sir John’s hands. And with that...you guessed it.

These sudden endings, man. See you in the Review!

[365days365movies]

Horror October IV: The Wolf Man (1941) - Recap: Part One

It’s a full moon on Tumblr tonight.

The full moon’s light has long been a subject of fascination for mankind. Gods and monsters alike fuel or depend upon the lunar cycle, according to mythologies across the globe. Why? The Sun is brighter, and moonlight is literally just sunlight regardless. Well, of all the questions I’ve ever asked on this blog, that may be the easiest to answer. The Moon, after all is a beacon in the darkness.

The light of a full moon brightens up the gloomy black night, and allows us to find our way through the perilous wilds. But we aren’t the only ones who depend upon its light to survive in the shadowy wood. After all, light only accentuates the shadows, and those shadows have bred a terrifying monster in folklore. For a great danger lurks amongst the trees. And on the winds, their ghostly howls sail nightly, spreading out over the landscape like a blanket of peril.

Wolves: one of man’s oldest rivals.

We have a complicated relationship with the wolf, especially the gray wolf (Canis lupus). Native to Eurasia and North America, much of our species’ early development was accompanied by the wolf. A social predator like ourselves, wolves were our chief competitors, and we were theirs. And, since ecology was our driving force back then, that led to intraspecific competition between man and wolf. Ever since, this wild canine has pervaded our cultural consciousness.

This was definitely helped by European folklore, amongst the most widespread folklore globally, and teeming with the danger of our forested opponents. In Norse mythology, the giant wolf Fenris will help to end the world. A boy learns not to lie in Aesop’s tales, when he is swallowed alive by a wolf. And the Brothers Grimm immortalize the Big Bad Wolf as arguably the greatest fairy tale villain, watching on with hungry, glowing eyes.

And yet, the power and light of the moon has birthed an even more foul and terrifying enemy. As we saw the wolf as nature’s most powerful warrior, some people took on the visage of wolves in battle. But folklore took this a step further, and asked a question: what if man and wolf became one being? 

The Ancient Greeks posed that question, as did those who came before and after them. This man-becomes-wolf story was often a punishment from the gods, or from nature itself. Christianity came into Europe, and blamed pagan belief and curses for inflicting this upon men. The source turned from manmade to natural, and the victims from warriors to the innocent. Now, under the light of a full moon, an innocent man could become a violent, hungry monster. 

And thus, the legend of the werewolf is born.

Werewolves, or lycanthropes, have multiple cultural sources, and their associated tropes are numerous. However, since 15th century witch trials in France, a few things have remained the same. Usually, they’re associated with magic (especially non-Christian and pagan sources; read a lot into that, honestly). A werewolf bites and bestows the curse upon someone, usually innocent (and usually male, weirdly), and they would “transform” under the light of a full moon. And of course, they’re injured by silver, which wasn't “figured out” until the 1800s.

I say “transform” in quotes up there because some people accused of being werewolves in real life were most likely either mentally ill, or (more likely) high as BALLS on a fungal rot called ergot. Basically, some guys ate forest acid and ran around on all fours, and werewolves exist now. That’s a gross oversimplification, but you get the general idea.

This wasn’t exactly made better by the fact that wolf attacks were fairly commonplace in Europe at the time. Legendarily, the Beast of Gévaudan killed about FIVE HUNDRED people from 1764-1767, and was thought by many to be a werewolf. To this day, we have NO IDEA what it actually was, but many historians believed that it was a wolf or population of wolves living in the area, although there are other possibilities as well.

In any case, the werewolf myth was alive and well, until eventually drifting its way into fiction and monster stories. And then, of course, the 20th century roles around, and the art of film comes to prominence. And while vampires and Frankenstein’s monster made it to film first, the werewolf got its day right after them, in a silent 1913 film called...well, The Werewolf.

While the film itself is now lost, more came soon after it, and the werewolf hit it kinda big with Universal’s 1935 film Werewolf in London. This movie was on the relative heels of Frankenstein and Dracula, but it honestly wasn’t very successful. It would take another 6 years for the werewolf to make bank at the box office. That would be with legendary character actor Lon Chaney, Jr. at the wheel as the titular monster, The Wolf Man.

And that, I think is a good place to start this movie!

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Recap: Part One

We begin in the same way your high school teacher told you not to start essays: with a dictionary definition. In this case, we define the term lycanthropy for the audience, and learn that sightings have been seen in a village near Talbot Castle. We then cut to Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.), being driven home to said Talbot Castle.

Larry meets his father, Sir. John Talbot (Claude Rains), as well as his old childhood friend Colonel Paul Montford (Ralph Bellamy). Apparently, Paul and Larry both have American accents, while Sir Talbot is British. I don’t know if this takes place in the UK or in the USA, but given that Paul is a constable, and they’re in a GODDAMN CASTLE...this is weird. Yeah, that about covers it.

Anyway, Larry is here after many years of being estranged from his father, who is...seven years older than him. The casting here is weirdly inconsistent. Anyway, Larry’s brother John has recently died in a hunting accident, bringing the prodigal son back home. He and his father reconcile, spending some time fixing a powerful telescope mounted in the castle. And, of course, Larry can’t resist using it to spy on a woman in the village below.

Said woman is Gwen Conliffe (Evelyn Ankers), our inevitable love-interest of the evening. He immediately goes there and IMMEDIATELY creeps her out by admitting that he’s been fucking spying on her. And because it’s the 1940s, it fucking WORKS one her somehow. What woman doesn’t love a peeping Tom, after all. She replies by showing him a few interesting canes, including a silver-topped cane with a wolf ornament. Foreshadowing, we meet again.

True to 1940s form, he asks her on a date. She refuses, twice. He says he’ll meet her at 8. Typical. Also, extremely problematic, but we have other things to deal with right now. Larry returns home, and speaks with his father about werewolves before heading back out to meet Gwen. She AGAIN tells him no, but he again ignores that. And somehow, this results in Gwen introducing him to her friend, Jenny Williams (Fay Helms), and he goes on a walk with BOTH of them. Goddamn it, 1941.

The three walk through the woods, on their way to meet a fortune teller in the forest, because that’s what you do on a Saturday night. They walk past a patch of wolfsbane, and Jenny repeats a rhyme about werewolves that Gwen had said earlier. 

Even a man who is pure in heart, And says his prayers by night, May become a wolf when the wolfsbane blooms And the autumn moon is bright.

This is a werewolf-loving town, I guess. They drop Jenny off at the house of the fortune-teller, Bela (Bela Lugosi), who...huh. Apparently, Bela Lugosi’s in this movie! He reads her palm after the two have left, and finds...

Well, shit. That’s not great, probably. The fortune teller tells Jenny to get out of there, and a terrified Jenny runs into the woods, followed by the howling of wolves. The fortune teller’s acting strange, so Imma call it: he’s a werewolf. Meanwhile, Larry and Gwen are flirting by a tree, even though Gwen’s engaged, which Larry sees as a minor inconvenience, the douche. They’re interrupted by Jenny���s screams.

Larry finds her being attacked by a very good boy. Yeah, it’s supposed to be a wolf, but it’s clearly a dog looking for treats in Jenny’s pocket, and I love him. Larry wrestles with the wolf and kills him with his cane, but not before being bitten on the chest. So, yeah, it’s werewolf time for good old creepy Larry.

With the help of the fortune-teller’s wife, Maleva (Maria Ouspenskaya), Larry is bought back home. It’s revealed by Montford’s assistant Twiddle (Forrester Harvey) that Jenny is dead, killed by the wolf. Looks like the body of Bela is also dead from blows with a sharp instrument. Specifically, it’s the silver-handled cane that Larry used to beat the werewolf with. Foreshadowing...I see you there, hiding in the corner. You’re gonna have to come out soon.

The next morning, Larry is seen by Dr. Lloyd (Warren William), and appears to be entirely fine. They reveal that Bela was found dead, with your stick by the body. However, Larry is confused, as all he saw there was a...look, Bela’s the werewolf, OK. And now, it’s gonna be Larry. The bite wound from the wolf is gone, and everybody thinks he’s crazy as a result. But, again...werewolf. You’d think people in a werewolf crazy town would’ve figured that out by now.

Bela is buried, and Larry leaves in order to see the body of Bela. Maleva is there to say a non-Christian prayer over his body, which incenses the local priest. Larry watches on from the shadows, and waits until she leaves to see Bela’s body herself. He then heads to Gwen’s to pay his respects to her after what happened to her friend, only to see Jenny’s mother verbally assaulting her father, blaming Jenny and her indiscretions for causing the death of her daughter. Larry fends them off, and goes in to meet Gwen, as well as her fiancée, Frank Andrews (Patric Knowles).

After Frank’s dog incessantly barks at him, Larry leaves, and Frank warns Gwen to be careful around him, as he senses something tragic about him. That night, though, the couple heads to a carnival being held by a traveling group of Romani, and invites Larry to come along. After an interesting scene involving a shooting game with a fake wolf, which Larry is unable to shoot, he leaves and encounters Maleva behind the caravan.

That’s when Maleva lays it all out: Bela was a werewolf, now Larry’s a werewolf, only silver can stop werewolves forever, the pentagram is the sign of the werewolf, and she gives Larry a charm to protect him from his own curse. Damn; speedy exposition in 2 minutes.

Just then, word spreads through the camp, and the Romani pack up and take OFF. Larry, thinking he won’t need the charm, gives it to Jenny for her protection. He pauses by a tree and has a feverish series of visions, seemingly of the future where he will attack Gwen. He quickly gets home, and notices that he’s begun to grow more hair on his arms and legs. His voice has also started to change, and he’s starting to feel funny around girls. And then things get weird...

Good place to pause! See you in Part 2!