#the werewolf 1956

[weirdlookindog]

The Werewolf (1956)

16mm frames

[frankendavis]

Number five of seven of my Rockwell parodies.

[ronmerchant]

RODAN (1956), WEREWOLF IN A GIRL'S DORMTORY (1961),CORRIDORS OF BLOOD (1958), and TOWER OF LONDON (1962)

[lostcryptids]

What would you say are some of your favorite 1950s and 1960s horror flicks, I am curious? :3c

Sure I would love to share!!

Mr. Sardonicus (1961): My favorite william castle film A Bucket of Blood (1959): A great comedy/horror that focuses more on the horror over the comedy elements, though it's tongue in cheek. filmed on some of the same sets as little shop of horrors. House On Haunted Hill (1959): A great vincent price movie, good one to start with too if you haven't seen his work before. Very atmospheric The Fly (1958): One of my favorite monster science fiction horror films. Have seen all the sequels as well though this is the best. Great ending as well House of Wax (1953): Another favorite Price role Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956): A near perfect science fiction horror film of the 50s, though the changed ending to be happier makes me a bit upset. Still an amazing film The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962): Classic B movie with some surprisingly brutal effects at times near the finale Peeping Tom (1960): Amazing serial killer movie that focuses a lot on the mind of the killer. Love how it's filmed as well it's a very unique film Some more I like: Village of the Damned & Children Of The Damned Blood Freak The Curse of the Werewolf Homicidal Die! Die! My Darling Die Monster Die! The Haunted Palace House of Usher She Demons 20 Million Miles to Earth The Bad Seed Robot Monster

[ronnymerchant]

the WEREWOLF (1956) and CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN (1955)

[chernobog13]

Steve Ritch as the titular The Werewolf (1956).

[eevylynn]

First Line Game

The lovely @whimsicalmeerkat tagged me in this. The idea is to post the first line from the last ten fics you posted and see if there’s a trend.

Yeah, so a couple needed more than one imho, oh well!

Low pressure tags: @endwersed @hedwig221b @takadasaiko @reidslovely

1. Dark Horse || Stiles/Void Stiles E || 1909 wc

“Breathe.” His whole body was buzzing; his brain felt staticky. Stiles bit his lip to test how that felt. It hurt. A lot actually… Wait, that’s good right?

2. September First || Sterek, Hogwarts AU T || 2789 wc

Noah Stilinski popped his head into his son’s room, knocking softly on the door as he went to wake his son up to get him ready to catch the train.

3. That Boy is a Monster || Sterek, Creature Stiles G || 1836 wc

“Stiles, run!” Derek yelled, frantically turning to push him away from the giant reptile creature. 

4. Late Night Devil || Steter, Murder Mates T || 2126 wc

Peter prowled through the dense foliage of the preserve, his burden slung over his shoulder like a macabre trophy.

5. Tiny Spark, Mighty Flame || Sterek, Werewolf Stiles T || 4833 wc

Among born werewolves, it was common knowledge that the prime age for a human to endure the bite of an Alpha and survive was typically during their teenage or young adult years.

6. Love and Frogs || Stiles/Kira/Malia G || 1956 wc

Kira was practically vibrating out of her seat by the time Stiles threw his jeep into park.

7. You're Good || Sterek, Future Fic E || 7576 wc

Locking the office up with a whistle, Stiles tossed his keys in the air before catching them and shoving them in his back pocket before he turned to walk down the street to the combination coffee and bar that sat a block or so away from his office.

8. His Little Miracle || Sterek, Kid fic G || 651 wc

A cry crackled from the baby monitor, rousing Stiles from his deep slumber. A quick glance at the clock on his phone told him it was 3:30, so it was past the time Eli would normally wake for Derek to feed him.

9. Tallahassee Bagels || Swanfire, Non-magic Foodtruck AU G || 884 wc

Emma sighed as she took a break from doing paperwork. While she enjoyed the rush that came from solving a case, she really hated the paperwork. After a glance at the clock overhead told her it was nearing noon, she figured now was as good a time as any to take a much needed break.

10. Torque and Tumblers || Stiltskin Fam (Henry, Nealfire, & Rumple) G || 1249 wc

“It’s all about the tumblers,” Neal said as he wiggled one pick around before twisting with the other causing an audible “tick”.

[earhartsease]

there's this song we heard as a kid that's from 1956 by Nervous Norvus and it's called Transfusion - and yes it's about blood but the song just popped into our head while reading someone's werewolf post and these lines in particular have now been ruined by tumblr

shoot the juice to me bruce

pump the fluid in me louie

put a gallon in me alan

[ueinra]

..The further she went, the denser the darkness became. There was no one in the streets. However, she did encounter a woman, who turned around on seeing her, and stood still, muttering between her teeth: “Where can that child be going? Is it a werewolf child?” Then the woman recognized Cosette. “Well,” said she, “it’s the Lark!”

— Les Misérables, Cosette's On Her Way To The Woods (Illustrated by Jacques Pecnard, 1956)

[weirdlookindog]

Steven Ritch in The Werewolf (1956).

[docrotten]

LAKE OF THE DEAD (1958, DE DØDES TJERN) – Episode 185 – Decades of Horror: The Classic Era

“Beware of the currents of the lake.  It’s dangerous to dream. Stay Awake.  The nix pretends to be asleep.  Above him lilies gently sweep.” The Grue Crew love some Norwegian poetry in their folk horror. Join this episode’s Grue-Crew – Daphne Monary-Ernsdorff, Chad Hunt, Jeff Mohr, and guest Gregory Crosby – as they check out some folk horror, Norwegian-style, in Lake of the Dead (1958).

Decades of Horror: The Classic Era Episode 185 – Lake of the Dead (1958)

Join the Crew on the Gruesome Magazine YouTube channel! Subscribe today! And click the alert to get notified of new content! https://youtube.com/gruesomemagazine

ANNOUNCEMENT Decades of Horror The Classic Era is partnering with THE CLASSIC SCI-FI MOVIE CHANNEL, THE CLASSIC HORROR MOVIE CHANNEL, and WICKED HORROR TV CHANNEL Which all now include video episodes of The Classic Era! Available on Roku, AppleTV, Amazon FireTV, AndroidTV, Online Website. Across All OTT platforms, as well as mobile, tablet, and desktop. https://classicscifichannel.com/; https://classichorrorchannel.com/; https://wickedhorrortv.com/

Synopsis: Six Oslo friends travel to the Østerdalen Valley to visit reclusive Bjørn Werner, Liljan’s brother, living in a remote cabin. A horrible tragedy occurred at a nearby lake, and legend has it that whoever stays in that cabin will meet the same end. The unsuspecting visitors realize that Werner is missing, and a series of unexplained incidents that chill the bone to the marrow are set in motion.

Directed by: Kåre Bergstrøm

Writing Credits: Kåre Bergstrøm (writer); André Bjerke (1942 novel by) (as Bernhard Borge)

Music by: Gunnar Sønstevold

Cinematography by: Ragnar Sørensen

Selected Cast:

Erling Lindahl as Kai Bugge

Bjørg Engh as Sonja Borge

Henny Moan as Liljan Werner

André Bjerke as Gabriel Mørk

Per Lillo-Stenberg as Bjørn Werner

Øyvind Øyen as Bråten

Georg Richter as Harald Gran

Inger Teien as Eva, Bjørn’s Girlfriend

Leif Sommerstad as Tore Gråvik

Henki Kolstad as Bernhard Borge

Norway has produced a multitude of good horror movies, but it all started in 1958 with Lake of the Dead (De dødes tjern). Voted fourth best Norwegian film of all time by 101 critics in 1998, Lake of the Dead is a mystery that is part ghost story, part insane killer, and sports its own psychiatrist as a cast member; just for the insane part, you see.

Based on a 1942 novel of the same title, the film also includes an actor playing the writer of that novel and the actual writer of the novel playing another character. Clear? And then there’s the scene called one of the most memorable scenes in Norwegian film history. Gregory Crosby joins the Grue Crew, and they have plenty to talk about.

At the time of this writing, Lake of the Dead (1958) is available to stream from Shudder, AMC+, and Tubi. It’s also available on physical media as one of 20 films in All The Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium Of Folk Horror |Blu-ray + CD| from Severin.

Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror: The Classic Era records a new episode every two weeks. Next in their very flexible schedule – this one chosen by Chad – is The Werewolf (1956)! Director Fred F. Sears (The Giant Claw, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers) gives us a different take on the werewolf trope, though the werewolf makeup might look a little familiar. The Grue Crew can’t wait! 

Please let them know how they’re doing! They want to hear from you – the coolest, grooviest fans: leave them a message or leave a comment on the Gruesome Magazine YouTube channel, the site, or email the Decades of Horror: The Classic Era podcast hosts at feedback@gruesomemagazine.com

To each of you from each of them, “Thank you so much for watching and listening!”

Check out this episode!

[ronmerchant]

Steven Ritch- the WEREWOLF (1956)

[visplay]

Chris: The Werewolf is a somewhat rare werewolf horror film involving a werewolf on the loose, a hunt for it, a mad scientist, quite a few werewolf scenes, not a long film but not greatly absorbing, recommended for horror fans, Watch: When Free.

Richie: It was ok, had a different sort of vibe than werewolf movies of that time, it was just ok, Watch; When Free.

[ronnymerchant]

 the WEREWOLF (1956)

[non-binary-laurie-strode]

Reflections on my Universal Horror marathon

It is November 1st, 2023. As anyone can tell after being around me for, I don't know, five minutes, I am a huge horror queen. For my birthday this year, I got a big book on Universal horror, filled with production photos, background, trivia, actor bios, etc. I decided to use this book as a sort of guided reading list, where I would marathon all of the movies discussed in the book and read along. When I was first seriously doing a deep dive into horror in 2018, the classic 30s horror franchises were some of the first that I chose to get into, and so it had been five years or so since I had seen some of my old monster friends. (And many of the movies on this list I had not seen before!) I was excited for this project and decided to start it at 99 days until Halloween; I had found a Sam (1) "Countdown to Halloween" clock that counted from 99 days to 0 days last year, at the Spirit Halloween clearence sale. (2) So, 99 days to do a book's worth of movies—how hard could it be?

(1) from Trick r Treat, 2007

(2) He's currently sitting on my bedside table, at 0 days left!

Turns out, it was rather difficult! I hadn't expected the book to have so many entries in it.

The entire list of films that I did is as follows, broken down by chapter:

Silent Era (5 films): The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1923, The Phantom of the Opera 1925, The Phantom of the Opera 1943, The Cat and the Canary 1927, The Man Who Laughs 1928

Dracula (5 films): Dracula 1931, Drácula 1931, Dracula's Daughter 1936, Son of Dracula 1943, House of Dracula 1945

Frankenstein (4): Frankenstein 1931, Bride of Frankenstein 1935, Son of Frankenstein 1939, Ghost of Frankenstein 1942

The Wolf Man (5): Werewolf of London 1935, The Wolf Man 1941, Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man 1943, House of Frankenstein 1944, She-Wolf of London 1946

The Mummy (5): The Mummy, The Mummy's Hand, The Mummy's Tomb, The Mummy's Ghost, The Mummy's Curse

The Invisible Man (5): The Invisible Man 1933, The Invisible Man Returns 1940, The Invisible Woman 1941, Invisible Agent 1942, The Invisible Man's Revenge 1944

The Gill Man (3): Creature From the Black Lagoon 1954, Revenge of the Creature 1955, The Creature Walks Among Us 1955

"Universal's Lesser Known Monsters" (3+3+6): Paula the Ape Woman—Captive Wild Woman 1943, Jungle Woman 1944, The Jungle Captive 1945; The Creeper—Pearl of Death 1944, House of Horrors 1946, The Brute Man 1946; The Inner Sanctum Mystery Series—Calling Dr Death 1943, Weird Woman 1944, Dead Man's Eyes 1944, The Frozen Ghost 1944, Strange Confession 1945, Pillow of Death 1945

Non-serial horror (14): The Old Dark House 1932, Murders in the Rue Morgue 1932, The Black Cat 1934, The Raven 1935, Black Friday 1940, Man-Made Monster 1941, Horror Island 1941, Night Monster 1942, The Mad Ghoul 1943, The Strange Door 1951, The Black Castle 1952, Tarantula 1955, The Mole People 1956, Monster on the Campus 1958

That's 68 movies in 99 days by my reckoning. I also only did these on the nights that Mack worked or was dancing, which further tightened the number of days that I had. Good thing they were each about 60 minutes. I could never do this in the modern era where everyone bloats their movies to an absurd degree.

See, I thought it would be something small, with like... 30 movies in 99 days. I didn't expect all of this! Maybe I should have checked how many movies that would be before solidly deciding to do this challenge, eh? And it's not even allll of the Universal horror movies—Lugosi and Karloff did like six "duet" movies like The Raven and The Black Cat, but the book only focused on two and briefly name-dropped the others. By the mid-October, when I was in the final chapter, I was doing two or three movies per night, and it was quite a stressful thing, not knowing how I'd get it all to line up before Mack took his Halloweek vacation!

But I did it. I'm extremely proud that I stuck to it. And also, I will absolutely not do it again! Perhaps in another five years I'll have a craving for the Universal horror movies again, and I'll do my favourite 30 or so, but this insanity will not be repeated, or at least not with this time scale.

Anyway. Here are some things I wish to talk about:

Appreciating Silent Film

The silent era has always been one that I've wanted to get into, but I've never known how exactly to break into it. I've done a few silent movies before—if you're looking for a rec, Häxan from 1923 is a very disturbing and deeply effective look at medieval witchcraft—but I never felt like I had a sure footing in it.

And, well, the book starts at 1923 with Hunchback, no easing into it. And, turns out, it was mostly fine!

The 1925 Phantom was stunning. I love the tinted vibes of the silent era, and this film had a rare Technicolor sequence during the Masquerade bit where all the costumes were in colour, and it was amazing to see. There's a 19...29, I think?, scored version, which is what I watched, and the score pops off.

The 1927 Cat and the Canary ended up as one of my favourites of the whole marathon—there's no scoring option for this, but it's so fun I didn't care. The story revolves around a will reading on a dark and stormy night, a will reading, and a sudden heiress who has to prove her sanity as a condition of the will, all while an antagonistic family and a killer are loose in the mansion. It's a horror-comedy, and it is such a good time. I had rated it 5/5 on letterboxd years ago, but I had forgotten why, and I quickly rediscovered the reason!

So yeah, I got a couple silents to add to my résumé, next to stuff like Häxan and the typical Dr Caligari.

2. The Evolution of What Horror Is

One of my favourite things to think about and consider is what society's horror fixation is in a given era and how it all ties together in a sort of greater historiography.

This marathon covers the 20s through the late 50s, with most of it happening in the 30s and 40s. There's a pretty clear chain of where the focus goes in these—in the 20s, it's a lot of classic adaptations that have a gruesome element but which may not be yknow categorical Genre Horror as we recognise it and label it on a dvd box. The 30s explore the more typical folk myths and superstitions, such as vampires and werewolves; if there is science, it is either rather crude or primitive (Frankenstein using lightning bolts and sewing pieces of body together) or even has a mystical connection (Werewolf of London's Tibetan miracle flower—often this mysticism can unfortunately veer into Orientalist tropes :/). The 40s, and particularly around 1945 with the atomic bomb, the old superstitions lose steam and modern science begins to catch up, to the point that the 50s horror movies are, essentially, all a world away in terms of science—I mean, they try behavioural therapy on the Creature from the Black Lagoon in Revenge of the Creature! The later "Monster Mash" movies where all of the classic monsters join up have them turning to modern science to solve their problems—I believe it's in House of Dracula where the Wolf Man is legitimately ""cured"" by a cranial surgery based on some science, and Dracula gets cured by looking at the particulates in his blood and stuff. Anyway, continuing in the 50s, There's all this talk of atoms and radiation and such, and it's such a strong blend of science fiction and horror, such that the two genres are practically constant bedmates for this era. (Contrary to a popular tumblr post comparing Godzilla to 50s superhero comics, radiation actually did inspire a lot of monsters in America too; you just needed to know where to look, and it's here, in the giant Creature Features, where Godzilla would fit right in.)

I remember shortly after House of Dracula, I was talking to Mack, and I essentially launched into a ten minute lecture about this stuff, how it all ties into what was happening in society and whatnot. I have so much to say, but I won't word vomit it here.

3. These Movies Said, Continuity WHO?

One of the recurrent jokes I had while watching these movies is that the writers were clearly not interested in keeping continuity between films. There are two instances that I internally screamed at because of how insane they were—(1) In House of Frankenstein, Dracula is destroyed in the sunlight, The Wolf Man is shot by a silver bullet and dies, and the Frankenstein creature sinks into quicksand and disappears. Most of the plot of House of Frankenstein is quickly retold by the mad scientist character of House of Dracula; he leaves out the Wolf Man's death, probably because it would upset the Wolf Man, to whom he is speaking. Dracula is also back without explanation. (2) The Mummy's Ghost is set in Connecticut; they are very emphatic that they are in Connecticut. It is said over and over. At the end, the Mummy is chased into the swamp of Connecticut (yknow, the famous swamps of Connecticut) —at the very beginning of The Mummy's Curse, they point to a stretch of swampland, say that THIS is where Kharis sank all those years ago (it was 6 months in real time btw), and that he should still be there. This movie is set in the bayou of Louisiana, with a cheerful barkeep woman singing in French to evoke the whole "Cajun French" world. How Kharis went from Connecticut to "this is the exact spot where he fell" in Louisiana? Never mentioned.

Additionally, in one of the later Frankensteins, Ygor has his brain transplanted into the Frankenstein Monster in a scheme; Ygor-Frankenstein Monster triumphantly turns to the assembled characters and speaks to them, telling them how he tricked them and won. In the next movie, which I believe is Meets The Wolf Man, the Frankenstein Monster is a mute brute once more, and Ygor does not exist anymore. Now, the wildest thing is that this is not the writers cherrypicking what is canon and what is not—no, in the script the Frankenstein Monster-Ygor was to have deep conversations with the Wolf Man, and this was recorded. It was only in post-production that all of this was struck; all those scenes were either tossed or edited down. Apparently there are visuals of those scenes in the movie where you can watch the FM's mouth move, but the audio has been replaced with music or sound effects. Wild stuff.

There's more, plenty more, but you get the picture. I suppose in a world without home video, where your audience may not have seen the previous films or may not remember them well, you can convince them of anything and continuity matters less.

4. Some of these movies destroyed my will to go on (with the marathon)

Overall, I greatly enjoyed my time with this marathon. I found most of these movies to be very interesting and illuminating.

But there are two series in this that just crushed my spirit—The Mummy and Paula the Ape Woman. They were so awful that it made me not want to keep going.

The Mummy is just such a confused mess; the worst time I had was with The Mummy's Tomb. Tomb is the third movie in the series, so of course there's some catch-up that has to be done to get the audience up to speed. (They all do it, it's normal.) Now, this is a 60 minute movie. Tomb begins with a TWELVE MINUTE "recap" of the first two movies, using a flashback to show scenes from the old movies—all the while narrating them to construct a new story of what supposedly happened and wildly making up new stuff that directly contradicts what is visible on screen. TWELVE MINUTES out of SIXTY, one fifth of the movie, is just incredibly out of context scenes to do whatever the writers want.

And that's not even getting into the cultural sensitivity discussions around these movies, because girl........... girl. It's rough on that front, to say the least. (They reuse an Incan temple, if I remember right, as an Egyptian tomb in the last one, I think it was, and you can clearly see Mesoamerican imagery all over the walls, but they're yelling about pharoahs and stuff. And that's the tip of the iceberg.)

Paula the Ape Woman is about an ape who gets a brain and blood transplant and becomes a real woman, or at least temporarily. Now, audience, given that this an early 40s movie... do you think this uncontrollable, animalistic beast of a woman is going to be white or no? :////

The Paula movies just need to be forgotten. Not every Universal horror movie is a lost gem in the sands of time. Let's just say that.

5. James Whale, Lon Chaney Jr, and thoughts on recurring names and faces

With the studio system firmly in place for most of this marathon's concerned eras, there are many repeating names throughout the movies. It became something of a scavenger hunt to find "Gowns by Vera West" in the title credits of most movies—according to letterboxd, I think I hit 37 movies with her credited on wardrobe.

Some of these repeating names I grew to really like. James Whale really is among the greats, isn't he? Bride of Frankenstein is nothing short of a masterpiece, and his other work (especially The Old Dark House) is great. I would love to do a deeper dive just into his other works. He seems so fascinating! And he was gay, and apparently very very open about it.

A name I came to dislike, unexpectedly really, was Lon Chaney Jr, most known for The Wolf Man. I went in with a higher opinion of him, only knowing him from The Wolf Man; he eventually became a bit of a golden boy on the Universal horror sets, and so he got into a ton of different projects. And boy, did he ever only play one character across everything! He's extremely good at it, but he only ever played a sad, pathetic little man who is overwhelmed by the weight of the world! We get it, dude. Play a different character!

6. Conclusions

This is getting away from me, so I'll wrap this up. Thank you if you even skimmed this far!

I really did enjoy this marathon. It was stressful, a little, but a fun stress, all things considered.

Rapidshot overall favs: The Bride of Frankenstein, the Cat and the Canary, Revenge of the Creature, Dracula, The Old Dark House, Tarantula, 1925's Phantom of the Opera, the Raven.

Rapid boots: The Mummy franchise, Paula the Ape Woman series, She-Wolf of London, the Black Cat, Ghost of Frankenstein.

I love this era of horror: It's almost a cosy horror to me, with giant fog machines, goofy big analog science contraptions, and painted backdrops (you can see the painted backdrops and their flatness during the early 30s ones especially). I like that there are fewer cuts compared to the modern day: They hold the camera on the actors, and often the camera is not on a close-up, giving plenty of time for interesting physicality. It almost feels staged or traditionally theatrical in a way that modern movies do not. (Which makes sense, as the earlier writers and directors and actors all came from and routinely did theatre. Lugosi got Dracula after he did the stage version of it.) Many of them are very comfortable feeling, and they're short too!

I don't think I could do another grand tour like this again for years, at mininum,—and I won't revisit Paula and probably not The Mummy—but I do want to revisit it more than I have in the last few years. These monsters are my FRIENDS!

Anyway. Stan Boris Karloff, James Whale, and especially Elsa Lanchester

[moviesandmania]

THE WEREWOLF Reviews of '50s sci-fi horror

‘The horror of all mankind terrifies the screen!’ The Werewolf is a 1956 American sci-fi horror film produced by Sam Katzman and directed and narrated by Fred F. Sears (Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, The Giant Claw) from a screenplay written by Robert E. Kent (Diary of a Madman, Twice-Told Tales). The film’s soundtrack score was composed by noted composer Mischa Bakaleinikoff. Like the following…