The Worst Film Ever

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

The Wolf ManUnlike the previous Dark Universal features, its not witty or gripping in either aspects of it; execution and writing, for this wafer thin plot is not even worth the 70 minute of its runtime. The writing is the main factor, why this fails to live up to its predecessors legacy and why it fails on delivering any satisfactory material. George Wagner is definitely not in its A game which result into this overlong repetitive slog which should have been an entertaining experience. Lon Chaney Jr. in the centre of it fails to pull off this horror show despite of being supported by a great cast. The Wolf Man is something that should have been a 15 minute introduction of the amazing horror tale and is unfortunately carried out to be an hour long feature.

George Waggner's "The Wolf Man" isn't the classic horror movie that I honestly expected it to be, but for the most part it does work as a horror movie even though it didn't scare me very much. Lon Chaney Jr. stars as Larry Talbot a British man who comes back from America to Wales after his brother dies in order to spend more time with his father John Talbot (Claude Rains) and during that time his father shows him the new telescope that he got and decides to test it out himself and also during that period when he is testing out the telescope he sees a young blond haired girl named Gwen Conliffe (Evelyn Ankers) and later they go for a walk in the night time together with Gwen's friend Jenny (Fay Helm) to a local gypsy fortune teller in the woods named Bela (Bela Lugosi) who sees her and then sees a suspicious star on her hand and tells her to run away from him as fast as possible because in this film according to legend that in the night time whenever you see a star on someone's hand and you are about to turn into a werewolf the person that you see the star on will become their next victim, and thus Bela turns into a werewolf kills Jenny, and Larry tries to save her by killing him with his cane that he had gotten from the antique shop with a silver handle that kills him but not without getting bitten by him. Then the next night is Bela's funeral, and then we meet Bela's mother Maleva (Maria Ouspenskaya, who was six years Lugosi's senior in real life) who tells Talbot about the legends and he thinks that she is joking and completely dismisses her claims until he turns into a werewolf himself and kills a gravedigger, and the next night almost kills both Gwen and his father who doesn't believe the legends either until he finds out that the werewolf he killed was his own son. The whole movie works as a horror thriller all the way until the ending which was totally ridiculous and should have been altered and rewritten. During that time in Hollywood history the Academy didn't take horror movies about monsters very seriously and considered them devoid of art and of no considerable interest to them. The performances are very good especially with standout work from Chaney, Rains, Ankers, Lugosi, and Ouspenskaya, the screenplay by Curt Siodmak could have been better but was still very good, as well as George Waggner's direction. However the movie doesn't rank among some true horror classics like "Psycho" (1960), "Carrie" (1976), "The Shining" (1980), "Misery" (1990), and "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991), and is Oscar material in terms of music, acting, and cinematography, but even though it is a good movie it isn't a must see film even though I highly recommend it on the reasons that were previously stated.

It almost plays out as a murder mystery until it becomes obvious to all that he becomes a "werewolf" after being infected by the gypsy woman's cursed son. She tries to help him deal with the problem several times. He wears the sign of the "pentagram" and can also "see" it in the palm of his next victim. A romance with the prettiest girl in town complicates matters, as well as his growing horror that he has become an unholy monster. It's so obvious what is coming after the "Wolfman Rhyme" is repeated at least 3 times. Filmed in the Universal "fog" that allowed most of the film to be shot indoors. Disappointing because it does not contain the facial transformation made famous in the sequels. Instead his legs and feet get real hairy, as does his chest, etc. He was hopelessly typecast, and a player in so many "B" pictures; he was an alcoholic most of his life. He knew he was a better actor than that. I feel his best work was in "Of Mice and Men" and "A&C Meet Frankenstein". He had the distinction of playing all 4 famous Universal Monsters, and reportedly "filled-in" for Glen Strange as "The Monster", in the fire scene of the A&C movie, after Glen broke his foot while filming.

For a start, this has to be one of the most unconvincing portrayals of a location that I've ever seen. The film is supposedly set in Wales, but the scenery looks nothing like the Wales I've seen, instead more of a Universal studio methinks. Plus, aside from a couple of cast members, everybody seems to have an American accent, including the lead! (this is explained away in a lame excuse that he's been away in America for 18 years... yeah, right). I guess Universal just didn't care. We're back into the familiar feeling of a Universal classic once again, and being ten years on from Dracula this looks and feels a lot more polished. It also has a lot more incident and action than in some other classic horror flicks and the running time literally flies by, indeed this film feels like it's too short. Lon Chaney Jr. appears in his most-remembered role, creating a monster which would stay with him the rest of his life. Okay, so Chaney never was much of an actor - wooden is putting it mildly - but he conveys torment and upset pretty well. Jack Pierce's makeup once again creates an unforgettable monster, an image which is still recognisable to the modern generation.A few familiar faces fill out supporting roles, including Claude Rains as Chaney's supposed father. The trouble is, the two actors couldn't look less alike, meaning that you have to suspend disbelief in order to swallow this relationship. Bela Lugosi, imaginatively playing a character called Bela, also turns up in a brief eyebrow-raising cameo and is dispatched all too quickly - a real shame. I have to admit that Evelyn Ankers is a pretty charismatic screaming heroine, though. All of the werewolf folklore is present and correct here. The film is also quite brutal with people being beaten and killed just off screen. The only trouble, as I mentioned above, is that the film is far too short and I would have liked to see Chaney go on a werewolf rampage, murdering as many people as possible! Other than this, THE WOLF MAN is a well made and fully enjoyable classic which should be seen by any respectable horror buff.