| Werewolf Of London |
| I wrote what I felt was a wonderful piece on this movie.Downloaded some stills to the page and went to save it.And the website chewed it up and spit back only the title.(Thanks loads Geocities for the improvements!). Pretty much disgusted as I had no time to save my work due to computer problems.So I'll try again. When I first saw Werewolf Of London I didn't like the movie at all.Felt it was a poor cousin to the 1941 Wolf Man.However I recently read the book Werewolf Of London by Carl Dreadstone (Ramsey Campbell).The characters were fleshed out (more so than in the film)and motivations are explained.The love triangle was almost ignored as the book studied Glendon and Yogami in more depth.After reading the book the movie was a much more pleasant experience. Wilfred Glendon travels to Tibet in search of a rare flower that blooms only in the moonlight.Once he finds it he is attacked and bitten by a strange beast.Glendon manages to escape with the flower and brings it back to London. During a party at his home Glendon meets a mysterious Dr Yogami.Asking if they had met before Yogami has a great line:"Once before.In Tibet.In the dark".It seems that Yogami is the werewolf that bit Glendon.He tells Glendon of the curse (of werewolves killing those they love) and that the flower is a temporary cure for werwolfery. Glendon eventually realizes that he is in fact a werewolf and he not only must somehow avoid killing his wife he must keep the strange blooms of the flower from Yogami or all is lost. The minimalist makeup by Jack Pierce actually grows on me.The idea of Glendon still retaining his cognizance while a werewolf is personally more scary than the later Larry Talbot changing into a wild unthinking unremembering beast.Glendon praying for salvation during his transformation scene is quite touching. There are a lot of shortcomings to this film.It was as if Universal wanted to almost shy away from the horror and accent the love angle between Glendon's wife and her ex suitor.Glendon is portrayed as such a cold fish you have trouble feeling he could love anything besides his work.Sympathetic characters are few.Lisa is flighty, Glendon isn't fully fleshed out and Yogami is an enigma.The comedy relief of two old drunken women is as funny as chewing on a roll of aluminum foil.The final battle is abysmally portrayed in the film. In the book Yogami wrenchingly tells of the night he slaughtered his wife, children and his brother.His pathos deserve your sympathy.Glendon is devoted to Lisa and vice versa. This film could have been in the upper tier of the Universal classics.Instead it falls somewhere in the middle thanks to an indifferent, shallow screenplay.However it is still worth watching...if you read the book first. |
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