I know nothing about this other than there is a wolf and there is a man. We have Lon Chaney Jr. and Bela Lugosi in this one.
Ugh, I hate the term lycan. Oh well. We meet Larry and his dad, Sir John. Sir John has won a Nobel prize and Larry is only visiting because his brother died. Everybody is loaded in these movies. Nice observatory. Larry is checking out the chick across the way via telescope. He goes to her antique shop and is kinda creepy. He may buy a cane. He found a wold head cane. So a werewolf will see a pentagram in his next victim’s palm. He is trying to get her to go on a date, she says no. Oh, the fortune tellers are passing through town. He tells her that he will be there at 8. The girl’s name was Gwen. Also, everybody, except for Larry, seems familiar with this saying: “Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright.” Go figure.
He stops by at 8 and she has on the earrings that he liked. Gwen invited her friend Jenny to get their fortunes told. Big pimping with 2 hotties. Jenny knows the saying as well. There’s Bela as the fortune teller, looks awesome. Jenny gets hers done, and Larry takes Gwen off to hit on her. She’s engaged. Uh oh, Bela sees a pentagram in her palm. Ohhhh shit. Jenny is gonna get got! She runs off and then there’s a scream. Larry runs, finds a wolf and goes and fights it and beats it with a cane. Gwen comes to comfort him, he tells her that it was a wolf. The lady gypsy comes out to help with the wolf bite.
Gwen and the gypsy help him back to his dad’s and Jenny is dead. Gypsy slips away unnoticed. Mr. Twiddle is a short gent with a great stache. Jenny’s jugular was slashed. They see that Bela’s head has been bashed in, and they find the cane and some shoe tracks.
Dr. Lloyd comes to check on Larry in the morning. Larry admits that he attacked the wolf with the can, but now there is no wolf bite. Paul is suspicious, and he is the chief constable. They see Bela’s bare feet. Paul is confused by everything, but he’s going to leave it be for now. The priest is all pissy at the gypsy custom of burial and celebration. We find out that Bela was the gypsy’s son, but she knew he was the wolfman. Larry is taking this hard.
Jenny’s mom and a group of angry women are angry why Gwen left Jenny when she was getting her fortune told. Larry saves Gwen’s dad. Frank, her fiancee, comes to visit and talk to Gwen and Larry. Larry goes to shake Frank’s hand, but Frank was a dick. He is afraid of that dangerous man. There is some festival happening, and Gwen and Frank see Larry and Frank want to make nice. Oh, this is more like a carnival. They play a shooting the target game. Larry misses the wolf target, it bothers her. Larry walks away and the gypsy stops him. She gives him a charm that will help protect him from the curse. He doesn’t want to hear about. She put the charm necklace on him and gives him the boot. Larry bumps into Gwen, and she and Frank had a quarrel, so he is going to escort her home. The gypsies are all packing up due to fear of a werewolf. Larry gives Gwen the charm and he kisses her. Nice.
Larry goes home and his legs are getting incredibly hairy. They are slowly turning to werewolf feet. Oh man, he is in full werewolf mode. He goes to the cemetery and there’s a gravedigger, and well, Larry attacks. The town people hear the howl, so they go check. They find wolf tracks. Go figure. Larry wakes up with the star on his chest. Uh oh, he realizes this is bad, mmkay. Larry tries to clean up his mess. His dad tells him that the gravedigger was killed, and that animal tracks led to their house.
Mrs. Williams is saying how weird it is that these deaths started when Larry came to town. Some guy tells her that’s slander. Good for him. Everybody at the funeral all turns around oddly and stare down Larry. Like, the back row started and then it moves up, so nobody the row ahead should have known that the row behind them was turning. Made very little sense to me.
The Dr. tells Sir John that Larry needs therapy. John is like, nope, he just needs to stay at home and chill. The cops set animal traps. At night, Larry walks into one as a werewolf. The guys and dogs are out looking. Hey, the gypsy lady returned, nifty. She kneels next to Larry and says like a prayer of sorts. 2 guys see Larry walking and they ask him what he is doing and he says he’s doing the same as them, hunting. Larry walks back to town and is tossing pebbles at Gwen’s window to wake her up. She comes down to see what the problem is. He tells her that he’s going away. She wants to go with him. He tells her that he is a murderer, but she wants to stay with him. He sees the mark on her palm. Her dad comes down and Larry runs off. He tells his dad about this. Everybody thinks that he is mental.
Larry wants to run away, and his dad says that he can’t. Larry says that is what the gypsy woman said to him. Sir John is going to restrain his son to protect his son and family name. So he ties Larry to a chair. Larry has his dad take his cane. The gypsy lady sees Sir John with the cane. They have a talk. She basically tells him that he should be worried about his son. There are gunshots. The gypsy sees Gwen, tells her to come with her or else HE will find her, and sure enough, she leaves, and he is on the hunt. Here’s the confrontation. He assaults her, then Sir John attacks with the cane. I think Sir John may have gotten bit. He beats Larry to death. The gypsy says a prayer over Larry’s dead body. She rides off while Sir John kneels over him. Gwen is alright though. Some guy, possibly Paul, says that Larry came to Gwen’s rescue.
End Film
I admit that this one was weaker than Dracula and Frankenstein, but it was still very good and had a great plot. I don’t have any complaints. There’s a reason that these are timeless classics. Lon did a great job as did the gypsy lady and Gwen.
Final rating: 6.2
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