MartinHafer This made for TV movie is from Dan Curtis...and that should come as no surprise as Curtis made a living making low-budget horror films and TV shows--such as the original "Dark Shadows" as well as excellent made for TV films about Dracula, Kolchak (the reporter that investigates monster sightings), possessed African dolls, Frankenstein and others. Most of his work was very good though I wouldn't place "Scream of the Wolf" among his best films.Some creature has been tearing folks to pieces and John (Peter Graves) is a hunter who's been given the task of killing whatever it is. However, he soon notices that the footprints go from a wolf-like creature to human...but he won't allow himself to believe it's a werewolf. When he tries to get help from a clearly nutty associate, Byron (Clint Walker) has a strange reaction--he's totally disinterested in killing the creature and even seems to be completely ambivalent about all the deaths!! Clearly the viewer is being led to believe that Byron is most likely the wolf-man. And, clearly, Walker's character is about as subtle as a 2x4 upside your head! He's a super freaky weirdo and Walker looks as if he had fun playing this guy. And, although Graves is the leading man in the film, your attention is drawn to Walker whenever he's on the screen. So is Byron the werewolf or is there some other explanation? And, how does this movie end up being very much like the classic film "The Most Deadly Game"?Considering the budget for this film was pretty low and the ABC movies were made quickly, how they handled the whole werewolf aspect of the story was an interesting idea that worked very well. Not the best movie of the week I've seen but very memorable and fun...in a kooky sort of way. Well worth seeing...and a lot better than the surprisingly low overall score of 5.1 (as of this review).

Leighton Phillips This 1974 mystery thriller sets it's stall out very early on with a reasonably nerve-jangling beginning as a stranded motorist is murdered in a grisly manner on a mist-shrouded,isolated road by someone or something lurking in woods of rural Los Angeles.The plot quickly develops as the baffled police turn to an ex-game hunter (Peter Graves) to assist them with the search of an "animal", who leaves both four-legged and two-legged tracks (never seen by the viewer, by the way, and indicative of the budget restrictions that prevail in this film). One ex-game-hunter goes to an old friend who is still plying his trade as a hunter (Clint Walker) but he oddly backs off and refuses to help anybody track down the killer.At just over 75 minutes running time, the whole thing virtuously floes at a brisk pace, but saying that the early part of the film is rather repetitious in portraying the murders. Furthermore, some sequences are too short and/or choppily edited so the overall smoothness of what is being viewed is compromised.Budget restrictions place a heavy emphasis on mystery and suspense, rather than horror and gore, and with Dan Curtis (of Night Stalker fame) at the production/directorial helm, the whole thing was potentially in safe hands. Nevertheless, there is only decent nail-biting scene in the rest of the film: at the home of the leading character's girlfriend's house where the murderer tries to strike.The script also spends an inordinate amount of time building and playing on the cold-hearted, egocentric and humourless characterisation of Clint Walker's role: whilst Walker carries this off very effectively it becomes rather mind-numbing and tiresome as the film shifts towards its conclusion, even within the confines of the aforementioned running time. What this does is imply considerable guilt on the part of this character and puts all the film's "eggs in one basket." When the conclusion comes it comes with twists that are perfectly explicable in terms of what the viewer has seem beforehand, if not entirely satisfactory.Overall the performances of Peter Graves and Jo-Ann Pflug are merely adequate, but Walker merits more praise for his consistently poker-face portrayal of his character. The film itself carries an element of intrigue that makes it worth watching but many aspects of the script don't translate particularly well to the screen, so it's lasting impact is unfortunately rather Luke-warm.

MARIO GAUCI While not bad for TV, the final twist reveals this not to be a werewolf film after all (though the medium had dabbled in the subgenre with MOON OF THE WOLF {1972} and even an episode from the KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER TV series, actually emanating from the same stable and year as this) but Richard Matheson's script – foregoing the generics (the attacks usually involving both an anonymous victim and an unseen assailant, every time the Police converge en masse and to the same pounding score upon the scene of the crime) – is both thoughtful and gripping. The narrative only really supplies a couple of human suspects but, even if the identity of the villain is pretty obvious, it is the reason for his actions that compels attention (ironically, that is what he had intended himself – to rouse the citizens from their placid existence through terror!). Incidentally, I have often remarked about how these kind of urban locations are simply too exposed to make for safe and comfortable living: the curtains are invariably never drawn and houses are shown as being extremely easy to break into! The cast is headed by Peter Graves (displaying much of the characteristics that made his name in the long-running MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE TV series – being both brawny, a former hunter, and brainy, a writer) and Clint Walker (in what must be one of the best roles he ever had as his ex-buddy who still lives only for the chase, claiming that a prey and its predator are never more alive than at the moment immediately prior to the kill!). Also on hand are Don Megowan (from TV's TALES OF FRANKENSTEIN {1958} and CREATION OF THE HUMANOIS {1962}) as a man who had so impressed Walker, by giving him a hard time at arm-wrestling, that he is hired as his personal manservant(!) and bartender Jo Ann Pflug as Graves' romantic interest (who instantly distrusts Walker and is eventually almost killed herself by the 'monster'). For what it is worth, the way in which Walker taunts Graves to leave Pflug and rejoin him gives this an unintended gay subtext! Needless to say, Graves eventually regains his old form (after having been humiliated by a dismally short bout of mano a mano!) and overcomes the conditioned wolf Walker used in the attacks, after which he is provoked into shooting the man himself in the back.

Year2889 From the Golden Age of the TV movie "Scream of the Wolf" is a time-waster from some pretty big names.B-movie fans knows that Peter Graves would do anything for a paycheck. So it's no surprise as this movie makes a swift detour towards incoherence early on. Jo Ann Pflug's appearance cinches it. And when super-hunk Clint Walker begins spewing his inane monologues (again and again) you realize all too late that you have entered Z-movie heaven. Because really no one has any business watching "Scream of the Wolf" unless they enjoy watching actors struggling in budget bondage, living in palatial homes which are clearly borrowed for the film and dicing with unseen scary stuff which turns out not to be that scary. But then we are in good hands.Dan Curtis is a master at low budget television. Dark Shadows is his masterpiece and Trilogy of Terror is still one of the most memorable shows ever on the tube. Burnt Offerings was his first run film....offering, but it's really a beefed up TV movie script that somehow got wings. So with such a resume one would expect "Scream of the Wolf" to be something other than what it is, but it is important to remember that everyone has his bad days. And in the case of co-writer Richard Matheson, this is an understatement. Matheson is not in the minor leagues with Curtis. Matheson is the fantasy-fiction master. Look him up on IMDb and find out. The creator of Omega Man would never have submitted this work as his alone.A little attention to fine details would have done wonders for this film. In the dialog, in the set design (were there any) and with the casting. A truly wooden set of performances all around. Clint Walker tries to emote passion and complexity but he looks like he's been botoxed. Jo Ann Pflug was better off showing us her stuff on Match Game P.M.. And Peter Graves? This is the Godfather compared to some of the films he's been in.