dougdoepke Well-done werewolf flick. Filming on location at snowy Big Bear, north-east of LA, gives the horror setting a different look. Then too, the human element is effectively played up, as the authorities are torn between killing a pathetic family man and the same man who's also a homicidal werewolf. Poor Stephen Ritch, he's just an ordinary guy until a misguided professor turns him into a lycanthrope. Now loose in the mountains and running from a posse, he's suffering, knowing any moment he can become a drooling monster. Meanwhile his wife and child pose a big human problem for the sheriff and his deputy. So, which will win out-- the human side or the monster.Kudoes to pedestrian director Sears who manages some imaginative visuals. Unlike his usual steamroller approach, here he seems at times almost inspired (the jail cell shadows). Add what seems like an authentic mountain town atmosphere, and the results both visually and dramatically are unusual for the genre. Plus, actor Ritch manages what appears real anguish in what could have otherwise been an easy payday. I guess my only reservation is with the culprit professor, whose presence smacks too much of hackneyed cliché. But then, his presence heightens the moral dilemma. After all, since he's induced the lycanthropy, it's maybe possible to medically undo it. That is, if the authorities don't kill Ritch first. There's a moral depth here, unusual for its time.Anyway, the 70-minutes amounts to a near sleeper among the many tacky horror flicks of that Corman dominated decade.

gavin6942 Duncan Marsh (Steven Ritch), a mild-mannered man, finds himself lost in a remote village called Mountaincrest. His mind is clouded, but he learns later that Emory Forrest (S. John Launer) and Morgan Chambers (George Lynn), two scientists, injected him with a special serum containing irradiated wolf's blood when he was suffering from amnesia after being in a car accident.This film, not widely known to fans today, is worthy of note for two reasons: first, it allegedly was the first film to present lycanthropy in a scientific rather than supernatural way (even if the science makes no sense). There is no full moon, silver bullets, demonic curses or anything of the sort here.Second, we have the gigantic Don Megowan as Sheriff Jack Haines, who horror and sci-fi fans should know as Gill-man in "The Creature Walks Among Us" or perhaps even "The Creation of the Humanoids". Megowan is an impressive actor physically and fits the bill nicely.

JoeB131 In the 1950's, our fear of the atomic age meant that we rewrote everything in a way to reflect that. So it was with "The Werewolf", where a couple of mad atomic scientists inject a man with serum so they can avoid mutating in the upcoming nuclear war. He develops amnesia, and then gets about terrorizing a small town.The thing is, I'm not sure if the movie wants us to feel sorry for the guy or not. He eventually kills three people, one a thug trying to rob him and the other the two wacky scientists who made him this way and were trying to finish him off. So it's not his fault.But the angry town of rednecks after hounding him and setting out bear traps for him, kill him in a fusillade of bullets at the end, with the white male lead feeling pretty good about himself.If they made it today, it'd be genetic engineering, lots of CGI and gore, and less character development, so enjoy this gem from the past.

MARIO GAUCI Running parallel to the exploitative reworking of various horror myths (see my review of BLOOD OF Dracula [1957] above) was a scientific approach to same – equally short-lived – in line with the pragmatism (coupled with an increasing dependence on technology) which largely defined the fantasy genre throughout the 1950s…at least, until the advent of Hammer Films. In this respect, therefore, we had THE WEREWOLF and Paul Landres' THE VAMPIRE (1957; not to be confused with the similarly-titled Mexican film of the same year and which adhered to the traditional Gothic trappings) in quick succession. I had purchased the former when it emerged on DVD paired with THE RETURN OF Dracula (1958), but opted to acquire the Sam Katzman-produced THE WEREWOLF – which was released as part of a four-movie collection – from other sources (especially after I had already gotten hold some time ago and in the same way of two other titles from that set). However, starting around the 43-minute mark, I began to experience intermittent freezing and skipping issues during playback of the film which were so frustrating that I almost gave up on viewing it altogether! Anyway, this would be the third lycanthrope movie to be made by Columbia and, even if its reputation within the genre is not exactly assured, I had always been interested in watching it (coming in between the classic Universal stuff and Hammer's sole such foray); in retrospect, the film is somewhat better than I anticipated (much as CRY OF THE WEREWOLF [1944] had been the previous day) with a nice snowy setting and a sympathetic hero (Steven Ritch) in the Larry Talbot vein – though the lead is actually stout sheriff Don Megowan (whom I had just seen recently portraying the Frankenstein monster in the made-for-TV short TALES OF FRANKENSTEIN [1958]). Here, we have a man who, rather than being bitten by a wolf, is injected with a serum intended to withstand radiation (another sign of the times, tapping into the nuclear paranoia then prevalent): consequently, the transformation occurs when the hero is aroused – curiously anticipating The Incredible Hulk. With this in mind, it was perhaps wrong to make him a doctor and even sillier to have the werewolf shown sleeping and wear suit, tie and shoes! Similarly, in keeping with previous treatments of the theme, the monster walks upright and the effects accomplished via a succession of dissolves revealing added layers of make-up; ditto to the ensuing havoc, initial disbelieving reaction by the townsfolk and climactic mob pursuit of the werewolf (though normal bullets are employed in its demise)…all of which renders the film solidly entertaining, if not quite a classic.