tavm Having just seen most of the other Universal films that featured Larry Talbot, The Wolf Man (exception being House of Frankenstein), I finally got to see the first of the movies that featured Lon Chaney Jr. as that now-iconic character. He gets great support from Claude Rains as his father, Bela Lugosi as a fortune teller, Ralph Bellamy as the police captain, Evelyn Ankers as the leading lady, and especially, Maria Ouspenskaya as the Gypsy woman. Great atmospheric direction by George Waggner from a fine original script by Curt Siodmak. And let's not forget the legendary Jack Pierce for creating the wolfman makup that covered Chaney's skin and face. He was previously responsible for Bela Lugosi's Dracula face as well as Boris Karloff's Frankenstein's Monster's skin. Really, all I'll now say is The Wolf Man is still a bona-fide classic horror flick!

Ross622 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.

mike48128 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.

O2D I'm going to assume this is the first movie about werewolves and if it is, I think I finally understand why every werewolf movie has gypsies in it(I don't think Werewolf In A Girls Dormitory did). Although this is a good movie, there are a few things I don't get. Why does the werewolf who bites Larry just look like a regular wolf? They did the same thing in The Werewolf Of Washington and it just doesn't make any sense. The other thing is that the gypsies all ran out of town but the old lady mysteriously shows up in the woods to find Larry. It's a bit confusing. There are some other minor issues but they don't really affect the movie. Surprisingly, this may be the creepiest Lon Chaney ever was. He manages to pick up an engaged woman using extremely creepy lines that would have made anyone else call the police. Not bad for an 80 year old movie. Just make sure you watch this before you watch Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man, I didn't.