Post by someoldguy on Mar 2, 2020 8:29:18 GMT -5
I was a bit surprised to discover that this title had not been hit yet. Maybe too old to be in the consciousness of most members but still postdating the classic B+W horror movie era.
When I saw that this was on YouTube I gave it a watch. That trip down memory lane made me realize that my recollections from that period were a bit mixed up. Elsewhere on this site, I said that The Werewolf of London was my first ever werewolf movie, seen on TV in the fall of 1957. This was wrong, IWATW came before that, in the early summer of 1957, paired in theaters with Invasion of the Saucer Men. (Curse of Frankenstein was around that time also.) Even before that, in the previous summer I had seen The Werewolf, paired with Earth vs. the Flying Saucers. The Werewolf (1956) was definitely the first one I ever saw because I clearly remember someone telling me that they chased the creature on a bridge. I immediately fantasized a horror comic scene with villagers carrying torches chasing a long snouted bipedal beast across a wooden bridge. In comic book color of course. The movie was rather different.
But back to IWATW. Like The Werewolf of the previous year, the hairiness factor did not derive from a bite but from an injection, in this case an unspecified serum coupled with past life regression hypnosis. While The Werewolf was really all science fiction, IWATW had peripheral supernatural references, making it spookier.
I really like the werewolf look, even though it was just head and hands.
Transformation was similar to The Wolf Man (1941) but with ripple dissolve in place of cross dissolve.
When I saw that this was on YouTube I gave it a watch. That trip down memory lane made me realize that my recollections from that period were a bit mixed up. Elsewhere on this site, I said that The Werewolf of London was my first ever werewolf movie, seen on TV in the fall of 1957. This was wrong, IWATW came before that, in the early summer of 1957, paired in theaters with Invasion of the Saucer Men. (Curse of Frankenstein was around that time also.) Even before that, in the previous summer I had seen The Werewolf, paired with Earth vs. the Flying Saucers. The Werewolf (1956) was definitely the first one I ever saw because I clearly remember someone telling me that they chased the creature on a bridge. I immediately fantasized a horror comic scene with villagers carrying torches chasing a long snouted bipedal beast across a wooden bridge. In comic book color of course. The movie was rather different.
But back to IWATW. Like The Werewolf of the previous year, the hairiness factor did not derive from a bite but from an injection, in this case an unspecified serum coupled with past life regression hypnosis. While The Werewolf was really all science fiction, IWATW had peripheral supernatural references, making it spookier.
Plot? Teenager with anger management issues gets turned into a werewolf by unscrupulous mad scientist. (Like the result was not going to be obvious.) Gore? None, although there are multiple kills, but all unseen. Acting? A very young Michael Landon carries the movie, everyone else being half-stereotype and half-cardboard. Minor exceptions are Whit Bissell as the scientist and the brief bit by Vladimir Sokoloff as the janitor who talks about werewolves in the Carpathian mountains. Dialog? Nothing terrific but nothing too stupid either. I love the closing line “It’s not for man to interfere with the ways of God”. 
I really like the werewolf look, even though it was just head and hands.
Transformation was similar to The Wolf Man (1941) but with ripple dissolve in place of cross dissolve.
The dog gets killed.
Le Loup-Garou Qui Rit