Fury of the Wolf-man

[Hawkeye Pierce]

I saw Paul Naschy's "Fury of the Wolfman" for the first time to day and I must say that it could have been way better.

I'm a big Naschy fan myself, and knew the title woudn't be the best in the series. Acourding to Naschy himself his script was misinterpereted by the director, the movie also turned out to be to short which led to the use of footage from earlier Naschy movie "La Marca del Hombre-Lobo" and newly shot stuff featuring a double for Naschy as the Wolfman. To make matters worse the film was further shortened with the removal of all nude scenes.

The story isn't that bad, and I can imagine the origional script to be a strong one, which makes the end result an even greater pitty. Waldemar Daninsky returns from an expedition in Tibet, where he and his crew encountered the Yeti. This beast killed all but Daninsky, leaving him cursed with the mark of the werewolf. Once home however, he discovers that his wife is having an affair. Unfortunatly for them, the moon is full, and the beast unleashed. Both of them are slaughtered, and Waldemar dies as well. He electrocutes himself in a storm with a cut power line by accident. The Evil Illona, his ex-lover, turns out to be a mad scientist capable of reviving the dead and uses both of these powers on Daninsky. The Wolfman goes on a bloody rampage and the police starts an investigation. For some reason Illona decides to also revive Waldemar's wife. Because she was biten, and now lives, she has been infected with the curse of the werewolf. The two werewolves meet and Waldemar kills his wife once more. After this he kills Illona, who, before dying, shoots Waldemar with a silver bullet.

THE END

Does that sound good? Well it's one hell of a dissapointment, to me AND Naschy.

-The Editing is crap, we just jump from one scene to the other, sometimes in the middle of these scenes.
-The Music is cheap as can be, and amateurish. It sounds like one of those scores to silent films in public domain, only a few notches down. It doesn't match what we see on screen.
-Naschy's acting is pretty bad here, which is weird cause he really is a fine and capable actor. This might have had something to do with his clash with the director. In "Werewolf vs the Vampire Woman" he has the same problem. he act's woody. Also, the Wolfman footage of which he claims was filmed with a double "is clearly him, sorry Paul.

But let's be fair, the film does have some cool stuff as well...
-The make-up is pretty good, a bit "Werewolf of London"-ish. It looks horrible on stills, but now ive seen it in action, I kind of like it. a nice mix of the designs of "La Marca del Hombre-Lobo" and "Werewolf vs the Vampire Woman" (" vs Vampire Woman " was filmed and released after "Fury" btw)
-The climax, in which the werewolves battle and Illona dies is DAMN COOL and the reason to watch this picture
-the "La Marca del Hombre-Lobo" footage, that film is so great. The quality of the scenes used here provide a nice contrast between this film and "La Marca..."

I dont regret seeing the film, I just wish it could have been better. Keep yourself alive Jacinto....

[weredog]

Sounds like a pretty B like movie.

Im annoyed that i cant find any of naschys movies on dvd here in sweden. the only ones i can find are imports and only "Werewolf vs the Vampire Woman" is a werewolf movie. but ive heard that it is dubbed, but not in all scenes so im reluctant to buying it.

Whats your recomendations for wich of his movies i should look for?

[hawkeyepierce]

I know EXACTLY what you mean ;D Im from Holland so finding this stuff if hard like hell, but boy did my life change when i got an all regions DVD player

I dont really know where to get Paul's stuff in Sweden, but should you buy or own a DVD player like mine, keep your eyes open for "El Retorno del Hombre Lobo", coming to DVD october 10th (im pissing my pants waiting for this one, im sooooo nervous)

and as far as "Fury..."is concerend, yes i geuss it is quite the B Movie, luckily most Naschy films arent. Most look cheap but are way better than other films made on the same budgets. "El Retorno del Hombre Lobo" is an exception, with a lavish budget, great sets, good make up....damn i cant wait i cant wait I CANT WAIT ;D

[hawkeyepierce]

I just had a quick look around on the net, and yes, and I can't seem to find any Naschy DVDs in Sweden at all but most DVDs are the dubbed English version.

My copy of "Werewolf vs the Vampire woman" is also dubbed, and although it's a great pitty, I really digged the movie. If not to expensive I would buy that one on DVD, it's a great starter.

If you still have your mind ste on origional language, the upcoming American Naschy DVDs, including "El Retorno del Hombre Lobo", are in origional language, with optional english subtitles (English language tracks are also include). Its one of the reasons im so excited about the releasem these things are REAL gems for Naschy fans like me

[weredog]

well, atleast you in holland have good releases of alot of giallos and zombie movies(i have a whole bunch of imports from holland).

werewolf movies overall seem to be very hard to get on dvd. often released in very few numbers and really expensive.

[hawkeyepierce]

Do we now?
Didn't realize that, but thats probadly because I'm more into classic monsters probadly. If I want to see a lumbering undead monster, Karloff is my guy!
I mostly collect Universal, Hammer (and Naschy) stuff, although I buy a bit of everything on DVD (from German silents to documantaries on John Lennon).

Werewolf movies are hard to get, yes. Especially good ones. Luckily "The Wolf-Man" with Lon Chaney Jr and "An American Werewolf in London" are widely availble

[weredog]

I to am a guy the looks alittle at most genres.

have the box sets for wolfman, dracula and frankenstein. realy good originals with some fair, and some really horrible sequels

my favourit of universals old monstermovies was the wolfman, thats the movie that made me interested in werewolf movies

[dedwyre]

I've seen four commercially-available Naschy werewolf movies here in the States: Fury of the Wolfman, Werewolf vs. the Vampire Woman, Werewolf Shadow, and Tomb of the Werewolf. I have the first two, but I've only watched WvsVW. I got it in a cheap, 3-disc, 10 movie set with a bunch of other old cult classics. I got "Fury" in a single disc, 3-movie set called "Serial Chillers." I saw "Shadow" at Best Buy a long time ago, but haven't seen it since. "Tomb" was at a number of Blockbuster stores, but I heard it was like soft-core porn, so I avoided it.

I also found out that "Frankenstein's Bloody Terror" and "Werewolf Shadow" are rentable from Netflix, which my family has an account with. I might check those out that way.

The one I really want to see is "Dr. Jekyll vs. The Werewolf," or whatever it's called.

[hawkeyepierce]

"Dr Jekyll Y el Hombre Lobo" or "Dr Jekyll and the Werewolf" is availble as an excellent Region 0 (playable on every DVD player) DVD. It's in it's origional language (Spanish) and although I haven't seen it, it sounds fab! Jack Taylor is in it as well.

I might also add that "Werewolf vs the Vampire Woman" and "Werewolf SHadow" are the same movie, "La Noche de Walpurgis". They are both different edits of the film for english speaking audiences, although I understand not that much is different. I've only seen "Werewolf Shadow".

As for "Fury..." and "Tomb..." , "Fury..." as you can read in my review, is not Naschy's best flick. But pleaaase don't let that put you off "Tomb..." is a film I don't even consider canon, I havent seen it, but Naschy had very little to do with the production, he didn't write the films screenplay as he did for other films, pity.

I can however REALLY recommend the upcoming "El Retorno del Hombre Lobo" disc if you can play 'em Region 1, and you might want to check out "Frankestein's Bloody Terror. It's a cool film, one of his best, although Shriek SHows DVD has some serious problems.

[weredog]

hey i think ive seen Dr Jekyll Y el Hombre Lobo in a second hand store just over the street. maybe i should check it out.

and i think i read somewhere that the vs vampire woman cut has scenes that were cut from the other version. however those scenes aint dubbed so it becomes quite weird.

[hawkeyepierce]

Well what I do know of the "vs Vampire Woman" version is that it's shorter, not longer. The music might also be different but ofcourse I can't be sure.

infact, the "Werewolf Shadow" version availble on DVD (at least the official release) has two extra scenes in full Spanish, wheras the rest of the film is dubbed english. These films were included to make that version the longest one availble (at least they say it is)

[weredog]

oh, ok. then i mixed up the two versions