Didnt they go with the less hairy guy cause they thought itd be cencored otherwise? I think i heard that in some documentary.
Well the book gives the same version as Noel but then perhaps it was a bit of both. Since i'm totally bored witless and the book is sat right next to me i'm gonna give you a break down of what's actually in it. Okay so the chapters are divided into years (a bit like Noel's site!) and has 2 page features intermingled between:
*Introduction: Intro by Curt Siodmak who wrote The Wolf Man.
*The Silents: Featuring The Werewolf, an 18min short that was loosely based on Henry Beaugrands "The Werewolves". Apparently all footage was distroyed in a fire in 1924 and The White Wolf; short in which a wolf caught in a trap transforms into a native american medicine man.
*Pierce de Resistance: Feature on Jack P Pierce who designed The Wolf Man's now legendary make-up.
*The 1930s: Featuring Henry Hull's preformance in the Werewolf of London and French film La Loup Garou in which an escaped convict explains to his young son that he is always on th run because a werewolf is chasing him.
*The Way He Walked...: Feature about the life of Hollywoods most famous Lycanthorpe Lon Chaney Jnr.
*The 1940s: Featuring The Wolf Man (nothing needs adding here!) and Frankeinstein meets The Wolf Man, which universal considered a sequel to the Lon's original film.
*King of the B's: Feature on the writer and producer Vladmir (Vlad) Ivan Lewton who credits includw The Cat People, The Curse of the Cat People, The Body Snatcher, Isle of the Dead and Bedlam (The last three all featured Boris Karloff)
*Curt Comments: Feature on Curt Siodmack who wrote The Wolf Man.
*The 1950s: Featuring Michael Landon in I Was a Tennage Werewolf and Daughter of Dr. Jekyll which is actually a movie about a male werewolf.
*The 1960s: Featuring Oliver Reed's performance in The Curse of the Werewolf and La Marca Del Hombre Lobo (Frankeinstein's Bloody Terror) written and staring Paul Naschy. Apprently Amercian audiences were offered a free burial to anyone who died of fright during the movie!
*The 1970s: Featuring the classics such as The Beast Must Die staring Peter Cushing and Legend of the Werewolf also starring Peter Cushing.
* El Hombre Lobo: Feature on Paul Naschy and his character Waldemar Daninsky. Interestingly the part was originally offered to Lon Chaney Jnr but he turned it down due to ill health and Naschy then made the role his own.
*The 1980s: Featuring 2 of cinema's greatest werewolf movies; The Howling (1980) and An Amercian Werewolf in London (1981) Their successes saw a revival of werewolf movies not seen since Lon Chaney Jnr days, with movies such as Silver Bulliet, Teen Wolf, The Company of Wolves, 2 more Naschy movies, etc
*The 1990s: Featured more Howling sequels, Full Eclipse and Jack Nicholson in Wolf.
*Later Lycanthropes: Feature about the advances in make-up and how they affected the design of later werewolves.
*Appendix 1: Beasts on TV - A look at the various tv shows to have featured werewolves and other such creatures.
*Appendix 2: Index of Film Reviews
Well there you have it. The only thing i found slightly disapointing about this book was that it was published in 1996 and so many of the films that came after that are not featured, the most notable being Bad Moon which was made in 1996 and must have been released after publication. And as yet, there are no plans to revise and update the book.
