THE WOLF MAN (1941) - THE UNIVERSAL CLASSIC MONSTER COMES ALIVE AT 85!!

THE WOLF MAN (1941) d. George Waggner (USA)
FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN (1943) d. Roy William Neill (USA)
HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1944) d. Erle C. Kenton (USA)
HOUSE OF DRACULA (1945) d. Erle C. Kenton (USA)
ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (1948) d. Charles T. Barton (USA)

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“Even a man who is pure of heart, and says his prayers by night
May become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms, and the autumn moon is bright.”

As any good horror fan knows, these words foreshadow the nightmare to come in Universal Studios’ classic monster flick, The Wolf Man. Produced/directed by George Waggner in 1941, this howling good b/w film introduced audiences to a character that stands alongside Frankenstein’s Monster and Dracula as one of the “Unholy Three,” the most recognized of the Universal monsters.

After eighteen years in America, Lawrence Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr) returns home to England. Attempting to save a young woman on the moors, Larry bludgeons a wolf to death with a silver-handled walking stick and is bitten in the melee. At first dismissive of the stories of werewolves, he becomes convinced of his fate after he awakens one morning with mud on his feet, paw prints on the carpet, and unable to remember the previous night’s events.

Writer Curt Siodmak researched European folklore on the werewolf legend, but it was his fertile imagination that gave us many of the cinematic “truths” about werewolves, such as shape-shifting under the full moon, pentagram markings, and the cursed beast’s vulnerability to silver. Even more remarkable, these concepts have since taken root as real, old-world folklore.

Alongside Chaney is a terrific cast that includes Claude Rains as his stiff-necked father, Evelyn Ankers, Ralph Bellamy, Bela Lugosi, and Russian stage actress Maria Ouspenskaya. Filmed entirely on the Universal backlot, the thick forest filled with old gnarled trees provides the perfect backdrop for the werewolf’s prowl, dense fog hugging the forest floor, with the whole film drenched in creepy atmosphere. Make-up master Jack Pierce was responsible for Chaney’s transformation, using everything from yak hair, collodion, spirit gum, stranded kelp and cotton, with the complete process taking up to six hours.

Join AC and his awesome panel of guests (Larry Fessenden, Rob Galluzzo, Daniel Kiggins, Tom Mula, Lee Price) as we head back 85 years to the 1940s silver age of Universal to witness the birth of a new horror star in Lon Chaney and a new horror icon in THE WOLF MAN!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bi-vNf-C3hQ

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