I was prompted to re-watch this after reading Tom Weaver's book on the film. It's engaging and silly and not that good but the basic story is fine and the cast a delight. Raymond Burr is very good in the Lon Chaney Jnr type part as a sweaty plantation foreman in love with the boss' wife (Barbara Payton) - shades of The Letter. He kills the boss then starts turning into a creature.
Payton isn't very good - she's pretty and has a knockout figure but her eyes are dead. She never seems committed to a scene or the moment - I don't think she was that into acting, more her personal life. She does have a nice romantic scene with Burr.
Lon Chaney Jnr is on hand to play a local policeman and Tom Conway is lots of fun as a doctor. The movie lacks sympathetic characters that were so prevalent in The Wolf Man - that had Chaney, Evelyn Ankers and Claude Rains. This has murderer Burr, cheating Payton, sweaty Chaney.
We also don't get much killer animal stuff. A few scenes, but not a lot. Still, it's fun, unpretentious stuff.
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