I liked this a lot more on second viewing because I knew going in that Oliver Reed didn't appear until half way through. It remains a mistake... this is half a brilliant film... the second half, with Reed superb as the tormented man who is a werewolf and killer. Clifford Evans isn't very good in the Claude Rains bit as his dad... which is important because we should really feel it when Evans kills Reed at the end.
The first half is fine... it just could've all been conveyed via exposition. Setting up the beggar, then the Marquis, then putting him in prison, then having him attack the mute girl, then having the mute girl escape.
Really they should've started it with Reed as an adult... or, if pushed, with Evans discovering Yvette Romain (Reed's mother). And they should've kept the Marquis (Anthony Dawson) alive as a villain or else not had him at all. It's a mess.
But the film has pleasures: Terence Fisher's direction is excellent, as is the music, the sets, the production design, etc.
NB I went to a talk on this movie at Creature Features in Burbank, LA. Yvonne Romain from the film was there being Q and A'd... and her husband Leslie Bricusse. I had read a lot about "Leslie and Evie" being a couple and didn't realise that she was Evie. It was a lovely Q and A - she basically had nice things to say about everyone though they did have a decent Oliver Reed story or two. Most of the nerds didn't know who Leslie Bricusse was. I went up and chatted to both of them - asked her about Chips Rafferty on Double Trouble (she couldn't remember him) and asked Leslie about Tom Mankiewicz. Nice afternoon.
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