Movie review - "An American Werewolf in London" (1981) ****

 John Landis' classic? A fresh, energetic take on werewolf movies, where the horror is straight but it loves the legacy, and has plenty of humour. David Naughton is so likeable in the lead it's a wonder he didn't have a bigger career - Griffin Dunne also very winning, and Jenny Agutter is magical as the perfect fantasy nurse.

I enjoy how Landis keeps the tension and pace going via violent dream sequences. Transformation is extraordinarily well done. 

Movie review - "Cry of the Werewolf" (1944) **

 Henry Levin's first film as director, or one of the first, is a knock off of Cat People about a Romani woman who can turn into a wolf at will.

Cast is interesting - Nina Foch, Stephen Crane (who married Lana Turner and fathered her daughter - he's not much of an actor),  Barton Maclane.

This is okay. It gets better in the last third when Osa Massen goes full evil. Crane is fairly dreadful. Moves fast. 

Top Ten John Landis

 Here we go...

1) Animal House (1978) - I didn't like it when I saw it as a kid but then when I saw it later and understood the jokes it was lots of fun

2) Kentucky Fried Movie (1977) - often forgotten he directed this lots of fun

3) The Blues Brothers (1980) - chaotic, hilarious, musical, gosh there must've been cocaine

4) An American Werewolf in London (1981) - again didn't get this til later, had to appreciate it was a horror film not a comedy

5) Trading Places (1983) - smart, funny, always loved it

6) Innocent Blood (1992) - flopped but I think it's great, sexy, scary

7) Spies Like Us (1985) - clever, subversive, Chase and Aykroyd are a good team

8) Coming to America (1988) - fun, elaborate comedy

9) Into the Night (1985) - flawed, I can see why it flopped, but full of wonderful things

10) Thriller (1984) - splendid video

The film I wish he'd directed: Dick Tracy.

Movie review - "House of Dracula" (1945) **1/2 (re-watching)

 A film with plenty of style and charm - the monster, John Carradine, Lon Chaney as the Wolf Man - and some interesting additions like the hunchback assistant.

It's just frustrating what they don't do. I mean, who cares about Onslow Stevens, and why have him just as a random doctor - why not make him Dr Frankenstein, or a relative, or the invisible man. John Carradine or Lugosi should've played this role. I don't like Carradine as Dracula much but admit he's closer to Stoker.

Lionel Atwill is on hand, and Chaney is great. But the Monster is wasted, there's not enough Dracula or Wolfman... and as the film went on it started to annoy me. And I don't like that about these films.

Movie review - "Zombies 3" (2022) **

 I know why they went for aliens, I get it... it doesn't feel right somehow though. It felt as though the newcomers should be something more earth bound - like say mermaids or something. There's too much plot towards the end.

But a nice cast, and breezy tunes. There's even a hint at a lesbian relationship between a werewolf and an alien. Why is that girl on the screen the whole time?

Movie review - "Zombies 2" (2020) **1/2

 They bring in werewolves for this. Song and dance numbers are still great as are the stars. The love triangle hinted at with the leads might've been more effectively developed. Bright and cheerful. Good fun.

Movie review - "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" (1948) ***** (warning: spoilers)

Some comfort food in difficult times. The lead duo are in good form, the concept of all these women throwing themselves at Costello is hilarious, the house of horrors is solid, I loved the party and the lab.

It's got the handsome production values of a studio picture, the script is well thought out, and all the characters have a purpose even the male juvenile. The female roles actually have some meat on them.

But the true stars are Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney - the latter in particular brings genuine pathos. And Lugosi is so good it's bewildering this didn't kick off more of a comeback.

Movie review - "The Howling" (1981) ***

I don't think Joe Dante is a great visual stylist - not up with say Spielberg or Carpenter - but his films always have a lot of neat stuff in them. They tend to be smart because he uses good writers like John Sayles, there are plenty of film in jokes (eg several characters here named after werewolf movie directors, cameos from Roger Corman), and there's lots going on. So you forgive the odd dodgy blocking of scenes.

The basic story isn't bad - reporter Dee Wallace is almost killed in a sting operation so to recover she goes to a colony run by doctor Patrick Macnee. There is a central theme of natural instincts vs being able to control them which actually could have been treated seriously and been entertaining but the film only touches on it - there's more satire of self help movements, which does fit in the theme.

Wallace shares hero duties with three others - the couple Dennis Dugan and Belinda Balaski who have surprisingly large roles, and Chris Stone, who plays her husband. Stone turns, giving the piece good drama - though it's Dugan who becomes the hero at the end. Progressive Sayles ensure the women have plenty to do.

The first half is slow but there's plenty of werewolf action at the end. The leads are solid but the stand out parts are the support cast - Dick Miller as a book salesman who lists the rules, Elisabeth Brooks as a nympho (I swear she was nude in some versions but wasn't in the one I saw), Patrick Macnee as the doctor, John Carradine as a crazy old codger, Robert Picardo as a rapist. I can't believe Brooks didn't come back for any sequels she has a great horror movie presence.

Rob Bottin's effects are fun.

Movie review - "Cry of the Werewolf" (1961) ***

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.

Movie review - "The Mad Monster" (1942) ** (re-viewing)

PRC seems to have splashed out a little more than usual for this werewolf movie - or maybe it was just better designed and shot. The production values seem relatively high, as George Zucco tries to breed a race of killer werewolves to help win the war (good on you, George!). He does experiments in the basement on Glenn Strange, who when non-werewolf-y, runs around imitating Lon Chaney Jnr in Of Mice and Men - but when the serum hits he turns into a werewolf.

Like so many of these low budget horror films this starts off with a bang, but then slows down, and struggles to sustain interest whenever the action switches to the inexperienced supporting players. Part of the reason why the Universal horror films held up so well was the quality of the support cast and subplots - these struggled on poverty row.

At 77 minutes it feels long. They should have ditched the support cast and focused more on Zucco and his patriotic monsters - that's a genuinely different aspect not really developed. It does have one other shocking aspect - the monster kills a kid. Not bad, but eventually disappointing after a strong beginning.

Movie review - "The Beast Must Die" (1975) *1/2

Amicus' last horror movie is one of their most bizarre: Calvin Lockhart invites a bunch of friends to a country estate hoping to expose one of them as a werewolf. It's a real mixture of things - you've got the blaxploitation element, with Lockhart cast in a very British story (which does make for some interesting colour blind casting); there's a Ten Little Indians type plot, with a bunch of suspects gathered at a house, only the gimmick being one of them is werewolf; there's a real mix in the cast, which includes Peter Cushing and Michael Gambon.

To make the experience even odder the filmmakers throw in a "werewolf break" where you get to guess who the werewolf is, a quite effective emotional ending where someone bitten by the wolf kills themselves, some terrible fashions and awful music. It feels like a wacked out episode of an early 70s British TV show.

Not a good movie by any stretch of the imagination but at least different.

Radio review - BBC - "Rumpole and the Teenage Werewolf" (2009) by John Mortimer **1/2

A great title but a disappointingly tame entry as Rumpole defends a young man accused of sexually attacking others. It lacks a decent work subplot, there's not enough of the werewolf angle and the conclusion is too easy to spot (and easy for the accused to get out of - his delay is frustrating). Of course there are some good gags and moments, and Timothy West and Prunella Scales were terrific as Rumpole and Hilda but it's not enough.

Movie review - "Teen Wolf Too" (1989) **

We've grown so used to Jason Bateman Mark 2 that it's a shock to remember how long he's been around. He gives a nice enough performance in this unnecessary sequel, which gets points for trying to keep continuity: we see a return of Styles (a new actor - did the old one turn it down?), Chubby, the coach, the assistant Dean, Scott's Dad. Bateman's character has more of a goal - he's really into science - and a really pretty "girl next door" co-star, with John Astin providing decent support as a greedy dean. But the adventures are almost exactly the same with boxing instead of basketball (not a good swap since boxing is individual). There's a singing-a-60s-song sequence inspired by Ferris Bueller's Day Off and two hot bad girls instead of one which creates vision of werewolf threesomes which are not followed through. 'Send Me an Angel' is on the soundtrack.

Movie review - "Teen Wolf" (1985) **

Michael J Fox was so hot in 1985 I remember the scream from girls in the audience as his name went up on screen. But despite the terrific title this underwhelmed me as a kid and it remains so - no real good gags, or scenes. I guess it was funny how he uses his voice to order beer, and the scene where he's seduced by the blonde is hot. 

But most of this is dull, obvious ("you gotta be yourself"), encourages dangerous behaviour (surfing on top of a van) and poorly structured (if Fox doesn't really want to be a basketball player what are the stakes of him playing). It's also oppressive - "the good girl" doesn't seem particularly interested in anything Fox thinks or wants about the future, she's always invoking his father and nostalgia about them growing up together or defending the home town. 

A lot more depth in I Was a Teenage Werewolf.

Script review – “The Howling” by John Sayles (warning: spoilers)

I was never that big a fan of the film and didn’t love the screenplay. It’s written with Sayles’ customary intelligence and skill but for some reason it didn’t come alive. I couldn’t put my finger on it. 

 

The story is about a woman reporter who puts herself in a great deal of risk confronting a rapist killer – he attacks her but get shot, so she heads to a Colony run by her doctor to get better. She finds out the colony is full of werewolves. 

 

 This is meant to be tongue in cheek but I didn’t get that impression reading it. It felt fairly serious; the death toll isn’t that high but it has a heavy mood because of the opening sequence, and the fact that the lead is so traumatised. Also her marriage is suffering, her husband and good friend die (the friend quite bloodily), and she has herself killed on national television (a terrific ending).  

 

I think people were distracted by the satire of therapy groups and the fact that so many characters are named after the director of werewolf films: Lew Landers, Roy William Neill, George Waggner, John Brahm, Erle Kenyon, Charlie Barton. 

 

There are some good bits – like the white trash nympho (her love scene is the bit I remember most from the movie), the ending, the imagination. Like all successful werewolf films it’s essentially a tragedy. But I can’t help it, I enjoyed Piranha more (maybe escaped-animals-going-down-river simply had more built-in pace).

Radio review – Suspense – “The House in Cypress Canyon” (1946) ****

Robert Taylor is famous for being a pretty boy movie star, i.e. one who rose to fame on his looks – but he also had an excellent speaking voice (something I admit I’d never appreciated before), well demonstrated here. 

It’s a genuinely creepy tale somewhat along the lines of The Amityville Horror about a couple who move into a house where there's creepy stuff going on, including blood seeping out from under a closet and a wife who may be a werewolf. Howard Duff is among the support cast. The script is here.

Movie review – “The Wolfman” (2010) ***

It took me a while to warm up to this remake of the 1941 classic, but once I did, I started to enjoy it. Benicio del Toro isn't quite as moving or tragic as Lon Chaney Jnr, Anthony Hopkins is mean spirited in the Claude Rains role and Emily Blunt very pretty in a not-much part. Impressive production design and special effects: the wolf man really cuts loose in this one, running riot through the fields and in London. He takes out a fair few innocent people - the death toll is high - so he does lack sympathy. The expressionistic, trippy sequences work well.

Movie review – “Curse of the Werewolf” (1961) **

Bad screenwriting 101 – have a film about a werewolf but don’t introduce him as an adult until 45 minutes in! 45 minutes! Then start the adult section plot – with love interest and friends, etc but don’t have a werewolf attack until 60 minutes in. And it takes forever to get going – setting up this beggar arriving in town, going to the wedding, thrown in gaol, years pass, woman thrown in gaol, rape, kill aristocrat, give birth and die, young kid, kid does attack… it takes forever. It’s a major shame too since there’s lots of intelligent ideas and the concept of a were wold as someone haunted by good and evil is intriguing… but here the bloke turns into a wolf after one visit to a nightclub. There’s no real emotional investment the way we had with Larry Talbot, say.

 

And it’s a major shame since this could have been one of the Hammer classics. It’s got style to spare, tremendous production value, a strong cast – including the emergence of a new Hammer star, Oliver Reed, who is dynamic – brooding, good looking, doomed. A better film or bigger role (he’s only in the second half) and he could have been the next Lee or Cushing for the company (as it is they still used him in a number of films). Terence Fisher’s direction is vigorous, too. 

 

I should add this film does have it's fans but it's a small cult and the film wasn't popular with the public.

Movie review – “The Mad Monster” (1942) **

If you couldn’t get Belga Lugosi or Lionel Atwill to play your mad scientist during the 1940s, George Zucco was always willing to step into the breach. This film is a sort of remake of Lugosi’s The Devil Bat with a werewolf instead of a bat. Zucco spends his days in the basement transporting his gardener into a werewolf; originally his intention was to make a super army but now he’s after his former colleagues who laughed at him. (I remember growing up the main impressions I had of academia was of squabbling mad scientists in old horror films.)

Zucco was a different sort of mad scientist, Zucco – more soft spoken, gentle looking. But there’s no denying the gleam in his eye; he’s having a high old time and is the best thing about this movie. It’s also fun to see Glenn Strange, who played Frankenstein’s monster a number of times, in a sort of Lon Chaney Jnr part as a simpleton unknowingly experimented on by Zucco.

Some neat touches – Zucco arguing with imagined versions of his old uni colleagues, the spooky country setting, the fact the werewolf actually kills a little girl. The wolf make up isn’t bad. On the debit side – this is relative, the whole thing is a low budget cheapie – it drags a bit around the two third mark, is a bit long (75 minutes, which is long for this sort of movie)

Movie review – “She-Wolf of London” (1946) ** (warning: spoilers)

Reasonably enjoyable knock-off of Cat People and Gaslight, with June Lockhart (looking a lot like Anne) being convinced that she’s a werewolf and is killing people, so she doesn’t want to marry her nice fiancée (Don Porter). But it’s only a rellie trying to drive her insane , so there’s no werewolf action – which is a shame, since it would be great to see a female werewolf.

There’s a cute scene between Porter and Lochkart where the writer shows off his research by making reference to Plato and Shakespeare and societies who worshipped wolves. But the best bit is the end where Sara Haden has a knife and tells Lockhart she’s going to kill her – even though it’s silly Haden would confess, it’s fun to see the aunt from the Andy Hardy movies in psycho mode (she falls down the stairs and impales herself on the knife which is full on).