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"Even
a man who's pure in heart and says his prayers by night ..."
THE WOLF
MAN is one of my favorites of the Universal Horror canon,
a tragic drama of one man's fate, and an inadvertent warning
against good samaritanism. When Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney,
Jr.) runs to the aid of a young woman who's being attacked
by what Larry believes to be a wolf, he is bitten in the process
of killing the creature. He is told by Maleva, an old gypsy
woman, that what he killed was not a real wolf, but a werewolf:
and that whoever is bitten by a werewolf and lives will himself
become a werewolf.
Much to
his horror, he soon finds that her story is not just a "witch's
tale," but a fact. As he comes to understand that he's doomed,
everyone else (including his stern father, played to perfection
by the great Claude Raines), insist that there must be a natural
explanation for the killings that are occurring in the village.
THE WOLF
MAN is a cut above the average horror. Besides a heart rending
story that is full of pathos, the film is blessed with a first
rate cast. In addition to Chaney and Raines, there is the
beautiful Evelyn Ankers as Talbot's love interest, Ralph Bellamy,
Bela Lugosi, and Maria Ouspenskaya as the no-nonsense gypsy
woman who is the only person who understands and helps Talbot.
Video: How Does The Disc Look?
The picture
is problematic. Black level and contrast are very good, and
the picture is sharp without edge enhancement. It is also
so wonderfully clear that you can easily make out the faked
initial shot of Talbot Castle, and for the first time I could
distinctly see the pentagram on Lugosi's forehead when he
pauses during the palm reading. But the print is not in particularly
good condition: there are lots of blips throughout, as well
as a prominent dark black vertical line that fades off and
on throughout the lengthy key scene in which the lovers and
their friend, Jenny, go to have their fortunes told. But there
are some more annoying problems as well.
During the
first twenty minutes or so (the film is only 70 minutes long),
there's an occasional pulling to the left of the top part
of the picture. It happens several times, and though not bad
enough (or noticeable enough) to be really distracting, it
was at least disconcerting. But the most annoying part of
the video was that the picture very noticeably jerked at every
scene change: the current scene fades out, and when the next
scene has fully faded in, the right side of the picture jerks
downward sharply as if the picture is falling into (or being
locked into) place. Very annoying.
Audio: How Does the Disc Sound?
The sound
is Dolby Digital 2.0 channel mono, and is pretty good. The
music is a little muddy at the very beginning, and it seemed
to me that for the first 15 minutes or so the dialogue was
awfully low compared to the music, which I don't remember
being true of the LD (regrettably, the LD wasn't available
for comparison). However, both low and high tones were, for
the most part, very good.
Supplements: What Goodies Are There? Once again,
Universal has provided a wealth of nice extras.
Monster by Moonlight, a documentary billed as being
about the making of The Wolf Man, but is really more like
a history of werewolf stories on film in general. It included
interviews with Curt Siodmak, who wrote the screenplay, and
Rick Baker who discuses the makeup. It was entertaining enough,
I guess, but there was far more speculation than fact. And
a good chunk of it was an interview with a pair of men who
are preparing to record the music from the Universal Horror
pictures, who discuss the music in the kind of detail that
would make your eyes glaze over at a cocktail party. The documentary
is hosted by John Landis, who is scarier on his own than anything
in the movie!
Also included
is a screen-specific audio commentary with Film Historian
Tom Weaver: Weaver delivers a very conversational commentary,
only some of which is screen-specific, with a lot of interesting
details about the film and the backgrounds of the cast. This
was much more entertaining than the majority of the commentaries
I've heard, and Weaver is blessed with a flexible (if speedy)
voice that spares us the monotone that has marred many disc
commentaries.
Up next
is The Wolf Man Archives a six-minute presentation
of posters, lobby cards, and production stills from the film.
The stills in particular, which include Evelyn Ankers clipping
the wolf man's claws, are hilarious. Production notes
and biographies/filmographies of the cast and director.
The original theatrical trailer, which is in such poor
condition that you can barely see what's going on on screen.
And Universal web links.
Parting Thoughts
As I said
in my review of The
Mummy, all these supplements are fine and dandy, but I
wish to God that Universal would spend more sprucing up the
films themselves than they do on the extras. This transfer
should've been a lot better.
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