Werewolf of London
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Werewolf of London | |
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| Directed by | Stuart Walker |
| Produced by | Stanley Bergerman |
| Written by | Robert Harris (story) John Cotton |
| Starring | Henry Hull Warner Oland Valerie Hobson Lester Matthews Spring Byington Clark Williams Lawrence Grant |
| Music by | Karl Hajos |
| Cinematography | Charles J. Stumar |
| Editing by | Russell F. Schoengarth Milton Carruth |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) |  May 13, 1935 |
| Running time | 75 minutes |
| Language | English, Tibetan, Latin |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Werewolf of London is a werewolf movie starring Henry Hull and produced in 1935 by Universal Pictures. Jack Pierce's eerie werewolf make-up was simpler than his version that appeared six years later for The Wolf Man but, according to film historians, remains strikingly effective as worn by Hull.
Werewolf of London was the first Hollywood mainstream werewolf movie and is the oldest extant werewolf movie; it was preceded by the lost The Werewolf (1913).
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[edit] Plot
Wilfred Glendon is a wealthy and world-renowned English botanist who journeys to Tibet in 1935 in search of the elusive mariphasa plant. While there, he is attacked and bitten by a creature later revealed to be a werewolf, although he succeeds in acquiring a specimen of the mariphasa. Once back home in London he is approached by a fellow botanist, Dr. Yogami, who claims to have met him in Tibet while also seeking the mariphasa. Yogami warns Glendon that the bite of a werewolf would cause him to become a werewolf as well, adding that the mariphasa is a temporary antidote for the disease.
Glendon does not believe the mysterious Yogami. That is, not until he begins to experience the first pangs of lycanthropy, first when his hand grows fur beneath the rays of his moon lamp (which he is using in an effort to entice the mariphasa to bloom), and later that night during the first full moon. The first time, Glendon is able to use a blossom from the mariphasa to stop his transformation. His wife Lisa is away at her aunt Ettie's party with her friend, former childhood sweetheart Paul Ames (Lester Matthews seventeen years older than his "childhood sweetheart"), allowing the swiftly-transforming Glendon to make his way unhindered to his at-home laboratory, in the hopes of acquiring the mariphasa's flowers in the hopes of quelling his lycanthropy a second time. Unfortunately Dr. Yogami, who is also a werewolf (specifically the one who had bitten Glendon in Tibet) sneaks into the lab ahead of his rival and steals the only two blossoms. As the third has not bloomed, Glendon is out of luck.
Driven by an instinctive desire to hunt and kill, dons his hat and coat and ventures out into the dark city, killing an innocent girl. Burdened by remorse, Glendon begins neglecting Lisa (more so than usual), and makes numerous futile attempts to lock himself up far and away from home, including renting a room far from home at the inn, or with Mrs. Whack and Mrs. Moncaster. However, whenever he transforms into the werewolf he would escape and kill again. After a time, the third blossum of the mariphasa finally blooms, but much to Glendon's horror, that too is stolen by Yogami. After turning into the werewolf yet again and slaying Yogami, Glendon goes the house in search of Lisa, for the werewolf instinctively seeks to destroy that which it loves the most.
After attacking Paul Ames, but not killing him, Glendon corners Lisa on the staircase and is about to move in for the kill, when Paul's uncle, Col. Sir Thomas Forsythe of Scotland Yard, arrives with several police officers in tow. He shoots Glendon once, killing the werewolf of London. As he lays dying, Glendon apologizes to his wife and thanks Col. Forsythe for the merciful bullet. He then perishes, reverting to his human form in death.
[edit] Sound & Make-Up
Jack Pierce's original werewolf design for Henry Hull was identical to the one used later in The Wolf Man, but it was rejected in favor of a minimalist approach that was less obscuring to facial expressions. The werewolf's howl was an audio blend of Hull and a recording of an actual timber wolf, an approach which was never duplicated in any subsequent werewolf film. Also, at the beginning of the film, the supposed "Tibetan" spoken by villagers in the movie is actually Cantonese Chinese; Henry Hull is otherwise just muttering gibberish in his responses to them.
[edit] Reaction
The movie was regarded at the time as too similar to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with Fredric March, which had been released only three years before, and flopped at the box-office, but has been regarded by cinema historians as an imaginative classic. One striking similarity between the two films is that each time the man becomes a monster, the monster looks markedly more monstrous than the time before, a feature found in Robert Louis Stevenson's novella Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as well as most of the movies based upon it.
[edit] Cast
- Henry Hull as Dr. Glendon
- Warner Oland as Dr. Yogami
- Valerie Hobson as Lisa Glendon
- Lester Matthews as Paul Ames
- Lawrence Grant as Sir Thomas Forsythe
- Spring Byington as Miss Ettie Coombes
- Clark Williams as Hugh Renwick
- J.M. Kerrigan as Hawkins
- Charlotte Granville as Lady Forsythe
- Ethel Griffies as Mrs. Whack
- Zeffie Tilbury as Mrs. Moncaster
- Jeanne Bartlett as Daisy
[edit] Casting Notes
Regarding the cast, Bela Lugosi was considered for the role of Dr. Yogami. Spring Byington, the star of the 1950s sitcom December Bride, played the role of Aunt Ettie. Three years earlier she had also portrayed Marmee, the mother in Little Woman with Katharine Hepburn. Some consider Miss Byington's performance to be the best in the film. Her comedic abilities created a more up-beat ambience which led to some reviews describing the movie as "delightful" rather than "horrific". Valerie Hobson, who played Hull's character's wife, also played Dr. Henry Frankenstein's kidnapped wife that same year in The Bride of Frankenstein.
Lester Matthews plays Paul Ames, who is supposed to be five years older than Valerie Hobson's character. During filming Matthews was 35, and Hobson was 18.
[edit] Novelizations
The story has been novelized twice. The first time was in 1977, a paperback novel written by an unknown author under the pseudonym of "Carl Dreadstone," as part of a short-lived series of books based on the classic Universal horror films. The novel is told from the point of view of Wilfred Glendon (whose first name is now inexplicably spelled "Wilfrid") and thus follows an almost entirely different story structure than the film. In particular it has a different ending. Rather than turning into a werewolf, killing Yogami, and then being shot by Sir Thomas, Glendon decides to cooperate with Yogami and they both attempt to control their transformations through hypnotism. However the plan fails, the hypnotist is killed, and Glendon and Yogami both transform and fight to the death. Glendon wins, killing Yogami, and returns to human form afterwards. The novel then ends with Glendon, alive, contemplating using the hypnotist's gun to commit suicide rather than go on living as a werewolf.
The second time was in 1985, as part of Crestwood House's hardcover Movie Monsters series, again based on the old Universal films. This time, the author was Carl Green, and was considerably shorter and followed the plot of the film more closely and was illustrated extensively with still photos of the movie.
