THE WOLF MAN / MAN TURNED BEAST... - 1941

Us guys here at The Dungeon are on a binge to find all the great stuff from the thirties and forties that we haven't reviewed yet, like today's post, THE WOLF MAN, so hold on to your hats! Our story goes like this... Larry Talbot returns to his ancestral home in Wales after his brother (who looked exactly like Larry) dies. One night, him, Gwen Conliffe and Jenny Williams are out for a walk in the woods where Jenny's  picking some Wolf's Bane flowers. They end up at a local carnival where they meet a mysterious gypsy fortune teller named Bela...

This classic horror tale stars Lon (SON OF DRACULA) Chaney, Claude (THE INVISIBLE MAN) Rains, Warren (THE CASE OF THE VELVET CLAWS) Williams, Ralph (THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN) Bellamy, Patric (FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN) Knowles, Bela (THE INVISIBLR RAY) Lugosi, Maria (TARZAN AND THE AMAZONS) Ouspenskaya and Evelyn (THE FROZEN GHOST) Ankers.

So, Larry has come home after his bro dies, he settles in and helps his father repair his telescope. The one thing about this movie that really bugs me is that no way is Claude Rains Larry's father, they look nothing alike and are about a foot difference in height. That includes his dead brother who looks exactly like Larry!! They must have had a wild looking mom!

Larry looks through the telescope and sees a heavenly image, and goes to her shop to meet her. It's also weird that Gwen doesn't recognize Larry when his brother had lived there for years!! Anyway, Larry buys a cane with a wolf's head handle and she tells him some of the history behind the wolf's head, and it involves werewolves!

The night Larry, Gwen and Jenny go to the carnival, Jenny wants her fortune told so Bela invites her into his tent for a reading. Bela asks to hold her hands, and he sees the pentagram on her palm. He then tells her that she needs to run away from the area and get to somewhere safe.

Well, Jenny is attacked and killed by a wolf and the animal then attacks Larry when he comes to help. Larry ends up killing the wolf with his cane after being bitten on the chest...

At the murder scene, the authorities confirms that Jenny was killed by a wolf, but there's no wolf! Instead, they find Bela face down, dead. They also notice that he isn't wearing any shoes. Another weird thing, Jenny and Larry were both clearly attacked by a wolf, not a monster wearing clothes!

And guess what, they found Larry's cane at the murder scene! Clearly, Larry killed Bela with his cane by mistake in the heat of the battle with the wolf.

Larry finds Maleva and needs to know the answers to his questions. Unfortunately, she only has bad news for him...

And it isn't long before Larry's out looking for more victims. He finds a grounds keeper at the graveyard and deep-sixes him!.. Ironic!

By now Larry's convinced that he's a werewolf so dad brings in Dr. Lloyd to talk with his son. But, the doctor and friends there all say that it just has to be Larry's imagination.

Well, it's definitely NOT his imagination! This part kills me, poor Larry has stepped into a large trap set out for him by the authorities and it's clinging to his ankle as he writhes in agony. He passes out and turns back to his human form. He awakens and hobbles back to his house, even past the authorities because he was Larry Talbot, and not a werewolf!

Larry does not know what to do! He wants to see Gwen but as he's talking with her, he sees a pentagram on her palm, he freaks out and runs into the night.

He goes home and has his father tie him to a chair and lock the doors and windows, to assure that he will be restrained and can't do any harm, if he does so happen to change into the dreaded wolf man!

While the authorities keep up the search for the werewolf, Maleva rides by in her cart. Larry's dad stops her and wants to know why she's filling his son's head with all those crazy ideas. But the wise old lady has a few things to say herself.

Of course, Gwen is next!

So, dad ends up killing his own son, finally realizing that Larry was right all along... Don't worry, Gwen is okay, but it's not a happy ending.

We'll end with this very cool Mexican poster! Check in tomorrow, here at The Dungeon!