"Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright."

Unlike Frankenstein, Dracula and The Invisible Man, The Wolf Man (1941) was not based on any book. The roots of Curt Siodmak’s screenplay come from folklore. Just like vampires, a person turning into wolves was, and still is, a popular legend in central and Eastern Europe. From these legends, Siodmak wrote the screenplay for The Wolf Man.

To be accurate, it should be noted that The Wolf Man was not the first werewolf movie to make it onto the movie screen. In 1935, Universal made the Werewolf of London. Unlike Nosferatu (1922), the first incarnation of the Dracula myth on the screen, Werewolf of London was not successful at all. So what changed this time?

Typically the tastes of an audience are a big reason why a particular movie fails. But Universal released the first werewolf tale during their first string of classic horror pictures. Dracula and Frankenstein had been made four years before, The Mummy just three and The Invisible Man two. By the time The Wolf Man was released, all of Universal’s major monsters were running out of sequels. Perhaps adding a new monster, the werewolf, to enhance the stale sequels of Universal is a reason for the success of the second foray into werewolf land.

Another major reason for the success of the movie was the inclusion of a star and a well-known, yet less established, name. Claude Rains got the role of Sir John Talbot. He demanded he get top billing and a nice addition to his bank account in return for his services. The people at Universal agreed to Rains’ terms and they were rewarded with a solid performance, but more importantly, a big name.

Another big name in horror movies was Lon Chaney. Chaney was a tremendous talent with make-up during the silent era. His Quasimodo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) and his Phantom from The Phantom of the Opera (1925) are still capable of sending chills up the spins of audience members. He had a son named Creighton, better known as Lon Chaney Jr. For the most part, Chaney Jr. had an unspectacular film career up to 1941. He was not in the same league as his father.

In 1939 he got the role of Lennie in Of Mice and Men. He was critically acclaimed. He had his big break and Universal didn’t feel as if it was much of a risk to cast him as Larry Talbot in The Wolf Man. Chaney Jr. would go on to play the werewolf role in the sequels Universal made. He also got to play many of the other horror monsters in the long string of sequels.

The supporting cast is stellar in this movie. Bela Lugosi plays Bela, the fortune teller and first werewolf. Evelyn Ankers is good in the female lead. Maria Ouspenskaya is brilliant as a gypsy. It seems odd watching the movie today and seeing gypsies in it. There just aren’t that many gypsies in today’s world.

It would be hard to remake this movie today because of the relative lack of belief today’s audiences have regarding gypsies. But that doesn’t stop Hollywood, because a remake has been announced. The movie is expected to be released in 2009, probably around this time.

Much like the remake of King Kong (1933), I expect this remake to upgrade the special effects of the movie, but completely miss the boat when it comes to the story. That is what typically happens in today’s Hollywood. Jack Pierce was in charge of the special effects on this movie. He did a great job turning Lon Chaney Jr.’s body into a wolf’s. The costume worn by Chaney was made of yak hair. It took him hours of make-up each day to pull off the look. You have to hand it to people like Jack Pierce who were talented enough to make a believable costume without the aide of computers. It is unfortunate that today’s filmmakers are too lazy to figure out creative ways to deal with similar problems. They just hand their problems off to computer geeks who CGI it all.