Steinesongo Too many fans seem to be blown away

BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Kimball Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

spencergrande6 Preceding Universal's own The Wolf Man by a good 6 years (and the eponymous song by even more than that), Werewolf of London is a surprisingly nimble delight. It's brisk, sly and spattered with scenes of welcome comic relief. The central story is rather basic, a man transforming during the full moon to hunt the one he loves. This person being his wife, of course, whom he has neglected in order to pursue his studies, which ironically winds up saving her life.The main character isn't very sympathetic. He isn't redeemed in any real sense (he basically just apologizes on his death bed). There are some erratic scenes involving drunken revelry, adultery and carnivorous plants (that leads to this gem of a line, "Evolution was in a strange mood when that creation came long.") It's all pleasant in a passable matinée sense.And the makeup is quite good. As good as The Wolfman no matter what anyone tries to say, and honestly the lack of that old woman hairdo almost makes it better. The transformation scenes smartly use single takes with use of foregrounding and slight movements to cut between transitions to show the process in motion. It works surprisingly well (better than CGI even!).

Bill Slocum As Hollywood's first sound treatment of the wolfman legend, "Werewolf Of London" scores points for setting the stage. But it squanders them with plodding exposition, labored comedy, weak scare scenes, and an insufferable central performance by Henry Hull.Hull plays Dr. Wilfred Glendon, an intrepid botanist we first encounter on a journey to Tibet, where he collects the rare mariphasa lumina lupina, also known as the phosphorescent wolf flower. But that's not all he collects. He also encounters a strange creature who bites him and afflicts him with an incurable condition, described as "werewolfery" by fellow well-traveled botanist Dr. Yogami (Warner Oland). This makes Dr. Glendon a danger in London, especially to his devoted but alienated wife Lisa (Valerie Hobson).As Dr. Yogami explains, a werewolf is "neither man nor wolf, but a satanic creature with the worst qualities of both."Yogami's warning falls on deaf ears, as Dr. Glendon isn't disposed to believe in such "medieval unpleasantness" until he's knee-deep in mauled streetwalkers.As it turns out, Dr. Glendon isn't really much for any advice in this movie. Part of that is a product of a sluggish script, where general disbelief in the werewolf situation is a constant motif, but also because Hull is so stiff here. He plays Dr. Glendon too mannered and unsympathetic, a terminal miscalculation for a werewolf film, and one Universal wouldn't make again. I'm no wholesale admirer of the later films with Lon Chaney, Jr. as the wolfman, but at least in terms of engaging an audience in his plight, he's much better company than the waxwork Hull presents here.Director Stuart Walker had the chance to make an unusual kind of film, but with his undernourished script and a raft of one-note supporting players, he is not up to the task of delivering it. So much of the film is present as drawing-room chatter, shot in long close-ups. Even the eerier atmosphere of the film's second half has a perfunctory air about it, interrupted by comic relief sequences that are ineffective at delivering laughs and too obviously tacked on.Much oxygen is sucked up by a subplot involving Lisa and an old beau, Paul (Lester Matthews), who pitches woo in the form of stuffy banalities like "Oh, my dear, I can't tell you how good it is to hear you laugh again." Walker tries to tie this into Dr. Glendon's rage-infused wolfery, but it doesn't wash. Dr. Glendon is such a stick with his wife in human form you don't really care about their relationship.The film does benefit from effective transformation sequences, or "transvections" as we see them described in a scholarly book Dr. Glendon is reading. The first sequence showing Glendon mutate as he walks past various visual obstructions is masterfully done, and Jack Pierce's less-is-more aesthetic, forced on him by Hull's unwillingness to go full wolf, is consistently effective.But the film really dies with the weak first half, with its focus on English high society tea parties and Hull's glacial manner. The ending is rushed and unconvincing, with Hull's parting words especially risible when delivered in his werewolf makeup. "Werewolves Of London" sets a potent formula in motion, but its failure to do much with it proves too nagging by the end.

Nigel P The titular character was originally meant for Boris Karloff, and the shady Yogami character was ear-marked for Bela Lugosi. Whilst these two horror legends would have undoubtedly been tremendous in their respective roles, I find it hard to imagine how the two characters we ended up with could be bettered.Famous stage actor Henry Hull plays Wilfred Glendon, a stuffy, somewhat neurotic botanist whose relationship with his wife plays a distant second fiddle to his work. The playing of the character skilfully betrays the very real love he has for her with an almost total inability to display it – especially as Glendon now has a secret he must keep from her; his lycanthropy.Yogami is played in subtle fashion by former Fu Manchu Warner Oland, who was currently very successfully playing detective Charlie Chan in a series of films. His is not a clichéd evil; it is a question of survival. Both characters are werewolves, and both need the very rare mariphasa plant to keep their primal urges at bay.The interesting thing about this film, viewed in retrospect, is that the full moon has nothing to do with the transformations. That detail was added five years later in the more widely known Lon Chaney Jr film 'The Wolf Man', and instantly became part of folklore. Indeed, this werewolf is less bestial than the latter day Larry Talbot's alter-ego, even stopping to put on a hat and scarf before prowling the streets of the capital.Often overlooked, I always enjoy watching this. The Universal version of London involves fogbound streets, eccentric alcoholic landladies and bawdy pubs. There are some great, eccentric performances, and some very impressive effects, including the first man-to-wolf transformation seen as Glendon lumbers through the streets behind pillars and streetlights. Spearheading the idea of the lycanthrope being a tragic, Jekyll-like figure rather than a man of evil has been retained for all Universal Wolf-Man films – the impressive make-up provided by monster guru Jack Pierce.

atinder 5 years ago, I would never thought I would even try to watch black and white movie but 5 years later , I am not just watching it, I am actually really enjoy some oldies. This is another really good movie, the movie is only 75 mins long, so it'kind of short and the movie didn't not take to get started at all. I liked how the movie flowed, it's was not all action packed or anything, there were some in trusting scenes here and there.The effect in this were surprising, really good for it's time and I did found parts of it really funny, with those two old drunken ladies on stairs, they were so funny. The acting was great however I wasn't to keen on the ending, he went down too easy! 7 out of 10 from me.