Director: Stuart Walker
Year: 1935
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Werewolf
Plot:
Returning from a Tibetan expedition, an English botanist finds the strange animal attack he suffered on the trip inadvertently transferred a curse to him that turns him into a werewolf and stalks the city streets looking to kill while his loved ones try to stop him.
Review:
This one was quite the enjoyable if slightly flawed effort. One of the better features here is the fact that the action scenes of the werewolf here are really quite enjoyable and far better than expected, generating plenty of fun here. The opening attack in the mountains is quite fun with the darkness obscuring the creature nicely while the resulting wrestling match is a nice bit of lively action, the antics of the first nights out on the streets where his stalking and attacking are handled really nicely with some suspenseful moments while the changes he undergoes gives this some rather fine attacks while the extended scenes of him attacking the reception soiree at their house and his surprise attack on the bar-owners at his tavern hideout are both quite enjoyable as they really let the werewolf's look get center stage in this.
As well, the high-end finale at the mansion estate is yet another really fun scene with the stalking around the outside of the house as well as providing the framework for launching the main attack on the couple as well as the nice brawling with the werewolf at the end which is far more vicious than expected and helps to really weave a lot of nice action into the second half that really gives this a great pace for this part of the film. Along with this, the film also manages some rather good points here for a really great-looking werewolf design which is quite creepy-looking and manages to look really monstrous as it's on-screen quite often with some nice transformations thrown into the mix as well.
These here work well for the film in spite of its few flaws. The main issue here is the film's rather slow-going first half here which doesn't really offer up a lot of interesting points or elements. It's mostly bogged down by a trio of really troubling problems all intertwined together, as this features bland scenes of him interacting in high society, stumbling over nonsense science fiction, or building the unnecessary former lovers thread and each one is troubling. The high society is mostly unappealing party scenes or stuffy luncheons that don't go anywhere, the science fiction used to spell out the connection between the contraption and the blooming flower is nowhere near realistic and there's almost no point in bringing up their past relationship which just ends up telegraphing. The only other flaw here is the fact that there's very little here about his torment over the curse who seems rather uninterested in being one and treats it as a non-entity once afflicted, which does affect him once he realizes it yet before of the signals raise his interest which is quite unrealistic. Otherwise, this one worked rather well.
Overview: ***.5/5
A decent entry if not overly spectacular, this is a solid first step for the genre that will grow in importance and style over time which is built off the heels of this one. It's still watchable and enjoyable for fans of the approach taken here or those curious about its legacy appeal, while those that aren't into this style should look at the later efforts first before diving into this one.
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