Director: Henry Levin
Year: 1944
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: Daughter of the Werewolf
Genre: Werewolf
Plot:
After a series of strange incidents, a couple find that everything is centered at the museum where they work, which not even a long legal battle over the culprit resolves, but when a local gypsy tribe has a way of explaining what happened, they quickly race to stop the attacking creature.
Review:
This is actually rather fun with quite a lot going for it. The fact that this one is a predominant mystery makes it come off far more interesting than expected, with these elements coming off quite nicely. There's a lot of back-and-forth over what is going on that is rather entertaining, as there’s a really believable setup for this since it manages to mix in a story about how the ancestors handled it and some rather intelligent areas explored in the backstory. That allows for a bit of mystery concerning what has happened in the various strange attacks, which is done with the mixing together of a gypsy legend and that of a distorted family version. This also has a series of revelations coming together to give this one the kind of connection where everything that takes place here feels natural and logical due to the setup.
The last big positive is that there's a lot more action than expected. This one has several really nice scenes involving the secretive nature of the figure stalking around trying to get to their victim, including the opening duplicity to get away from the tour to strike from the secret hallway, sequence where a character is stalked through a mausoleum by a large shadow across the wall that gradually becomes more lupine over time, and a spectacular chase through the museum at the end which has some great moments. From the confrontation in the library that spills out what’s going on, the discovery of the secret trail, and the resulting chase through the darkened house to the museum is really good and sets everything up quite well. The huge museum also looks rather creepy, which is perfect for setting up an air of suspense and dread with what takes place inside it, all being the film's really good points.
This one doesn't have a whole lot wrong and is a mildly flawed film. The biggest issue here is that there's a rather large chunk of time taken up with the impossibly long courtroom scene. This drags on forever and takes quite a long time to get through with a large segment without drawing anything with it. The case is concluded with only a few pieces captured about the background, but it doesn't do anything else. This never says anything about what might have or would have helped, and that would've been a justifiable reason for keeping it there. Another pretty big flaw is that this one's werewolf is played by dogs or wolves dressed up to look like werewolves. This really takes away from the creature when seeing a grown man do a horribly choreographed shoving contest with a dog while others are screaming at him to avoid the werewolf. These are the flaws with the film and are responsible for lowering this one.
Overview: ***.5/5
With a fair amount of both strengths and negatives, this one comes out as being rather decent overall. It's not mind-blowingly spectacular, but it serves just well enough for fans of the horror from the time period or those into the earliest werewolf movies to give this much of a look, while those turned off by the negatives will want to heed caution.
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