Tweet
Watched this again last night. Well, actually this was the first time I truly watched the whole movie. My previous DVD player had trouble with Universal's double-sided disk in those Legacy sets, and I had a hard time making it through the whole picture, missing snippets here and there. My newer Blu-Ray player worked just fine.
I have mixed feelings on this one. I appreciate it's place in history as a precursor to The Wolfman, but it's a pretty uneven effort. Henry Hull does a nice job as Wilfred Glendon, but his character is a bit too stuffy to really care much for. I felt more sorry that his wife just pretty much dumps him for her ex-boyfriend the moment the guy walks on screen. She doesn't seem the least bit concerned about her husband's obviously troubled behavior, other than the fact it's interfering with her extra-marital activities.
Obviously, the writers and director had James Whale-envy in this one, trying to fill the movie with interesting side characters...they didn't really succeed. The well-to-do aunts and grandmothers just took away from the main story, and man, there is a lot of unnecessary prattling on dialog-wise in this flick. The two old women who rent the room to Glendon are obviously rip-offs of Una O'Connor's character in "The Invisible Man", but they fail to provide any actual comic relief.
It's a shame that Warner Oland's Dr. Yogami didn't get to fight it out with Hull in full werewolf makeup. A wolf-on-wolf fight would have made this entry much more memorable. I do think that the 2010 "Wolfman" remake borrowed a bit from this part of the plot.
As for Hull's makeup, it's on record that Jack Pierce wanted a fully-realized werewolf ala his later Chane/Wolfman design, but the idea was nixed by others. Hull's makeup is effective, and in dimly-lit shots, the subtle beastly look is a bit disturbing, but overall, it's just a bit too restrained.
The ending is somewhat frustrating, since poor Glendon gets shot, and his wife gets what she wants: the deck cleared so she can run off with her old boyfriend. I'm sure the intended moral was to appreciate what you have and not get so involved in your work/leave nature's mysteries alone, blah blah. But it comes across as just pretty unsatisfying.
Chris
I have mixed feelings on this one. I appreciate it's place in history as a precursor to The Wolfman, but it's a pretty uneven effort. Henry Hull does a nice job as Wilfred Glendon, but his character is a bit too stuffy to really care much for. I felt more sorry that his wife just pretty much dumps him for her ex-boyfriend the moment the guy walks on screen. She doesn't seem the least bit concerned about her husband's obviously troubled behavior, other than the fact it's interfering with her extra-marital activities.
Obviously, the writers and director had James Whale-envy in this one, trying to fill the movie with interesting side characters...they didn't really succeed. The well-to-do aunts and grandmothers just took away from the main story, and man, there is a lot of unnecessary prattling on dialog-wise in this flick. The two old women who rent the room to Glendon are obviously rip-offs of Una O'Connor's character in "The Invisible Man", but they fail to provide any actual comic relief.
It's a shame that Warner Oland's Dr. Yogami didn't get to fight it out with Hull in full werewolf makeup. A wolf-on-wolf fight would have made this entry much more memorable. I do think that the 2010 "Wolfman" remake borrowed a bit from this part of the plot.
As for Hull's makeup, it's on record that Jack Pierce wanted a fully-realized werewolf ala his later Chane/Wolfman design, but the idea was nixed by others. Hull's makeup is effective, and in dimly-lit shots, the subtle beastly look is a bit disturbing, but overall, it's just a bit too restrained.
The ending is somewhat frustrating, since poor Glendon gets shot, and his wife gets what she wants: the deck cleared so she can run off with her old boyfriend. I'm sure the intended moral was to appreciate what you have and not get so involved in your work/leave nature's mysteries alone, blah blah. But it comes across as just pretty unsatisfying.
Chris
Comment