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1961 - UK Directed By: Terence Fisher. Starring: Oliver Reed, Clifford Evans, Yvonne Romain, Catherine Feller, Anthony Dawson, Richard Wordsworth, Ewen Solon, Peter Sallis, Josephine Llewellyn, John Gabriel, Warren Mitchell and Michael Ripper.
Aka
The Wolfman
The Curse Of Siniestro
Current Availability
At present The Curse Of The Werewolf is only available on US R1 DVD along with seven other Hammer efforts as part of Universal's excellent 2-Disc Hammer Horror Series set. Transfer quality (as with all eight films) is very good and fans will be happy to know that the film is presented uncut with all the material cut by the British censors back in the sixties fully restored. In short this is one set that no self respecting Hammer aficionado should be without, especially given the relatively low price. Incidentally the other seven Hammer horror films included are The Brides Of Dracula, The Phantom Of The Opera, Paranoiac, Kiss Of The Vampire, Nightmare, Night Creatures (aka - Captain Clegg) and The Evil Of Frankenstein.
Recommended?
Hammer's only werewolf film is a deeply flawed one, but comes highly recommended nonetheless. Blessed with top drawer lead performances and splendid period atmosphere Curse Of The Werewolf is a highly effective blend of affecting tragedy and macabre, brooding gothic horror. Unfortunately the films woefully sluggish pacing plagues what would otherwise have been one of Hammer's true classics.
Review
Despite being formed in 1935 it would not be until the latter end of the fifties that Britain’s legendary Hammer Film Productions would rise to global prominence on the back of their wildly successful trio of gothic horror films – The Curse Of Frankenstein (1957), Horror Of Dracula (1958) and The Mummy (1959) all directed by the great Terence Fisher and starring the incomparable duo of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Beneath their glorious Technicolor, Hammer’s Dracula, Frankenstein and Mummy pictures essentially constituted vibrant, unique revisions of the classic Universal horror pictures of the thirties. Bearing this in mind it is therefore perhaps logical that as the fifties passed into the sixties and Hammer embarked on their second wave of gothic horror pictures, they would seek to complete their revisionist tour of the classic Universal monsters.
This would be duly achieved in 1961 and 1962 when Hammer unleashed both their largely forgotten adaptation of The Phantom Of The Opera and of course Curse Of The Werewolf both of which were scripted by Anthony Hinds (under his famed John Elder pseudonym) and directed by the great Terence Fisher. In the eyes of many Curse Of The Werewolf constituted Hammer’s own answer to the Universal horror classic The Wolf Man (1941) starring Lon Chaney Jr. Unlike the other Universal horrors, putting their own unique gothic spin on The Wolf Man presented a problem for Hammer due to the fact that unlike the other Universal horror pictures it was based upon an original screenplay and not adapted from a literary source which Hammer could simply purchase the rights for. Therefore Hammer instead produced their own classic addition to the cinematic lycanthropy cycle, based rather loosely upon Guy Endore’s novel The Werewolf Of Paris. Despite being (some would say rather surprisingly) Hammer’s singular werewolf effort, The Curse Of The Werewolf is widely regarded as one of the classics from the studios second wave of gothic horror films and would arguably propel its young star Oliver Reed onto the road to international stardom.
Set in the 18th century, Curse Of The Werewolf takes place in the Spanish town of Santa Vera where a travelling beggar prevails upon the court of the towns wicked Marques for their charity and is duly humiliated hen left to rot in the dungeons. Years later a mute serving wench (Romain) also falls foul of the Marques and is also thrown into the dungeon where the now crazed beggar savagely rapes her. Some time later the servant girl, now pregnant following her ordeal, is found wandering in the forest by kind-hearted nobleman Don Alfredo who takes her into his care.
The girl eventually gives birth to a son of Christmas Day which according to ancient beliefs is considered to be an affront to God, the child is christened with the name Leon. Don Alfredo brings up Leon as his own son and is both amazed and horrified to discover that on every night of the full moon Leon transforms into a wolf-like monster and is responsible for the killings of local farmers livestock. Fortunately the local priest (Gabriel) is something of an expert on the subject of werewolves and advises Don Alfredo that Leon’s bestial alter ego can be kept at bay by feelings of comfort and love, whilst by contrast feelings of hatred, anger and greed will bring his animalistic instincts to the fore.
In time and with his adoptive father’s kindly guiding hand, Leon (played by Oliver Reed) grows into a fine young man and soon leaves home in order to seek his fortune. Leon eventually finds himself working in the vineyards of wealthy aristocrat Don Fernando (Solon) and soon falls in love with his employers beautiful daughter Cristina (Feller). While Cristina reciprocates Leon’s love, unfortunately she is already betrothed to another. Leon’s frustration eventually ;leads to anger causing him to transform into his werewolf alter ego and embark of a brutal killing spree. As the net closes in on Leon a distraught Don Alfredo realise that there may be only one way to cure his adopted son of this dreadful affliction.
Less a straightforward horror film than it is a lavish period tragedy with horrific underpinnings, The Curse Of The Werewolf sees Hammer adhere to several established clichés of the werewolf picture whilst also rather deftly establishing one or two new ones of its own. In a rather groundbreaking twist on the standard formula lycanthropy is presented not as a disease but as an accursed birthright, Leon’s werewolf alter ego is also treated differently in itself in that far from being inescapable his bestial instincts can be suppressed by the feelings of inner peace and comfort bought about by love, whilst the directly contrasting emotions of anger, rage and frustration have precisely the opposite effect. In this respect The Curse Of The Werewolf is unique for its era in that Leon is largely, albeit subconsciously in control of his own fate, his transformation into the werewolf dependent not just on the occurrence of a full moon but also upon Leon’s inner emotional state at the time. Personally speaking I have little hesitation in heralding these highly effective and ingenious innovations to cinematic werewolf lore as one of screenwriter Anthony Hinds singular greatest achievements.
Stylistically speaking The Curse Of The Werewolf is nothing short of a triumph. While the films British origins shine through blatantly, Hammer’s legendary Bray Studio’s stomping ground doubles up superbly as period Spain with Fisher’s direction, top notch costume design and the sterling work of veteran cinematographer Arthur Grant’s combining to create a visually splendid continental tinted take on Hammer’s trademark gothic style. Additionally The Curse Of The Werewolf easily ranks as one of the most brutal of Hammer’s early gothic horror pictures and would fall afoul of the British censors who would insist on heavy cuts totalling several minutes. Unfortunately The Curse Of The Werewolf would languish in this heavily censored state for many years until a 1994 BBC television airing finally restored all of the material initially cut back in the sixties, most notably the gory detail of Leon’s surprisingly brutal werewolf attacks.
Yet for all its dark gothic trappings and (for the time) shockingly overt brutality, The Curse Of The Werewolf is ultimately a tragedy at heart with Leon registering as an accursed and ultimately sympathetic figure. For this to work in practise obviously requires a strong central performance and fortunately a young Oliver Reed, in one of his first significant roles, delivers just that. Although not introduced until the halfway point Reed does a great job of painting Leon not as a villain, but as a personable, good natured young man who is ultimately condemned to a second existence of bloodlust and bestial violence by a tragic combination of horrific birthright and unfortunate circumstance. While Reed was evidently not the finished article at this point in his career his excellent portrayal of Leon certainly confirmed him as a commanding screen presence capable of conveying both pathos and menace with equally satisfying effect. Yet even Reed is outdone by his veteran co-star Clifford Evans who gives a touching and wonderfully subtle performance as Leon’s adoptive father who finds himself emotionally distraught yet steeled in his resolve that in order to end his sons misery he must forego parental love and kill him.
Unfortunately The Curse Of The Werewolf while highly effective is sadly a deeply flawed film. Despite being beautifully crafted and powerfully performed The Curse Of The Werewolf is sadly impeded by its leisurely and often completely tepid pacing. The blame for this principally lies at the door of Hinds’ excessively rambling screenplay but Terence Fisher must also shoulder some of the blame. While Fisher wa arguably the greatest of all British horror filmmakers, when it came to pacing his films appropriately he could sometimes be inconsistent and The Curse Of The Werewolf suffers more in that respect than most with Fisher displaying little of the directorial fire that characterised his best Hammer work such as Dracula: Prince Of Darkness (1966) and The Devil Rides Out (1968). While the two aforementioned Fisher/Hammer efforts swept along, in contrast The Curse Of The Werewolf moves at what could most kindly be described as a canter with Reed not even appearing until roughly the halfway mark after over forty minutes of sluggish (if mostly engaging) narrative exposition and character establishment. The extended prologue detailing Leon’s lurid conception is a particularly guilty offender. Whilke the whole sequence indisputably drips with that heady Hammer atmosphere it simply goes on far, far too long. Given the quality of Reed and Evans’ central performances plus the deft realisation of both the horror and affecting tragedy at the stories heart, it really is a crying shame that much more screen time could not have been dedicated to the adult Leon and the gradual emergence of his inner werewolf persona.
When you stop to consider that Hammer sustained their Dracula and Frankenstein cycles across a long-running series of hit and miss sequels, it is perhaps surprising that they would only produce the one, singular werewolf movie. Indeed werewolves found themselves somewhat short-changed during the British horror genres “golden age” with the only other true British lycanthrope horror efforts of the period being Amicus’ fitfully entertaining werewolf whodunit The Beast Must Die and Tyburn’s Legend Of The Werewolf (1975) which also based itself loosely upon Guy Endore’s The Werewolf Of Paris. Therefore in the absence of much competition The Curse Of The Werewolf stands as easily the most accomplished British werewolf film of its period. Yet at the same time Fisher’s film is only a semi-classic, its excellence in terms of style and performance often unfortunatewly counteracted by the narratives tendency to take an inordinate amount of time to go nowhere in particular.
However, if one can forgive the inarguably sluggish pacing The Curse Of The Werewolf remains easily one of the most thoroughly absorbing and worthy additions to Hammer’s second wave of period gothic horror films. Stylistically speaking the film is beautifully crafted and thanks in no small part to the Reed’s brooding intensity the inherent sense of tragedy at the heart of Leon’s lycanthropic plight is realised is a simultaneously horrific yet genuinely affecting way, lending a welcome touch of pathos to an otherwise dark and often brutal tale. It is therefore no small shame that the singular lack of urgency that afflicts both the screenplay and Fisher’s direction ultimately sees The Curse Of The Werewolf wind up as just a reasonably impressive film as opposed to a truly classic one. Yet while the lethargic pace ultimately precludes The Curse Of The Werewolf from inclusion amongst the cream of the Hammer crop, in many respects the studios sole foray into werewolf country remains a rich, vibrant and essential addition to that particular subgenre of horror cinema, offering much in the way of both innovation and entertainment value.
Also Try… The Legend Of The Werewolf / The Wolf Man (1941, George Waggner) / The Phantom Of The Opera (1962, Terence Fisher) / Dracula (1958, Terence Fisher) / Cry Of The Banshee / The Beast Must Die / Frankenstein’s Bloody Terror.
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