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| Curse of the Werewolf (1961) | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Mar 31 2012, 09:43 AM (654 Views) | |
| Laughing Gravy | Mar 31 2012, 09:43 AM Post #1 |
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![]() Terence Fisher said that Curse of the Werewolf was his favorite of his many horror films, because it was essentially a tragic love story, something you couldn't say about any of the others. I think it's one of the very best of the Hammers, too, and it's history is quite fascinating. Hammer acquired the rights to Guy Endor's novel The Werewolf of Paris, but changed the setting to Spain because they were heading there to make a film about the Spanish Inquisition and intended to save money by shooting two productions at once. (When the Inquisition film was cancelled, they ended up shooting the project at their Bray studio anyway, so what th' heck.) Evil Marquis Anthony Dawson tosses a beggar (skeletal Richard Wordsworth, from The Quatermass Xperiment) into his dungeon and forgets about him. The years pass, and the prisoner turns into a shaggy creature scarcely more than canine. When comely servant Yvonne Romain (who's all boobs) gets tossed into the clink for resisting her master's "charms", she's raped by the dog-guy. Later, brought to the Marquis, she slaughters him with a sharp object and escapes into the woods, where she's found by a passing nobleman who takes her into his home. Nine months later, little Leon is born, but mama dies in the effort and the man raises the kid as his son, despite the little boy's taste for squirrels, cats, and lambs. Years later (and nearly an hour into the film), the kid has grown into Oliver Reed, and the moon grows into something that makes him hairy, scary, and not-so-merry. Can the love of sweet Catherine Feller rescue him from the curse of the werewolf? A fine film, with a lot of good scenes, nice use of Technicolor (typical Hammer shocking-red blood) and also typical Hammer claustrophobic tiny sets, heavily reusing the standing Frankenstein and Dracula scenery to signify Spain. (The actors, all with thick British accents, call each other "Señor" so you know it must be Spain, really.) The opening sequence goes on a bit too long, perhaps, and the werewolf doesn't really come around until the end of the picture, but the whole thing's darn interesting and the final scenes with the werewolf are so exciting that the film works well anyway. Check out Reed transforming in his jail cell, ripping apart his cellmate, and then smashing through the iron door! Great stuff. In England, the British censors really gave Hammer a rough time over this one, nearly refusing to even allow it to be filmed but then ordering extensive cuts to the finished product before allowing it to be released, even with its X (Adults Only) rating. They insisted the scenes with the servant girl and the Marquis be severely trimmed, and that she not murder him; that scenes of Leon as a child running wild be discarded; that closeups of the werewolf not be shown; that the scene in which Reed murders a barmaid who's trying to seduce him be cut; and the finale, with the werewolf cornered in a church tower, be slashed to a minimum. They called the project "obscene muck" and "disgusting and morbid". Hammer fought back hard (producer Tony Hinds wrote back, citing a "recent American film in which a young pervert dressed as a woman stabs a naked girl to death in a bath to satisfy some queer lust" as evidence that his own film wasn't so bad after all), but the censors refused to back down and most of the cuts were made, accounting in part to why the film was not a great success in England. Here in America, not only was the uncut version shown, but it was offered at kiddie matinees in the summer of '61! The complete, uncut Curse of the Werewolf finally debuted in England in 1994. It's a very good movie, and can be found on the Universal Hammer Horrors Franchise DVD collection. |
| "I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley | |
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| Don Diego | Mar 31 2012, 11:50 AM Post #2 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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I remember lining up to see this because of the write up in Famous Monsters it featured a picture of the dog man amoung others. |
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| andarius | Mar 31 2012, 06:11 PM Post #3 |
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Charter Member
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![]() which I bought a few years back thanks to you, Gravy. I also want t see 'Shadow of the Cat' which my sister told me was very good. Starts off with a creepy poem... Once upon a midnite dreary As I wandered weak and weary Thru some... Would watch Werewolf if my DVD player which handles Region 1 wasn't knackered. I myself blame Stony!
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| CliffClaven | Mar 31 2012, 08:59 PM Post #4 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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Strangeness: In the film, Oliver Reed is cursed because he insulted Heaven by being an illegitimate child born on Christmas (signified as more than an old wives' tale by portents at the baptism). The lurid tragedy of the insane beggar and raped servant girl ultimately had nothing to do with anything. Wonder if there was a different version of the evidently hasty script, one that perhaps emphasized the idea of a frankly unjust act of God (the beggar and the girl are both explicitly victims, and Reed's character is damned from birth). They do spend a lot of time explaining how the beggar became a dangerous mess, and then how the girl's innocence and virtue got her thrown into his cell, as if all this is meant to figure later. Instead, it's all forgotten once they set up the Christmas day curse. In fact, none of the characters even know the girl's history. You could start the film with the nobleman discovering the pregnant girl without losing any story points. Maybe they just wanted some gothic thrills to open the film, since the real story is mostly implied mayhem until the climax. Maybe it was even added after the fact. Anyway, it's still an effective film. The prologue just sort of stands there like a question mark, an unfinished bit of business like the chauffeur murdered early in "The Big Sleep" and forgotten completely by the end, his death never explained. |
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| Laughing Gravy | Apr 1 2012, 11:06 AM Post #5 |
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The dual explanation (rape by dog-man, illegitimate child born on Christmas) were both in the original script (called "The Werewolf"), in the revised "The Curse of the Werewolf" script, and the final, uncut film. Maybe Hammer was covering their bets, thinking that one or the other would be thrown out? The censor objected to both and tried to get both the rape and the baptism removed! If the censors had their way, the final film would not have the rape, would not have the murder of the barmaid, would not have the little boy affected by his curse, and would not have had the werewolf shown being killed. Oh, THAT would've been a thriller... |
| "I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley | |
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| panzer the great & terrible | Apr 4 2012, 04:18 AM Post #6 |
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Mouth Breather
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This adds up to why I don't waste time on most of the Hammers. I would watch Brides of Drac and The Devil Rides Out again, and maybe The Vampire Lovers, but the silly Brit censorship, plus the silly huge boobs, tend to make the rest kind of, well, silly... |
| Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious... | |
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| Laughing Gravy | Apr 4 2012, 09:05 AM Post #7 |
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Well, maybe... but we all love movies from the '30s and '40s, and don't let the Production Code dampen our enjoyment, right? So were the ridiculous censors of 1960s Britain any worse? Well, maybe. The Hammer book is filled with excerpts of their letters, and they were routinely quite insulting about the whole thing. For example, their notes on the script for Revenge of Frankenstein (1958) - and this is just the SCRIPT, mind - include the words nauseating, repulsive, sadistic, gruesome, unpleasant... and these were generally not pointed to specific incidents, but to the script itself as a whole. They also suggest that no priest should be present at Frankenstein's execution (which opens the film; he escapes) to avoid insulting anyone. The American Breen office letter is included for contrast; they asked that several instances of the word God ("My God," "He's playing God") be removed, and that the film be careful with its portrayal of the priest (but not omit him entirely). And that was it, no comment on the blood and guts from the USA. I like big Hammer boobs, and find them silly not a whit. Our audience loved them in the werewolf picture, and wished there'd have been more of 'em. |
| "I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley | |
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| Frank Hale | Apr 4 2012, 10:18 AM Post #8 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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The Hammers have a mean streak which I’ve never cared for. It’s obvious even in half-way decent pix like Stranglers of Bombay. But what the heck. You enjoy them and that’s all that matters. |
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| Laughing Gravy | Apr 4 2012, 11:50 AM Post #9 |
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A MEAN STREAK?!?!? Really? I hadn't thought of that before. Hmmmm. Well, I don't have any Hammer comedies or Robin Hood movies, so discounting them... Noirs are s'posed to have mean streaks. And the horror films, well... I don't care for Cushing's Dr. Frankenstein. HE definitely is a horrid, mean, ugly character. And although I'm watching a bunch of Hammers, it's mainly 'cause I never have before. I've liked a couple of the noirs, I throught Quatermass Xperiment was quite good, and I still really like the same three Hammers I've really liked since I was a kid: Werewolf, Brides, and The Mummy. |
| "I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley | |
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| Frank Hale | Apr 4 2012, 03:01 PM Post #10 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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Just a sense of pervading nastiness developed over the years, watching lovingly photographed scenes of dog attacks, torture, and implied rape. Mind you, I haven’t seen a lot of the Hammers, and would undoubtedly back off if you pressed me further. And there’s certainly nothing wrong with Raquel Welch in her fur bikini. But there it is. And hey! Who am I to disagree with the British Board of Film Censors? |
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| CliffClaven | Apr 5 2012, 04:36 PM Post #11 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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I'm a latecomer to the Hammer party. Always liked "Hound of the Baskervilles". It's definitely a Hammer take, what with a hot-blooded beauty, a Werewolf-style prologue of the legend, a tarantula, and hints of pagan rituals. Even so, it feels more faithful than a lot of Holmesian adaptations. Caught "Werewolf" on a late-night monster show eons ago. But was a bit put off by the reputation for gore. Finally, in the age of DVD, got the Universal and Columbia packs. My favorites are those most reminiscent of the old Universal monsters: Clearly on a budget, with lots of familiar actors and locations as well as familiar plots. Almost cozy. I'm speaking of the Technicolor period productions -- I prefer my horror thoroughly diluted to spooky, so I haven't sampled the modern-dress films. Some notables: "Captain Clegg"/"Night Creatures": Not really a horror, aside from some night riders who'd fit in a Scooby Doo episode, but a good little thriller about a band of smugglers led by a clergyman (formerly a pirate captain) facing off against a troop of soldiers with a brutish human bloodhound. Disney turned the same material into "The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh", a much friendlier, Zorro-type adventure that still had some decidedly dark strains. "Phantom of the Opera": Very tight and efficient, offering zero spectacle but still amusing. Story is they made the phantom sympathetic in hope of getting Cary Grant; they settled for the talented but less fabled Herbert Lom (best known now as Inspector Cleuseau's unstable boss). "Jeckyl and Hyde": The ideas are mostly better than the execution, but interesting. Jeckyl is a lumpish scientist whose wife is cheating on him with decadent Christopher Lee; Hyde is a handsome rotter who disposes of that couple and sets about framing Jeckyl for murder so he can exist full time. "The Gorgon": Strictly a programmer, but how can you not like a movie that makes a serious effort to plant a creature of Greek mythology in a European village? |
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| Frank Hale | Apr 5 2012, 05:40 PM Post #12 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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Well, actually, Hound is one of the films I was going to bring up if pressed to the wall. WNEW ran it all the time and I was always astounded how Hammer could make such a great story so lurid and boring (my reference to dog attacks). But obviously this is all a matter of taste, and none of us is “right”. Hammer was clearly always out to sell tickets. But I always felt there was one of those Mad Magazine-type scientists lurking in the background, with cracked and leaking forehead, and wringing his hands gleefully at all the on-screen mayhem. Think I saw the Gorgon and agree, but really: Most of these films just aren’t very good, no matter how much you want to like them. |
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