|
|
Ron Miller's DARK CORRIDORS VOL. 11, No. 8 |
|
What a difference 70 years
makes in "The WolfMan"!
of TheColumnists.com
Back in 1948, when I was an imaginative 9-year-old looking for thrills, I found myself watching Lawrence Talbot go through the painful changes he had to endure whenever a full moon had risen and the time had come for him to become The Wolf Man.
Last week I re-lived that experience as I watched Oscar-winner Benicio Del Toro play Talbot in the all-new Universal version of "The Wolfman," now playing all over America. Talk about your quantum leaps for a character.
As I recall, the first time I ever saw Talbot, he was talking on the telephone to Lou Costello, who heard all the growling and howling as Talbot morphed into a hairy-faced, pointy-eared, fang-faced werewolf. Costello, naturally, thought Talbot must have a very vicious pet dog pretty close to the phone. Meanwhile, I was scared silly.
The movie was, of course, "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein," an all-star monster comedy in which Frankenstein's Monster, Dracula, The Wolf Man and even The Invisible Man had significant moments on screen. It was the nadir of the Universal monster cycle that began in the 1920s with Lon Chaney Sr. in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" and "The Phantom of the Opera." Almost all the studio's monsters went into semi-retirement once they met Bud Abbott and Lou Costello and "...Meet Frankenstein" was the final screen appearance of The Wolf Man for the 20th century.
Werewolves had not been seen very often in the movies before Universal made "The Werewolf of London" in 1935 with Henry Hull. It had no sequels. But in 1941, writer Curt Siodmak, a Jewish refuge from Hitler's Nazi Germany, dreamed up the Lawrence Talbot/Wolf Man character for Universal when the studio was looking for a signature monster for actor Lon Chaney, Jr. to play.
In that 1941 movie, Talbot became a werewolf after he was bitten by one, an itinerant gypsy played by, of all people, Bela Lugosi. Lugosi's character was the son of the gypsy Maleva (Maria Ouspenskaya), who became a recurring character in the films that followed.
Though Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, The Mummy and The Invisible Man all appeared in several films of their own, The Wolf Man never got a film of his own after the first one. The sequel was 1942's "Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man," followed by "The House of Frankenstein" (1944), "The House of Dracula" (1945) and then "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein." All those follow-ups were "monster rallies."
That may be changing now that it's pretty likely Universal will make a ton of money with the new "Wolfman" movie. Universal has come back with multiple sequels to its re-introduction of "The Mummy" character and so many "Frankenstein" and "Dracula" movies have been made by Universal and other studios that there seems always to be one on the horizon. I predict "The Wolfman" will return, like it or not.
The new movie really re-invents Talbot and his hairy wolf self. In the original film, The Wolf Man was killed by his father (Claude Rains), wielding a silver-tipped cane. In the new movie, Talbot's father (Anthony Hopkins) is a werewolf, too, and one of the big sequences is the battle between the two monsters.
Horror movies of the 1940s, especially the ones from Universal, were more fairy-tale stories than generators of any real horror. Today's horror movies are a totally different breed of wolf. After a generation of "slasher" movies that feature great gouts of gushing blood, beheadings and impalements, "The Wolfman" (the new movie spells it as one word instead of two) had to be gory or it just wouldn't meet the demands of today's audience.
Much more money is also poured into today's horror movies, especially ones set back in history like "The Wolfman." Both Hopkins and Del Toro are Oscar-winning actors and leading lady Emily Blunt ("Young Victoria") is a hot prospect in Hollywood. The sets are lavish and the effects are spectacular.
In the old Wolf Man movies, the effects consisted of lap-dissolve transformations of man into wolf and that was about it. Lon Chaney Jr., the only actor to play the werewolf in those films, was filmed a bit at a time as the makeup crew added hair, fangs and other wolf-like characteristics. When the sequence was shown as a series of scnees dissolving into the next scenes, Talbot appeared to become a werewolf right before our eyes.
The Rick Baker-designed werewolf of the new "Wolfman," goes through much more rigorous changes, his bones expanding, his paws ripping through the soles of his shoes, etc. He seems in awesome agony. And when he's all werewolf, he's really ferocious, ripping off arms and beheading people with slashing strokes that spray blood all over the place.
The best sequence in the new film comes when scientific doubters lash Talbot to a chair in a lecture hall where a scientist debunks the werewolf legends by arguing that Talbot only "thinks" he becomes a wolfman because of a mental illness. Meanwhile, the full moon looms into sight outside and, behind the lecturer's back, Talbot becomes one hell of a fierce wolfman. And, naturally, he breaks his bonds and goes on a killing spree you won't soon forget.
Another charming innovation in the new film is the casting of Geraldine Chaplin as Maleva. The original was an old crone, played with thick Russian accent by Maria Ouspenskaya, who was a great stage actress in her native land, but a small role character player when she migrated to Hollywood. Chaplin, the still stunning daughter of Charlie Chaplin, breathes new life into the Maleva character. We hope she can be persuaded to continue in the role if sequels follow.
Universal can change the rules of how monsters live or die whenever it wants to. Being brained by a silver-tipped cane didn't kill Talbot in the original because he simply kind of "woke up" after a pair of graverobbers removed the wolf'sbane from his coffin ona night of the full moon. He was supposedly drowned at the end of the next film when villagers exploded a nearby dam, but he was quick frozen and thawed out in time for the next film. At the end of "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein," he leaps from a castle window and grabs Dracula just after the vampire has turned into a bat. Presumably, both monsters fell to their death on the rocks below.
But we know better, don't we? Werewolves don't die from falling on rocks. Heck, they'd just shake themselves a couple of times and scamper off after such a fall. I suspect the new Wolfman will figure out a way to live again after being felled by a silver bullet or two.
In the past, the Wolf Man was the saddest of all movie monsters because he really didn't want to be one. He was always seeking a cure to his lycanthropy, which sent him from one mad doctor to another all over Europe. I have a feeling we may see a new kind of wolfman emerge, one more like Anthony Hopkins' plays in the new movie--an old guy who loves the idea that he can run around like a young wolf and chew on beautiful young ladies as soon as a full moon appears.
It seems so 21st century, doesn't it?
In short, I'm saying I sort of liked "The Wolfman" and would go see another movie about him if Universal wants to make one. As long as they don't have him meet Frankenstein or the Wayans Brothers.
©2010 by Ron Miller.
The photos are courtesy of Universal. This column first posted
Feb. 22, 2010.
Ron Miller is a former nationally syndicated television columnist and the author of "Mystery! A Celebration," the official companion book to PBS' "Mystery!" series.
You can comment on this column online. Please address your message to either "The Editors" or Ron Miller. To send an email, click here and don't forget to mention Ron's name: talkback@thecolumnists.com
|
|
|
Archives |
|
|