Werewolves in the Movies

[Jean Starling]

As ultimately edited and released, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man is told in two almost precisely-equal halves. The discovery of the Monster and pursuit of the notes don't begin until thirty-five minutes into the film; the preceding scenes tell the story of Talbot's resurrection, killing spree, hospitalization, and escape across Europe. Most synopses of the film's plot begin with his discovery of the Monster and describe the first half only briefly. Much time is spent with a secondary police inspector character and on scenes with a desperate Talbot hospitalized by Dr. Mannering; a well-regarded opening sequence notwithstanding, the first half of the film is largely forgotten. The second half introduces the Monster, Elsa, and the village of Vasaria and its inhabitants.


Production

Immediately following his success in Dracula, Lugosi had been the first choice to play the Monster in Universal's original Frankenstein film, but Lugosi famously either turned down the non-speaking part or was disinvited after director Robert Florey was replaced by James Whale; the virtually unknown Boris Karloff then was cast in his star-making role. (Florey later wrote that "the Hungarian actor didn't show himself very enthusiastic for the role and didn't want to play it.") Eight years later, Lugosi joined the franchise with one of his greatest portrayals, the Monster's twisted companion Ygor in Son of Frankenstein. He returned to the role in the sequel, The Ghost of Frankenstein, in which Ygor's brain is implanted into the Monster (now Chaney), causing the creature to take on Lugosi/Ygor's voice. After plans for Chaney to play both the Monster and his original Larry Talbot in the next film fell through for logistical reasons, the natural next step was for Lugosi, at 60, to take on the part that he once was slated to originate.

That next film was Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, which as originally written served as a sequel both to The Ghost of Frankenstein and The Wolf Man. The original script — and indeed the movie as originally filmed — had the Monster performing dialogue throughout the film, including references to the events of Ghost and indicating that the Monster is now nearly blind (a side-effect of the transplant as revealed at the end of the previous film). According to screenwriter Curt Siodmak, a screening audience (studio or public) reacted negatively to this, finding the idea of the Monster speaking with a thick Hungarian accent unintentionally funny. Though it cannot be confirmed through any other sources, this has been generally accepted as the reason virtually all scenes in which Lugosi speaks were deleted (though two brief scenes remain in the film that show Lugosi's mouth moving without sound). Consequently, Lugosi is onscreen literally for only a few minutes, leaving the Wolf Man as the film's primary focus.

Lugosi suffered exhaustion at some point during the filming, and his absence from the set, combined with his physical limitations at age 60, required the liberal use of stand-ins. Stuntman Gil Perkins actually portrayed the Monster in the character's first scene (thirty-five minutes into the film) and during much of the monsters' fight. Although a still exists of Lugosi in the ice, when viewers see the Monster for the first time (including closeups), it is actually Perkins. Stuntman Eddie Parker is usually credited as Lugosi's sole double, but his primary stunt role was that of the Wolf Man. However, he does appear as the Monster in at least one shot, and yet a possible third stuntman also stands in for Lugosi. The edited result unfairly suggests that Lugosi had to be doubled even in non-strenuous scenes, and the multiple use of alternating stuntmen in both closeups and medium shots damages the continuity of Lugosi's characterization. As an example, the doubles in the fight scene stiffen their arms, even though that was a cautious habit of the previously-blind Monster; for instance, a medium shot shows Lugosi pulling down a cabinet with his arms naturally bent at the elbows, but the next shot is of a double completing the task with straightened arms.

[Jean Starling]

Lugosi as Frankenstein's Monster

While Lugosi has suffered years of critical derision for his performance, many horror buffs have attempted to rehabilitate his reputation as the Monster. Allowing for the extensive edits and poor continuity during the stunt sequences, some believe an extremely original portrayal still remains. From the previous film, we do know that this is a different Monster, one with the brain of a broken-down grave robber who thought his new super-human body would allow him to exact vengeance on a world that cruelly disdains misfits like himself and the Monster.

Lugosi's debilitated creature is defeated but proud; though he is unable to see very much in front of him, he walks with a patrician assurance. He is noticeably pleased with himself when he finds the documents, and he assumes the self-confident stance of a mandarin when Talbot opens them and finds nothing but personal papers. He hisses and gurgles when cornered, and the reanimation sequence during the film's climax allows an engaged Lugosi some of the most celebrated close-ups of the Universal horror canon. Scenes like that one (and a village musical number) also have helped elevate the film to camp status, the very notion of Bela Lugosi as Frankenstein's Monster engendering a perverse affection among absurdists.

Another subject of contention is whether the clumsiness of Lugosi's Monster is rendered ludicrous by the cutting of all references to the reasons for it. There were, after all, precedents in each of the three earlier sequels for audiences to expect the Monster to suffer physically from the calamity at the end of the film it followed. While he survived his first ordeal (the windmill fire) with his strength intact, he was cosmetically damaged, and in the next two films he is introduced with greatly diminished physical capacity. Therefore, it is perfectly logical to attribute the Monster's clumsiness to his years in a frozen state. (Interestingly, it is Lugosi's performance that firmly established the Frankenstein's Monster stereotype of walking stiff-legged with arms outstretched.) And his obviously poor vision would appear to be a form of "snow blindness" to viewers unaware that it was a result of the transplant rather than his entombment.

The deleted footage with Lugosi speaking as the Monster has become legendarily elusive, and few horror-film fans are willing to accept the thesis that Lugosi's speaking voice would have ruined the film, at least not without seeing it first. Some speculate that the megalomaniacal dialogue written for him by Siodmak would have been more likely to cause the audience to laugh, if in fact they did. As of mid-2007, the footage has yet to surface.

This would be the final Universal horror film in which the Monster played a major role; in the subsequent films House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula, the Monster, now played by Glenn Strange, comes to life only in the final scenes. In the 1948 Universal comedy Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (the second and only other film in which Lugosi plays Dracula), Strange has a larger role and the creature once again has the ability of speech, albeit very limited dialogue, twice muttering, "Yes, master".


Tribute

A tribute to this meeting of two horror film legends happens near the beginning of the film Alien vs. Predator when this film is seen playing on a television at the satellite receiving station

[Jean Starling]

[Jean Starling]

She-Wolf of London is a 1946 horror film produced by Universal Studios. It is directed by Jean Yarbrough and stars June Lockhart and Don Porter.

The title is a clear attempt to evoke the memory of the earlier Werewolf of London (1935), although unlike its forebear, it is concerned more with mystery and suspense than supernatural horror, per se.


Synopsis

June Lockhart plays Phyllis Allenby, a young, soon-to-be-married heiress who fears she is turning into a werewolf under the influence of the Allenby curse.

[Jean Starling]

Theatrical Poster
Directed by Charles Barton
Produced by Robert Arthur
Written by Robert Lees
Frederic I. Rinaldo
John Grant
Starring Bud Abbott
Lou Costello
Lon Chaney Jr.
Bela Lugosi
Glenn Strange
Music by Frank Skinner
Editing by Frank Gross
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date(s) June 15, 1948 (U.S. release)
Running time 83 min.
Language English
Budget $760,000

[Jean Starling]

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (onscreen title: Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein) is a 1948 comedy/horror film directed by Charles Barton and starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello.

This is the first of several films where the comedy duo meets classic characters from Universal's film stable. In the film, they encounter Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, and the Wolf Man. Subsequent films pair the duo with the Mummy, the Keystone Kops, and the Invisible Man. On a TV special in the early 1950s, the comedy duo did a sketch where they interacted with the latest original Universal Studios monster being promoted at the time, the Creature from the Black Lagoon.

The film is considered the swan song for the "Big Three" Universal horror monsters — Dracula, the Wolf Man and Frankenstein's monster — although it does not appear to fit within the loose continuity of the earlier films.

The film was re-released in 1956 along with Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff.

In 2001, the United States Library of Congress deemed this film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.

In September 2007, Reader’s Digest selected the movie as one of the top 100 funniest films of all time.

[Jean Starling]

Bud Abbott as Chick Young
Lou Costello as Wilbur Grey
Lon Chaney Jr. as Larry Talbot, the Wolfman
Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula
Glenn Strange as the Frankenstein Monster
Lenore Aubert as Dr. Sandra Mornay
Jane Randolph as Joan Raymond
Charles Bradstreet as Dr. Stevens

Plot

Chick Young (Bud Abbott) and Wilbur Grey (Lou Costello) work as baggage clerks in LaMirada, Florida. When Wilbur mishandles two crates belonging to 'MacDougal's House of Horrors' museum, Mr. MacDougal (Frank Ferguson) demands that they deliver them in person so that they can be inspected by an insurance agent. MacDougal boasts to Wilbur's girlfriend, Dr. Sandra Mornay (Lénore Aubert), that the crates contain "the remains of the original Count Dracula" (Bela Lugosi) and "the body of the Frankenstein Monster" (Glenn Strange).

Dracula awakens, hypnotizes Wilbur, and spirits away his own coffin (and the revived Monster) before anyone else sees them. MacDougal then arrives with the insurance agent. Finding the storage crates empty, he accuses the boys of theft and has them arrested.

Mornay receives Dracula and the Monster at her island castle. Sandra is a gifted surgeon who has studied Dr. Frankenstein's notebooks, and has been posing as Wilbur's girlfriend as part of Dracula's scheme to replace the Monster's brutish brain with one more pliable — Wilbur's.

Wilbur and Chick are bailed out of jail and mistakenly believe Sandra to be their benefactor. Actually Joan Raymond (Jane Randolph), who also seems to like Wilbur, is responsible for the good deed. Joan is secretly working for the company that is processing MacDougal's insurance claim, and hopes Wilbur will lead her to the missing 'exhibits'.

Meanwhile, Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.) has taken the apartment across the hall from Wilbur and Chick. He has tracked Dracula and the Monster from Europe, and knows them to be alive. Talbot asks the boys to help him find and destroy the villains. Wilbur is amenable to the plan, but Chick thinks both of them are crazy. Talbot's desperate insistence that he be locked in his room before moonrise impresses Chick even less.

The following night, Wilbur, Chick and Joan go to Sandra's castle to pick her up for a costume ball. Sandra has told Wilbur to come alone, and receives the extra guests rather icily.

While the ladies powder their noses, Wilbur answers a telephone call from someone wanting to speak to a 'Dr Lejos'. It is Talbot, who informs them that they are in the "house of Dracula". Wilbur reluctantly agrees to search the castle with Chick, and soon stumbles upon an underground passageway, complete with boat and dock. Behind a secret revolving wall, Wilbur again encounters Dracula and the Monster, but escapes. Wilbur's every attempt to get Chick to witness the villains fails - thanks to the revolving wall. Meanwhile, Joan has discovered Dr Frankenstein's notebook in Sandra's bureau, while Sandra has discovered Joan's employee I.D. in her bag.

Suavely reattired, Dracula (a.k.a. Dr. Lejos) is introduced by Sandra to Joan and the boys. He commends Sandra on her 'choice', expertly massaging the ego of Wilbur, who does not realize the true context of the remark. Also working at the castle is the naive Dr. Stevens (Charles Bradstreet), who questions some of the specialized equipment that has arrived. Dracula manages to deflect Dr. Stevens' questions by pairing him with Joan and shooing off the 'young people' to their ball. Sandra claims to have a sudden splitting headache and will not be able to attend the event. When Dracula consults Sandra in private, she admits that Dr. Stevens' questions, Joan's insurance credentials and Wilbur's inquiries have made her nervous, and wants to postpone the experiments. Impatient, Dracula asserts his will by hypnotizing her, and biting her in the throat. (As an interesting sidenote, Dracula's reflection can be seen in a nearby mirror when he bites Sandra. This contradicts the Dracula mythos, in that vampires do not have reflections).

At the ball, the boys encounter Talbot and MacDougal. Dracula arrives unexpectedly with Sandra, now under his spell. Dracula easily deflects Talbot's accusations, making the man appear disturbed. Dracula takes Joan for a dance while Sandra lures Wilbur to a quiet spot. Just before she can bite Wilbur's neck, Chick and Larry approach looking for Joan, and Sandra flees. As they search the grounds, Talbot transforms into the Wolf Man. Wilbur escapes, but the Wolf Man finds and injures MacDougal. Later noting that Chick is costumed as a werewolf, MacDougal concludes that Chick attacked him for revenge. (The fact that Chick is dressed like Talbot certainly does not help the situation). Chick manages to slip away, only to witness Dracula hypnotizing Wilbur. Chick becomes somewhat hypnotized himself, while Wilbur and an entranced Joan are brought back to the castle by Dracula and Sandra. The next morning, Chick is still on the lam when he finds Larry, who confesses that he was MacDougal's attacker. Now finally convinced, Chick agrees to help Larry rescue Wilbur and Joan.

While Wilbur is being held in a pillory, Sandra finally explains to him the plan to transplant his brain into the Monster. She and Dracula leave him to prepare the Monster for the operation. Chick and Talbot arrive, free Wilbur, and head off to save Joan. Wilbur, meanwhile, is lured back to the castle by Dracula, who easily overpowers his mind.

While the Monster receives an electrical boost in the lab, Sandra is about to open Wilbur's skull when Talbot storms in and knocks her out. Just as he is about to untie Wilbur, Talbot once again transforms into the Wolf Man. Dracula arrives at the scene, only to have a tug-of-war with the Wolf Man over Wilbur's gurney. Dracula flees, with the Wolf Man giving chase. Chick arrives to untie Wilbur just as the Monster, now fully recovered, breaks his own restraints and rises from his stretcher. Sandra attempts to order him back as Dracula does, but the Monster defiantly tosses her out a window.

Dr. Stevens, meanwhile, has managed to find Joan and gets her to the boat. Dracula, in an attempt to escape, transforms into a bat, but the Wolf Man snares him and both fall over a balcony and into the rocky seas below. Joan abruptly wakes from her trance, while the boys escape the castle and head to the pier, with the Monster in pursuit. Once again Chick and Wilbur encounter Mr. MacDougal, who still insists that he wants his exhibits. They loudly reply, "..here comes one of them now!" When the Monster appears, MacDougal and his partner jump off the pier. Chick and Wilbur attempt to escape in a rowboat that is securely tied to the pier. The Monster throws barrels at them, in a series of near misses. Wilbur finally unties the boat, while Stevens and Joan arrive and set the pier ablaze. The Monster turns around and marches into the flames, slowing and succumbing as the pier collapses into the water.

Just as Chick and Wilbur relax, they hear a disembodied voice (Vincent Price) and see a cigarette floating in the air: "Allow me to introduce myself, I'm the Invisible Man!" The boys jump off the boat as the Invisible Man lights his cigarette and laughs. (This scene presaged 1951's Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man, though Price did not star, and the Invisible Man in that film was a different character).


Production

The film was originally intended to be titled The Brain of Frankenstein, but its name was changed prior to the filming schedule, which ran from February 5 through March 20, 1948.

Walter Lantz, noted for the creation of Woody Woodpecker, provided the animation for Dracula's transformations.

In a 1996 documentary, 100 Years of Horror, hosted by Christopher Lee, it was revealed that the studio hired two additional comedians to add laughs between takes on the set.

[Jean Starling]

Directed by Gene Fowler Jr.
Produced by Herman Cohen
Written by Herman Cohen
Aben Kandel
Starring Michael Landon
Whit Bissell
Release date(s) 1957
Running time 76min
Language English

[Jean Starling]

I Was a Teenage Werewolf is a 1957 horror film starring Michael Landon as a troubled teenager and Whit Bissell as the primary adult. It was co-written and produced by cult film producer Herman Cohen, and was one of the most successful films released by American International Pictures (AIP).

[Jean Starling]

Landon's character is Tony Rivers, a disturbed, angry young man in the James Dean Rebel Without a Cause tradition, seeks hypnotherapy for his problem. Unfortunately, the practitioner he seeks out, played by Bissell, is also a very disturbed man with definite mad scientist overtones, who successfully regresses his patient into a werewolf with tragic results. He is under the belief that man, instead of moving forward, must go back to their pre-evolution states (for some reason, a werewolf). Tony, meanwhile, knows nothing of this. Tony's transformation is triggered by the sound of bells, which causes him to change in the high school gymnasium (after the school bell rings) and kill a girl who is there practicing gymnastics. Realizing that something is wrong, Rivers goes back to the doctor for help. The doctor hypnotizes him again, making him turn back into a werewolf. As he and his assistant, Hugo, prepare to take pictures of this achievement, the telephone rings, which wakes up Rivers and causes him to kill both the doctor and Hugo. He is then shot by the police as he runs from the doctor's building.

The film was very profitable, as it was made on a very low budget but grossed as much as US$2,000,000 per week in its early weeks of release, huge box office by 1957 standards. Released in June, it was followed five months later by I Was a Teenage Frankenstein, and by the sequel How to Make a Monster in July of 1958.

In November of 1957, less than five months after the release of I Was a Teenage Werewolf, and coinciding with the release of I Was Teenage Frankenstein, AIP released Blood of Dracula, a film which bears more than a passing resemblance to their summer box office hit. More or less a remake, and with the hero and villain roles now both played by females, Blood of Dracula could have easily been titled "I Was a Teenage Vampire" Blood of Dracula, with a story and screenplay credit by I Was a Teenage Werewolf writer Ralph Thornton (a pseudonym for AIP producer Herman Cohen and Aben Kandel), features many other similarities to I Was a Teenage Werewolf - for instance, both have (among other things): a teenager with social behavior problems, an adult 'mad scientist' who is searching for the perfect guinea pig under the guise of helping troubled youth, an observer who can tell the killings are the work of a monster, a disbelieving police chief afraid of the press, a song written by Jerry Blaine and Paul Dunlap accompanied by a choreographed "ad-lib" dance number, hypnosis as scientific medical treatment, drug injections, specific references to Carpathia, hairy transformation scenes, and even some of the same dialogue. In addition, two prominent actors from I Was a Teenage Werewolf are also featured in Blood of Dracula, Malcolm Atterbury and Louise Lewis, with Lewis's villain, 'Miss Branding' a practically perfect female version of Whit Bissel's 'Dr. Brandon.' However, few critics have drawn a connection between the two films, and while most reference works consider I Was a Teenage Frankenstein and How to Make a Monster as direct follow-ups to I Was a Teenage Werewolf, not even cinema guru Leonard Maltin speaks of Blood of Dracula as even being related to the trilogy.


Pop culture impact

I Was a Teenage Werewolf helped launch Landon's career, as Bonanza started only two years later. The idea of an adult human turning into a beast was nothing new, of course, but the idea of a teenager doing just that in a movie was considered avant-garde and even shocking in 1957. Today, however, the film is largely regarded as a source of "camp" humor.

The film's Police Gazette-style title (which had already been utilized by Hollywood previously with pictures such as 1949's I Was a Male War Bride and 1951's I Was a Communist for the FBI) with the inclusion of the adjective "teenage", was constantly mocked in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Many sitcom television series in particular had characters go to movies titled I Was a Teenage Dinosaur, Monster, etc., and it was often referenced in monologues by comedians and bits by disc jockeys.[citation needed] An example of this practice is the 1959 "Dobie Gillis" novel I Was a Teenage Dwarf by Max Shulman. The original working title for AIP's 1958 sci-fi film Attack of the Puppet People was I Was a Teenage Doll.

I Was a Teenage Werewolf likely paved the way for Walt Disney to do his version of a Felix Salten shapeshifting novel, The Hound of Florence. Featuring Disney favorite Tommy Kirk as the hapless teenager and A-lister Fred MacMurray as the answer to B-lister Whit Bissell, it was released in 1959 under the title, The Shaggy Dog.[citation needed]

Over the years, the I Was a Teenage... title was played on by several unrelated films — usually comedies — wishing to make a connection with the cult AIP hit, including 1987's I Was a Teenage Zombie, 1992's I Was a Teenage Mummy, 1993's I Was a Teenage Serial Killer, 1999's I Was a Teenage Intellectual and the 1963 Warner Bros. cartoon, I Was a Teenage Thumb. The script title for 1985's Just One of the Guys was "I Was a Teenage Boy", a title that used a year later as an alternate for 1986's Willy/Milly. An alternate title for the 1995 hit Clueless was "I Was a Teenage Teenager".[1] An episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show was entitled "I Was a Teenage Head-Writer".[2] The title for an episode of the TV series The Monkees was entitled "I Was a Teenage Monster".[3]

In April 1997, the movie was mocked directly when it was featured as an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

In an episode entitled "I Was a Middle Aged Werewolf" of the NBC TV series Highway To Heaven, angel Jonathan Smith (played by Michael Landon) turns himself into a werewolf to frighten off a couple of bullies. Smith's transformation into a werewolf is an homage/parody to Landon's role in the original "I Was A Teenage Werewolf".

In 2002, Last Gasp published I Was a Teenage Dominatrix, a memoir by Shawna Kenney.

[Jean Starling]

Directed by Terence Fisher
Produced by Michael Carreras
Anthony Hinds
Written by Anthony Hinds
John Elder
Starring Clifford Evans
Oliver Reed
Yvonne Romain
Catherine Feller
Anthony Dawson
Music by Benjamin Frankel
Cinematography Arthur Grant
Editing by Alfred Cox
Release date(s)  May 1, 1961
 June 7, 1961
Running time 91 minutes
Country United Kingdom
Language English

[Jean Starling]

The Curse of the Werewolf is a 1961 British horror film directed by Terence Fisher for Hammer Film Productions.

It stars Oliver Reed in his first starring role, Clifford Evans, and Catherine Feller. It is loosely based on Guy Endore's novel The Werewolf of Paris, although the action is moved to 18th century Spain. The memorable makeup is by Roy Ashton, and the score, generally thought to be the first film score based on Arnold Schoenberg's serialism, is by Benjamin Frankel.

This was Hammer Film Productions only film based on lycanthropy. It introduces a few new myths about it, such as the birth of an unwanted child on Christmas Day, which causes the child to become a werewolf unless rescued by love. The use of a silver bullet to destroy the werewolf is maintained.

[Jean Starling]

The story is set in 18th Century Spain. A beggar (Richard Wordsworth) arrives in the village of Santa Vera to find the streets deserted and the church bell tolling... and it is not a Sunday. He enquires at a bar and the locals explain that today is the wedding day of the Marques Siniestro and, by order, a public holiday. The villagers are unhappy because their taxes are paying for the wedding feast, but they are not invited. One man suggests that the beggar try his luck at the castle for "that’s where all our charity is!" The unfortunate beggar decides to take him at his word.

The Marques (Anthony Dawson) is a cruel man. When the new Marquesa (Josephine Llewellyn) is spooked by the sight of a roast goose, he humiliates the chef (Charles Lamb) in front of his guests. When a servant (Desmond Llewellyn) opens the door to the beggar, he warns him to leave. But it is too late: the Marques has already seen the beggar and invites him in. When Siniestro teases the man, his bride protests. So he offers to buy the beggar for her as a pet and gives the man ten pesetas. He then gets the beggar drunk and makes him dance for food. Finally, Siniestro makes him beg like a dog while his guests bark. Tiring of the joke, the Marques and his bride proceed to bed. But when the beggar wishes them a good night, Siniestro has him tossed into the dungeon for his insolence.

There the beggar is forgotten but manages to survive another fifteen years. His only human contact is with the jailer and his beautiful mute daughter (child: Loraine Carvana; adult: Yvonne Romain). Time has not been kind to the Marques either: his wife died and his friends deserted him, so that he has become a recluse in his room. When the jailer's daughter, while cleaning in the Marques' room, refuses the old man's advances, he has her thrown into the dungeon with the beggar. The beggar, driven mad by his long confinement, rapes her and then dies.

The girl is released the next day and sent back up to see the Marques. But she has armed herself with a knife and kills the old man. She flees the castle and spends several months hiding in the forest living like an animal. She is found half-drowned in a pond by Don Alfredo Corledo (Clifford Evans) who lives alone with his maid, Teresa (Hira Talfrey). Teresa nurses the girl back to health and tells Alfredo that the girl is with child. However, Teresa worries that the baby will be born on Christmas Day. She claims that for an unwanted child to share his birthday with Jesus Christ “is an insult to heaven.” Sure enough, the baby is born at Christmas and the girl dies shortly afterwards. At Leon's baptism, the sky darkens and a thunderstorm starts, the font water bubbles and the image of a gargoyle is seen reflected in the water.

Alfredo and Teresa raise the young Leon (Justine Walters). Then Pepe Valiente (Warren Mitchell), the town watchman, finds a goat with its throat torn out and Teresa finds Leon's kitten torn to pieces. When Dominique (George Woodbridge) the goatherd reports the killings to Don Enrique (Peter Sallis) the mayor, Pepe is ordered to kill the wolves deemed responsible. That night Pepe shoots at a young wolf. At the Corledo home, Alfredo removes a bullet from Leon's chest. Teresa is concerned: she did not hear him leave the house. Leon claims to have been in bed all night but had a bad dream. He has had them every night since Pepe took him hunting. Pepe killed a squirrel and Leon had picked up the animal to kiss it. Since he tasted its blood, he wants to taste more. At night he dreams he's a wolf drinking blood. Alfredo looks at Leon's palms and sees they are hairy.

Alfredo consults the local Priest (John Gabriel) who tells him that Leon is a werewolf possessed by the spirit of a beast that should not have been born. The spirit and Leon's soul are at war. Whatever weakens the soul: vice, greed, hatred, solitude, especially at the full moon when the forces of evil are strongest, bring the spirit of the wolf to the fore. Whatever weakens the spirit of the beast: warmth, fellowship, love, raises the human soul. Leon requires love more than ordinary children. When he grows older, if a young woman should love him profoundly, then he may be cured. Alfredo pledges to give Leon the fatherly love he needs. He places bars at Leon's bedroom window to prevent his escaping again.

[Jean Starling]

Under a full moon, Oliver Reed fights his inevitable transformation into a werewolf

An old drunk (Michael Ripper) in the bar claims that the attacks on the livestock were not made by an ordinary wolf but by a werewolf. Pepe melts down his wife Rosa's (Anne Blake) crucifix to make a silver bullet. That night, he shoots Dominique's dog dead and the attacks cease.

Leon grows into a young man (Oliver Reed) and leaves home to seek work at the Gomez vineyard. As he arrives, a carriage leaves and splashes his clothes. Don Fernando (Ewen Solon) sets Leon to work in the wine cellar with Jose Amadayo (Martin Matthews) with whom he quickly forms a friendship. The carriage returns and Fernado's daughter Cristina (Catherine Feller) alights. She comes straight to the wine cellar to apologise to Leon for splashing him. She hopes he will be happy working there. Although Cristina is betrothed to Rico Gomez (David Conville), the son of the vineyard owner, she and Leon fall in love. Every night she has Rico drive her home early complaining of a headache, just so she can spend some time with Leon. He wants her to run away with him but she is reluctant to disobey her father.

On Saturday night, Jose takes Leon to an establishment run by Senora Zumara. They drink and Jose dances with the girls but Leon is distracted. He begins to feel unwell and goes onto the terrace for some air. The full moon is rising. Vera (Sheila Brennan), a girl from inside offers Leon her bed to lie down on and takes him to her room. She starts to loosen his clothes and he embraces and kisses her passionately. Then he bites her neck and she complains. But he changes into the wolf and kills her. Jose goes looking for him and becomes his next victim. Walking the street, the goatherd Dominique is his third killing of the night.

Alfredo finds Leon at home in his bed. The bars at the window are twisted and broken inwards and Leon has no recollection of the night's events. He finds it hard to believe when Alfredo tells him that he is a werewolf. The Priest suggests that Leon be put in chains until he can be admitted to a monastery. Leon flees back to the vineyard where he is questioned by a police sergeant about the events at Senora Zumara's. That night, Leon feels the change coming on again. Cristina appears and he screams at her to get away. He trips and knocks himself out. Cristina stays with him all night and when he awakes no change has occurred. Leon is convinced that she has saved him and begs her to go away with him. She agrees to marry him.

As Leon prepares to leave, the police arrive and arrest him for murder. Locked in a cell, he bribes the gaoler (Denis Shaw) to summon Alfredo. Fernando and Rico catch Cristina preparing to leave. Her father tells her that Leon is in prison where he belongs. Cristina locks the two men in the wine cellar and takes Rico's carriage to the jail. Leon begs Alfredo to tell the mayor to execute him. Alfredo and the Priest want to take him away and warn the mayor that Leon is a werewolf. Cristina arrives and announces that she is engaged to marry Leon but cannot collaborate the werewolf story. The mayor is unconvinced and refuses to release Leon.

Leon sends Alfredo to get Pepe's silver bullet and Cristina is taken to stay with Teresa. As the full moon rises, Leon transforms into the beast. He kills the old drunk and the gaoler and breaks out of the prison. Pursued by a mob, Leon climbs the bell tower with Alfredo in pursuit. As the villagers ring the bells, driving Leon into a frenzy, Alfredo shoots him dead. He covers Leon's body with his cloak.

[Jean Starling]

A particularly gory shot censored in original cinema releases

The scene in which a prostitute (Sheila Brennan) is murdered by the werewolf was cut from early releases, but restored in recent DVD versions. Hammer regularly got into trouble with the censors.
The film was set in Spain only because the sets had already been built for a Spanish-set drama by Hammer to be called The Inquisitor, which eventually fell through when the Catholic Church objected.
The House of Hammer magazine issue 10 (Top Sellers Ltd/1977/UK) featured a graphic novel adaptation of "The Curse of the Werewolf" illustrated by Paul Bolton.
A later British werewolf film The Legend of the Werewolf (1975), created by several Hammer personel, was based on the same source novel, The Werewolf of Paris.
The film Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit follows a similar storyline to the film. Curiously, both films star Peter Sallis.