1961: Curse Of The Werewolf, The (87th)

What else happened this year? 1961… Let’s see..Cuban Missile Crisis? Bay of Pigs? Yes!

What is the plot - in one sentence? It’s a Victorian-era Spanish village, and a family has to deal with looking after a were-wolf as a son.

I don't have time, just spoil it for me? The son reaches adulthood, kills a few people, learns that he can resist becoming a werewolf when he’s with his true love, but is arrested, breaks out of jail, and is killed by his father, reluctantly. There you go.

What is the meaning of the title? It’s a curse, all right, and he’s a were-wolf, all right.

 Amazingly, this guy ISN'T a werewolf!

He's just one of the miserable villagers that get too much time onscreen.

Anything that's not aged well? Does a woman get slapped around? Does a woman get slapped around? The were-wolf boy’s mother gets pregnant after she’s raped by a beggar she’s been tending to, she’s then slapped around by a lecherous Lord she works for. One of those two impregnates here with the wolf-boy. 

There’s a lot of grey-face going on – the father figure, his servant, and the priest are all shown over a long period of time, and wear grey face make up and hair to signify that, and I have a feeling that ‘grey-face’ will be frowned upon in the future.

Any thoughts? Oliver Reed is the Were-wolf in adulthood – he apparently got through adolescence by being with his family. It seems in this movie that ‘were-wolf’ism can be cured with love, so if he is with his family, or with his sweetheart, he’s able to resist it. I can see why that isn’t a usual part of the Werewolf mythos.

Oliver Reed, the Were-wolf of the tale, isn’t in the movie until the hour mark in a 1.5 hour movie. In his last half hour, he’s still got to fall in love with a toothy baroness, kill his annoying mate (he works in a wine-making house, or something). Also kill a prostitute, be arrested, escape and then have a lengthy chase around town before he’s killed. A lot happens in that last half hour, especially in comparison to the first hour, which is glacial, except for first 20 minutes or so, which focus on the rape and abuse of that poor woman in the castle.

Would you recommend this? No, this was terrible, if you happen across it, watch the very end because he looks quite cool as a wolfman.

Final thoughts? We don’t get to see Wolf Oliver Reed until the very end of the movie (the bits of him killing are all hinted at without showing him, or shot in POV. Young and thin though, he’s very cute, and I think that is actually him and not a stunt double climbing buildings to escape capture (which I don’t think wolves do, anyway).

I kind of like how Blasé the church is here. They’re accepting that he’s a werewolf and the solution to it is to put him into a monastery.

Oliver Reed himself has a similarly stoic acceptance of his situation. Which by the way isn’t really explained. His mother was shown to be a busty, mute servant girl who was raped by a dying man, and then raped by the Lord she served, but after learning that she’s pregnant, and taken into the house of his eventual adopted family, she dies. It's unpleasant, but there isn't an element in that story that would lead to being a werewolf. I guess this whole thing is an allegory for the perils of adoption.

There’s no further mention of the Lord at all either, he was killed by a servant, surely they’d be looking for him. It certainly wasn’t explained that he was a werewolf himself – was that entire 20 minutes at the beginning for no reason, just to show a pretty woman being pawed at by gross old men? Yes. Yes it was.

Another one down, what joy, the other 86 and any that come in the future are sure to be found here.