The late Warren Zevon said, “Well, I saw Lon Chaney walking with the Queen.” “Doing the Werewolves of London.” I saw Lon Chaney Jr. walking with the Queen.” “Doing the Werewolves of London.” I saw a werewolf drinking a piña colada at Trader Vic’s.” “And his hair was perfect.” “Na!” Anyway, Universal Pictures became a household name producing Horror films such as “Dracula,” “Frankenstein,” “The Mummy,” “The Invisible Man” & “Bride of Frankenstein.” One film in particular joined the roster of “Universal Monsters” none other than “The Wolf Man.”
Released in 1941, (same year Green Arrow made his comic book debut) it received positive reviews from critics and movie goers alike. The Wolf Man appeared in later films within the Universal Monsters series including “Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man,” “House of Frankenstein,” “House of Dracula” & “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.”
Thanks to Francis Ford Coppola’s remake of “Dracula,” The Wolf Man was loosely remade in 1994 as “Wolf” starring Jack Nicholson as part of a trend of remakes based on classic monster movies like Frankenstein, The Mummy” & “Hollow Man.” The Wolf Man appeared in “Van Helsing” starring Hugh Jackman. Another remake of The Wolf Man starring with Benicio Del Toro came out in 2010.
Ryan Gosling will star as The Wolf Man in an upcoming reboot. As of October 2023, no release date has been confirmed. Before the upcoming reboot comes out in the future, I wanna share my thoughts on the OG version with Lon Chaney Jr. By the way, I’m reviewing a few Horror films throughout October. Which Horror film should I review during Halloween Month? Please leave a comment and I’ll reply back.
It doesn’t matter if SPOILERS are listed. A lot of us are aware of The Wolf Man either referenced or parodied in other works.
Cure & Sick Qualities
Cure: Lon Chaney Jr. did a decent job for his performance as the titular character.
Claude Rains (OG Invisible Man) played Larry’s father, John.
Bela Lugosi (OG Dracula) makes a brief appearance as a fortune teller.
Prosthetic Makeup transformed Lon into the monster.
Cinematography didn’t succumb to technical difficulties.
Larry’s transformation sequence was innovated back then. Lon’s face was shot seventeen times. Each match dissolve made it look like he’s becoming the wolf.
Sick: The film’s runtime is approximately an hour and ten minutes. Not enough to qualify as a full-length live-action film. Animated 70-minute films are forgivable. The Wolf Man’s running time is the equivalent of an episode of a television drama as in “Boardwalk Empire.”
Larry keeps asking Gwen on a date. She ignores the fact he sees her where she puts her jewelry in her room. If this were real life, Gwen would’ve rejected him. What she lacks is common sense. I also didn’t care about Larry & Gwen’s chemistry. I just wanna see him as the wolf.
There’s no single shot of a full moon. Not kidding, I’m dead serious. What’s the point of not showing a full moon if you’re going to show the audience Larry’s transformation. It’s like Bruce Banner suddenly transforms into the Hulk without showing the audience he’s getting angry.
Pacing is boring as heck. If you’re expecting Larry to transform in the First Act, he transforms 42 minutes in before the Third Act. A chunk of the film lacks the wolf’s presence.
The Final Verdict: C, FOR CRANKY!
I hate to break it to ya, but The Wolf Man doesn’t hold up. As a modern movie goer, I have to give old films tough love if a certain one stands the test of time. If you wanna see a good werewolf film, watch Jack Nicholson in Wolf. It’s my favorite version of The Wolf Man.
Nickthemoviecritic.com 
I, too, loved “Wolf”. I mean c’mon – Nicholson, Pfeiffer, and Spader together in one movie! Genius.
The remake with Benicio del Toro was done pretty well, but if we want to go back a bit I loved Oliver Reed in The Curse of the Werewolf. Beautiful make-up job. Then there’s An American Werewolf in London, The Howling, Silver Bullet, and Werwolf of London.
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