The Werewolf is a low-budget American 1956 science fiction horror film, produced by Sam Katzman, and directed and narrated by Fred F. Sears (Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, The Giant Claw) from a screenplay by Robert E. Kent (Diary of a Madman, Twice-Told Tales). The film’s score was by noted Russian composer Mischa Bakaleinikoff.
Like the following year’s The Vampire, this film offers a science fiction view of a traditionally supernatural creature, but the films were produced by different companies.
Duncan Marsh (Steven Ritch), a mild-mannered man, finds himself lost in a remote village called Mountaincrest. His mind is clouded, but he learns later that Emory Forrest (S. John Launer) and Morgan Chambers (George Lynn), two scientists, injected him with a special serum containing irradiated wolf’s blood when he was suffering from amnesia after being in a car accident. The wolf’s blood, for unknown reasons, changed the previously gentlemanly Duncan into a vicious, bloodthirsty werewolf…
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‘Here, in the mid-1950’s, the heyday of rubber monsters and atomic bugs, lies buried what may be the very first revisionist werewolf movie. Indeed, at several points as I watched The Werewolf, I was struck by the extent to which the slightly later I Was a Teenage Werewolf seems to have borrowed from it, and I was impressed throughout with the filmmakers’ willingness to disregard the usual werewolf-movie plot conventions.’ 1000 Misspent Hours and Counting
‘Campy at times, the originality of the production is commendable while the lead (his first movie) is successful at imbuing the wolf man with a certain degree of pathos. The scene where he runs frantically through the snow country bare footed shows Rich to have been a real trooper. This lycanthrope is truly a walking essay in tragedy.’ Cool Ass Cinema
‘The werewolf makeup by Clay Campbell (The Return of the Vampire, 1944) is effective, with fangs and nice drool effects, but the transformation sequences are rushed and the dissolves do not properly overlay (the de-transformation looks better). Still, this is one of the better-looking werewolves in film history. In a sequence similar to The Wolf Man (1941) we even see the title monster caught in a spring trap.’ Monster-Minions
- Steven Ritch as Duncan Marsh
- Don Megowan as Sheriff Jack Haines
- Joyce Holden as Amy Standish
- Eleanore Tanin as Helen Marsh
- Kim Charney as Chris Marsh
- Harry Lauter as Deputy Ben Clovey
- Larry J. Blake as Hank Durgis
- Ken Christy as Dr. Jonas Gilchrist
- James Gavin as Mack Fanning
- S. John Launer as Dr. Emery Forrest
- George Lynn as Dr. Morgan Chambers
- George Cisar as Hoxie
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