Cry of the Werewolf (1944)

Director:

Henry Levin

Writers:

Griffin Jay (screenplay)
Griffin Jay (story)

Release Date:

17 August 1944 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

As a woman she wanted LOVE! As a werewolf she wanted BLOOD!

Plot:

Young woman raised by gypsies is actually daughter of a werewolf. She starts killing those who know about her. |

Plot Keywords:

Werewolf | New Orleans

Cast

Nina Foch	...	Marie Latour
Stephen Crane	...	Robert 'Bob' Morris
Osa Massen	...	Elsa Chauvet
Blanche Yurka	...	Bianca
Barton MacLane	...	Lt. Barry Lane
Ivan Triesault	...	Jan Spavero
John Abbott	...	Peter Althius
Fred Graff	...	Pinkie
John Tyrrell	...	Mac
Robert Williams	...	Homer
Fritz Leiber	...	Dr. Charles Morris
Milton Parsons	...	Adamson

Runtime:

63 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Unrated

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: In order to get the wolf to snarl and gnash it's teeth for the camera, a clearly visible rubber band was placed around it's upper jaw and snout. It is most easily seen in the footage running behind the opening credits.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Creature Features: Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man/Cry of the Werewolf (#1.32)" (1971)

Wooden werewolf film with two cheesecake Garbos -- can't go wrong.

Cry of the Werewolf is a taut little movie, with some insight into the occult, that I would put above the movies Val Lewton made without Jacques Tourneur but below the Tourneur trifecta of Cat People, The Leopard Man, and I Walked With a Zombie.

The film won my heart right away with its unregenerate hostile attitude towards gypsies. I once knew a Hungarian girl who said that gypsies would haunt the Budapest underground and steal your wallet at knife-point, leering with blackened teeth and smelling like bizarre herbs, so I was well-primed for this particular prejudice. I've never liked Jimi Hendrix either.

The film is very humble but scores in the casting of its female leads. The obscure Osa Massen as the Transylvanian transplant ( with a German accent ) was a standout for me, but she isn't as domestic and pallid as the good girl should be. She looks even more gypsyish than the gypsies. If this were a Hammer film, she would be just slightly plumper than the seductress played by Nina Foch, so the hero would have some excuse to stray. He doesn't have one here. What, a bombshell from Transylvania isn't exotic enough for him, he has to go sniffing around caravans?!

As an actress, Massen is a diamond in the rough. She has some really good scenes, especially a "caught between two masters" episode towards the end where her face flickers between snaky malevolence and Tess Trueheart chastity, both of which she carries off. There was another scene I liked where she is surprised by Foch -- she whips around and her hair seems to bounce with fright, then quickly adjust. With her looks and quality-control of performance, this girl could have been a Scandinavian Virginia Mayo, if not Rita Hayworth.

Nina Foch meanwhile plays the gypsy princess, who has an old woman's face and a young woman's body, suiting the enigma of her character. Ashton Kutcher no doubt would have fallen prey to her charms. Foch tries to play up the tragedy of her bad blood but is not sympathetic, perhaps intentionally.

Footnote: An opportuntity was had and lost to make this the first lesbian vampire movie in history, when Foch transforms Massen into her "sister." Unfortunately the no doubt fascinating process by which this occurs happens offscreen, and this is not a case where suggestion is more potent than visualization. We know how males turn females into vampires but how does a gypsy woman make another woman into her sister? I'm not being smutty, I really want to know.