The Werewolf (1956) Online

The Basic Plot: The unraveling of the mystery of two scientists,a werewolf, and a missing man.

The Praise: Tense, quiet, and spare, it is frightening in an amount of moments with the werewolf. The western locations are great, and the werewolf is sympathetic,plus good acting by a cast of nobodies. Not a major production, it is probably low-budget because of the no-frills look of the film and the lack of any stars. Odd because in parts it looks, feels, and acts like a western. If you detached some scenes without the Werewolf it could pass as a western. The Flaws: Ridiculous makeup. P.S : Extremely rare, it has never been released on VHS, DVD, Laserdisc etc.. Only way to see it is through TV, and I taped it off the AMC Halloween festival, and the tape has become part of my library of rare horror films.

Interesting horror film about a man who becomes a werewolf because of science. A man is recovered from a car crash. A scientist injects him with a serum to fight radiation poison. A side effect causes him to (occasioanlly) turn into a werewolf. No full moon or silver bullets are involved here.

This might be the first horror film to have a person becoming a werewolf through scientific means! The performances are good (especially Steven Ritch as the werewolf), the scenery is beautiful, there are some nice directorial touches and the people talk and act like real people. The makeup is awful and I wasn't really scared, but I was never bored. Sadly, this isn't available on video. Well worth catching on TV.

Lensed by the same director of the bigger budgeted Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers and meant to be a companion for the lower half of the bill The Werewolf surprised everybody by being a taut face value chiller with more character emphasis than usual for this type of subject.

As other reviewers have stated the performances,locale,direction and lighting are much better should be for a story about kooky scientists turning a luckless schmoe into a hirsute mutant but it also has a film noir element that mixes in quite nicely amidst the western pines of Big Bear lake.

Unlike some other viewers I didn't have a problem with the make up. It was meant to scare kids and it did. A year later you can see similarities in the design for Michael Landon's beastly side in I Was A Teenage Werewolf.

After the late sixties this exhausted it's run on local Chiller theaters and became very hard to find until now.

For a reasonable price you can get a gorgeous widescreen DVD transfer of The Werewolf along with other B movie faves The Giant Claw,Zombies Of Mora Tau and Creature With The Atom Brain.

The name of the set is Icons Of Horror Sam Katzman. It comes with some great extras but one of them produced by the same Three Stooges dept. at Columbia has enough vile Asian stereotypes to make A Fu-Man-Chu movie look P.C.

Take a trip back to matinée-ville with this and enjoy.

An old monster gets a new touch in this movie from the late 1950's.

Back when it was popular to blame radiation for everything this movie offers a pair of dedicated but very misguided scientists who want to show the world what hideous mutations atomic radiation can create. They could just have gone to the movies any Saturday and seen all manner of mutants but no, these guys take a car crash victim Duncan Marsh (Steven Ritch, taking a break from the westerns he usually appeared in) and inject him with a serum derived from the blood of a radioactive wolf. (If that sounds familiar it's because the same plot, minus the radiation angle, was used in PRC's 1942 thriller THE MAD MONSTER.) The crash has given Duncan traumatic amnesia and thanks to the serum when he gets angry or frightened he turns into a . . .well you saw the title.

Stopping at a small mountain town, Duncan is tracked there by the scientists who suddenly aren't too anxious to have the world see what they have done (now if they had thought about that 3 reels earlier we wouldn't have had a movie!). The sheriff of the town is Don Megowan who played the Creature from the Black Lagoon in THE CREATURE WALKS AMONG US. The town doctor wants to save Duncan but the sheriff knows the beast has to be stopped one way or the other before the body count gets any higher.

Okay so the end of the movie is pretty much inevitable but director Fred F. Sears, who also gave the world THE GIANT CLAW and EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS, gives us a very atypical scene where Duncan is allowed to see his wife and child before he . . . well you'll see what I mean.

I love this movie for many reasons, one of which is that I also had a Super8mm 11 minute digest of it when I was a kid. Now I have the whole thing on video.

I saw this one as a teenager in the late 60's on our local Friday late night "Chiller Theatre" and it scared me pretty good. It is also my favorite "Wolf Man Movie" for the many of the reasons stated here in these posts. The conceptual aspect of his affliction deals with science as opposed to the supernatural, which in my mind, gives the movie a more humane, not to mention realistic premise, making it unique to its predecessors. The atmosphere is great; the make-up is very convincing for it's time. Steven Ritch gives an excellent performance and I wouldn't be surprised if the emotional aspect of his performance may have had something to do with the real-life combat he saw during WW II. The entire starring and supporting cast; many of them veteran leading and character actors in their own right, do an excellent job and deliver very convincing performances. This is not the "Blair Witch Project," these folks really know their craft. This is not a great Hollywood movie; it is a very fine low budget film that delivers.

I also was unable to find this movie anywhere commercially in any form and like many of the folks here, I taped my copy off of AMC (during the Halloween month of October). Just recently I dubbed my VHS copy to DVD. I agree that Columbia needs to release their catalog of Sci-Fi & Horror movies.

This film shows that even in the direst circumstances, it is possible to bring out the best in ourselves and each other. I think that is what I like about this film the most; from the get- go that they knew it was probably impossible to save Dr. Marsh, but they each in their own way and collectively, tried regardless. It was a noble effort.

This is quite a good low budget film with a new twist to the werewolf story. There is nothing supernatural here. Forget the wolfbane and the silver bullets. Steven Ritch has the lead role and does a splendid job, making the monster even more sympathetic than the long suffering Larry Talbot of the Universal Wolfman flicks. His character, Duncan Marsh, appears in a mountain town having no memory of who he is or how he got there. Leaving a tavern, he is followed by a man who intends to rob him. The man pulls him into an alley and the werewolf claims his first victim. The story plays well the rest of the way. We find out that Duncan Marsh's condition is brought on by two doctors who use him as a test subject while treating him for injuries sustained in a car accident. A supporting cast of unknowns do a decent job of being believable. Elenore Tanin is especially effective as Duncan Marsh's wife. The Big Bear Lake locations give the film a lot of help.

Ever since Lon Chaney played Lawrence Talbot, werewolves have been depicted as pawns of a cruel destiny, doomed to a bad end, and this Fifties twist on the theme is no exception. That sense of our poor protagonist as a helpless victim of forces beyond his control is what sticks with me from this movie: The burden of guilt falls squarely on the shoulders of the sinister government scientists who devise this atomic-age curse, and their victim's innocence provides no redemption for him. Not sure how much of this was intentional on the part of the writers and director (Fred F. Sears, not far from helming the unfortunate shipwreck of "The Giant Claw"), but I find it superior to the rank and file of Fifties-era drive-in horror films.

Duncan Marsh(Steven Ritch)is "poisoned by radiation" leading to his lycanthrope affliction at the hands of corrupt scientists Dr Morgan Chambers(George Lynn) & his assistant Dr. Emery Forrest. It's in Chambers head that he will inflict the human race with lycanthropy leading to their destroying themselves saying he wishes to "cure the world" of those he deems unworthy to live in. Marsh accidentally kills a man trying to steal from him and this leads to a manhunt with Sheriff Jack Haines(Don Megowan), his deputies, & fellow deer-hunting citizens trying to find the afflicted werewolf in the woodland near the sleepy town they occupy. Meanwhile, Chambers and Forrest head for Mountaincrest themselves with plans to murder Marsh so that they will not be implicated for their crimes against humanity and the natural order of things.

The film's strength, in my opinion, is the humanistic struggle to save a victim of man's evil scientific goals and corrupt convictions. The sheriff is stuck between a rock and a hard place, often seeking guidance in how to lead his men on the hunt for Marsh. His moral guidance often comes from town physician Dr. Gilchrist(Ken Christy)and girlfriend nurse Amy(Joyce Holden). They are his voices of reason and humanity in such a difficult search for a man who doesn't wish to harm anyone, but is plagued with a primal animal that is dangerous.

Good little werewolf movie, packs a bit of an emotional wallop thanks to Ritch's unfortunate situation and it's effects on his family and the paranoid, afraid community of Mountaincrest. The mountainous setting is rich with atmosphere and it's a breath of fresh air from the usual movie lot sets. This film uses dissolves when Ritch turns from human to werewolf and vice versa from the same make-up man behind "The Return of the Vampire."

This little B picture from 1956 grows on you, with repeated viewings. Steven Ritch is superb as the tormented Duncan Marsh, nice guy family man turned into a monster by two unscrupulous scientists. There's something strangely believable and compelling about his plight, as he tries to make sense of his confused memories, while being pursued by a posse, and wondering who he can trust. The supporting players are all fine in sympathetic roles, especially Joyce Holden as the nurse who does her best to help the lost and terrified Marsh. Eleanore Tanin is also very good as Marsh's wife, and Don Megowan plays a macho but caring lawman, who realizes the fugitive is a human being, as well as a monster.

The eccentric, lovable doctor father of the Joyce Holden character is also very good, and the two crackpot scientists who callously used the hapless Marsh without his knowledge for their own allegedly positive ends are made believable, egocentric researchers, rather than over the top mad scientists. The natural settings, with real mountains, lakes, and small town streets have an incredibly powerful impact on the storyline, as we see the actor playing the miserable werewolf shivering in his bare feet in the snow, the morning after he wakes from one of his transformations. It's hard to pin down what it is that makes Steven Ritch so effective in the part, but we get a real sense of Duncan Marsh as an ordinary person traumatized by an outrageous series of events that would make anyone question his or her sanity. The scene when he is reunited with his wife and young son feels so genuine, it practically brings tears to my eyes, to watch him embrace first the boy and then his wife. It seems to somehow transcend acting and become heartbreakingly real.

The film may drag a little and not offer a lot of startling action, but it is still well worth seeing. It ranks as one of the most unusual and fascinating werewolf movies I've ever seen, and should not be missed.

***SPOILERS*** Updating the werewolf story to fit into the post WWII nuclear world "The Werewolf" is a much better movie about that subject then the many werewolf and wolf-man movies made since the movie that started those kinds of horror films "The Wolfman" with Lon Chaney Jr. back in 1941.

An unfortunate individual Duncan Marsh, Steven Ritch, survives a serious car crash and is later taken from the local Mountainquest Hospital where he's being treated for his injuries by two scientists Dr. Emery Forrest & Dr. Morgan Chambers, S.John Launer & George Lynn.

At their laboratory the scientists use Marsh to experiment with in order to create a vaccine for nuclear fall-out and radioactivity so that they and those that they see fit to survive a nuclear war can immunize themselves from what they feel is a coming atomic conflict. Marsh is injected with a serum of chemicals and blood from a radioactively infected wolf that they had experimented with. This turned Marsh into a vicious wolf-like monster whenever he gets frightened or feels threatened.

Breaking out of the laboratory and escaping into the woods Mrash makes it down to the town of Mountainquest where he stops off at a local bar to warm up by buying himself a drink. Marsh is spotted by local bar patron Joe Mitchell, Charles Horvath, cashing a $20.00 bill and is later followed outside in the dark by Mitchell with the intention of mugging him.

Cornered in a dark alley Mitchell starts to work over the much smaller and thinner Marsh as he attempts to rob him. Then within seconds, off camera, Mrash changes into a animal-like monster ripping into the startled and surprised mugger who realized, only too late, that he was starting up with someone or something that was a lot more formidable then just your average mugging victim with Marsh tearing Mitchall's throat out and killing him.

On the run in the cold and frozen woods outside Mountainquest Marsh hides inside a hidden cave as the towns sheriff Jack Haines, Don Megowan, and a group of townspeople go out looking to find and either capture or kill him. Things now start to happen fast and furious for the people who are now looking for Marsh for other reasons besides his killing of Mitchell.

Doctors Forrest and Chambers hear the news about the killing and realize that it was Mrash who committed it. Together the two doctors drive down to the town of Mountainquest to help in finding the killer but really wanting to kill Marsh to keep him quite about the experiments that they preformed on him. Marsh's wife Helen, Eleanore Tanin, and his son Chris, Kim Charney, also drive down to Mountainquest to find out what happened to their husband and father after his car accident since he left the hospital and was never seen or heard of again.

With the help of Helen and little Chris the sheriff and a number of the townspeople get Marsh to give himself up alive and he's put into the towns jail to be questioned about Mitchell's death as well as treated for the injuries he suffered when he stepped into a bear-trap in the forest.

That night the two scientists Forrest & Chambers sneak into the jail cell where Marsh is in and try to murder him to keep his mouth shut about what they did with and to him. Marsh terrified at the sight of them turns into the monster that they turned him into and tears into both of them ripping them to pieces.

On the loose and badly wounded with no chance of being taking alive Marsh is trapped on a highway bridge where he's shot and killed by Sheriff Haines and his posse. As Marsh lays dying he turns back into the human being that he once was, before he was experimented with by the two somewhat mad scientists, as he dies in peace.

Steven Ritch as Duncan Marsh makes the Werewolf both terrifying and well as sympathetic at the same time and you never for one second have any bad feeling towards him since you know that he couldn't help what he was doing because he was turned into a vicious animal for reasons beyond his control.Don Megowan as Sheriff Haines is also very good as the understanding lawman who also felt that Marsh was not responsible for his actions and needed medical help but at the same time knew that he may very well have to kill him to protect the people of Mountainquest.

The film comes across as pretty effective as it does not try to be supernatural in it's subject matter like it could very well have become, there's no full moons or silver bullets to activate or kill the werewolf in this movie. Both Joyce Holden and Ken Christy as Amy Standish and Dr. Jonas Gilchrist are fine in supporting roles. The two try to help Marsh but are rebuffed by him due to his paranoid fear of people in the medical profession because of the experiments preformed on him by the two scientists who turned him into the monster that he became.

"The Werewolf's" very scenic on location black and white photography as well as it very innovative story is one of the many reasons to watch this film.

This film scared the pants off me as a kid (which I loved!) and when I finally found it again and watched it as an adult I was pleasantly surprised to find that I still enjoy it. And parts of it, namely the cave sequence and the fight in the dark alley, still give me the creeps. I found this werewolf much scarier than Chaney Jr.'s version. Steven Ritch's portrayal has a wildness and rawness to it that gives his lycanthrope that extra edge. Watch how he drools as he sinks his fangs into that hunk of bait in the woods, for instance. Oh, there are a few flaws... and I find the scene at the doctors' lab very long, talky and dull... but all in all I'd recommend this to any classic horror film buff. Well done. Hard to believe something of actual quality was produced by the same man responsible for "The Giant Claw"!

This genuinely interesting and well made black-and-white horror film was a pleasant surprise, given the director and producer previously gave us "The Giant Claw" (good character scenes, ludicrous monster effects) and "Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers" (good special effects by Harryhausen, wooden, clunky and low energy "live" scenes").

The "buzz" on this one is supposed to be that this was the first "scientific" werewolf on film, but I recall George Zuckoff starring in a PRC poverty row production called "Mad Monster" which was very similar in story and setting. It's OK, though - "Mad Monster" was deservedly forgotten, while this effort is considerably more fun to watch.

Played with some depth and sympathy by all the main actors and some well lit and shot B&W photographu,this little parable has a nice haunting ending and is unusual in that the victim gets to see his family before meeting his fate.

I liked it a lot. It seems that Sam Katzman may have been less of a hack than I previously though.

Yeah, sure, this has been done and done, the dialog is trite, and many of the plot elements are contrived, I'll admit to that, but in 1956, this was still some pretty fresh stuff. Edgy and hard, this attempts to cash in on Universal's immense success with The Wolfman.

Everyone seems to think that the current Hollywood trends are just that - current, but Hollywood has scarcely changed its tactics at all since the beginning. Even the 1930's Universal horrors were remakes of silent films, and Hollywood has done remakes, sequels, reboots, and revisionist films since the beginning. Sometimes they are actually superior to their originals and sometimes they need not bother being mentioned.

This one falls somewhere in the middle in that it is nowhere near as good as the original and nothing as bad as some of the 1970's and 1980's attempts. This isn't Friday/Saturday night quality (more "rainy Sunday afternoon" fare), but it IS worth a watch.

It rates a 7.8/10 on the B&W scale.

It rates a 5.6/10 on the movie scale from...

the Fiend :.

In the mid to late 1950s, Hollywood tried (unsuccessfully) to revive the 1930s and 40s horror film with mostly poor results. The biggest problem with most of these later movies is that they were obviously given much lower budgets and no-name actors that didn't do the material justice. Such films as I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF and THE VAMPIRE were very dull and sad imitations of the earlier Universal horror films.

In light of this, I was expecting THE WEREWOLF to be yet another dull low-budget monster film. In some ways, I was right--the budget was super-low and the actors were all complete unknowns. However, despite this poor pedigree, the overall effort was far better than I ever would have expected. Not only was the acting pretty good, but the plot was excellent despite somehow combining the werewolf and atomic menace genres! It seems that two evil and annoying doctors have decided to do some less than ethical research on some poor shmoe. When a guy is brought to them after a minor traffic accident, they inject him with some radioactive serum that makes him become a werewolf-like creature. But, since he isn't really a werewolf, it's okay that the plot doesn't follow the old Lon Chaney, Jr. mold. In the process, the film is quite entertaining and did a great job of making you care about this poor unfortunate soul. Far better than you'd expect--this one is a keeper.

By the way, while I felt very positively towards this film, I must still point out that there is a PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE-like moment late in the film where it goes from pitch black outside to daytime and back again due to lousy editing. It's pretty silly and very noticeable.

"The Werewolf" is a good film from the 1950s with a different angle. Instead of the doomed person being bitten by a Werewolf, he is experimented on after a car crash. This is evident in the fact that he turns into a Werewolf even without a full moon and also in the daylight. Steven Ritch plays a very sympathetic Werewolf, much along the lines of Lon Chaney, Jr. in "The Wolfman". The Werewolf make-up is average but the locale is pretty. The acting is good as well. There isn't a whole lot of action but the movie sustains viewer interest. I think that had there been a bit more action, I would rate this higher. Given the limited budget, I think that the producer and director did a very credible job. Overall, I'd say the film is very entertaining.

While made on a shoestring budget, this B/W 1950's horror film is an excellent creature feature...one of the best werewolf movies ever made in my opinion. Yes the special effects were primitive compared to Rick Baker's work, but it was the best they had in those days. This film has a very good plot, decent acting, and a memorably sad (read tearful not bad) performance by Steven Rich as the unfortunate lycanthrope. The transformation scene in the cave when he attacks the evil Dr. who is trying to kill him is really scary even by today's standards...the drool spilling over his fangs was an excellent bit. I wasn't too thrilled with the ending (everyone knows that it takes silver bullets to kill a werewolf!) but otherwise, a really fun movie to watch...especially when the moon is full & a pack of coyotes are howling outside. Harry Lauter was really good as the deputy in this.

The Werewolf with Steven Ritch was one of the best "werewolf" films I have ever seen. Ritch played the lycanthrope as both sympathetic..yet animistic and the scene when the sheriff's come into his jail cell and "think he's sleeping" is a true classic. Don Megowan plays the Law officer who eventually stops the Werewolf..and here's a bit of trivia on him. He is one of the stunt men who plays "the Creature from the Black Lagoon"! The Werewolf is impossible to find anywhere (even on VHS)..which alone..qualifies it as a Classic! The only other Werewolf movie that is in the same league as this 1956 film is the more recent Ginger Snaps Back. If you are a fan of great werewolf films..not the hokey Wolfman with Lon Chaney..you will love both of these movies.

I'd be the first one to admit that this isn't the greatest werewolf movie that's ever been made. In a lot of ways, it's pretty standard, B- movie stuff. In the action and the chills there really isn't much here that you won't see in other werewolf movies from the era. The cast isn't especially well known (it is a low-budget, B-movie after all, so it doesn't have anyone even approaching the status of a "star") although the performances are fine. The "transformation" scenes are pretty standard for the era; the makeup is OK. What really made this work, though, was the premise. The relatively mundane title suggests a lack of creativity; in fact, this was a rather unique way of approaching the genre.

It's a pretty good way of blending a 1940's "horror" type theme (werewolves) with a 1950's theme (radiation, and the fear of nuclear war and the fallout from it.) Essentially, the werewolf in this is an even more sympathetic figure than usual. After suffering a minor injury in a car accident, Duncan (Steven Ritch) is experimented on by two doctors who want to find out what would happen if people were exposed to large doses of radiation, so that they can be prepared to deal with (and survive) the aftermath of an atomic war. What they discover is that the radiation turns Duncan into a bloodthirsty, werewolf-type beast who goes on a killing spree in a small town and in the woods surrounding it. So there's no full moon in this, no animal bite. The guy is just the victim of the experiments of a couple of unsavoury scientists.

It fits perfectly with the 1950's, Cold War era. People were afraid of nuclear war; they were afraid of radiation and what it might do as the weapons got progressively more and more powerful. So this, as a horror movie, would have managed to do what any decent horror movie tries to do - it would have played on the very real fears of every day people; a point the movie itself makes toward the end, in a scene when it's mentioned that people are afraid because now that they know it can happen to anyone, they also know there's a chance it could happen to them. This is a decent movie. (6/10)

Never seen this film before and was pleasantly surprised to see this film had some Sci-Fi effects and it involved itself with two doctors who find a man Duncan Marsh, (Steven Ritch) who was in a car accident who has no memory and they inject him with a serum which has some strange effects on his body. Duncan Marsh is a married man and has a son and he escapes from these doctors and runs into a bar and has a few drinks and tries to seek help but as he leaves the bar he is approached by a man who wants to take his money and something happens to this man. Soon after this incident, the town believes there is a wild animal on the loose because they find a man killed by a sort of wolf or wild animal. This is a rather low budget film, but it has real live background on a California park and has a great deal of realism and horror. Enjoy.

Idealistic Dr. Morgan Chambers (well played by George Lynn) and his cynical partner Dr. Emery Forrest (a nice turn by S. John Launer) rescue Duncan Marsh (a strong and sympathetic performance by Steven Ritch) from an automobile accident by giving him an experimental serum. Unfortunately, said serum has the side effect of turning Marsh into a murderous werewolf who terrorizes the countryside of a small rural community. Director Fred F. Sears maintains a snappy pace throughout and stages the werewolf attack scenes with a considerable amount of flair. Moreover, the fine acting from a solid cast rates as another substantial plus: Don Megowan as the stalwart, no-nonsense Sheriff Jack Haines, Joyce Holden as caring nurse Amy Standish, Harry Lauter as the brave Deputy Ben Clovey, Ken Christy as the sensible Dr. Jonas Gilchrist, and Eleanore Tanin as Duncan's worried wife Helen Marsh. Better still, the smart and intriguing script by Robert E. Kent eschews standard werewolf lore in favor of a more credible scientific approach to lycanthropy and presents the monster as a pitiable figure who's just as much of a victim as the people he preys on. Edward Linden's crisp black and white cinematography (the use of wipes is especially snazzy), the neat werewolf make-up, Mischa Bakaleinikoff's classy, thrilling score, the believable and engaging characters, and the stirring conclusion all further enhance the overall sound quality of this nifty little sleeper.

I can remember seeing this on a double bill with Earth vs the Fling Saucers at a matinée back in the mid fifties, both creeped me out (for different reasons)and it wasn't until; years later that I realized the same man, Fred F. Sears, had directed both. What a wonderful eye he had for action, awe, horror and pathos as all of these were in display on the double bill. "Flying Saucers" had been covered a zillion times but The Werewolf is a true gem with solid acting, a fairly believable script and some decent chills. It also serves as an analogy for the modern man being caught up in circumstances he can neither escape nor fully comprehend. The scenes in the mine shaft and jail cell alone are worth the price of admission. I disagree vehemently, however, with those writers who state that there's a gay subtext running throughout the film. Sorry all, the greatest fear of the fifties was of an unknown future created by the power of the atom, not supposed homosexual scientists destroying the American family.

Fred F. Sears directed this better-than-expected science fiction horror tale that stars Steven Ritch as an auto-accident survivor who is rescued by two scientists who inject him with an experimental serum intended to cure nuclear fallout, but instead has the unfortunate side-effect of turning him into a werewolf, which proceeds to terrorize the local mountain community, with his concerned wife and son in pursuit.

Not bad thriller dispenses with supernatural clichés to present a scientific explanation for the werewolf, an innovative touch. Steven Ritch is excellent, making you care about his tragic plight. Other performances are good, with effective location filming. Memorable bridge climax is fine(if a bit too abrupt). Has some obvious flaws, but otherwise a reasonably tense thriller.

I heartily agree with the previous reviewers comments as to the film's similarities as to a "Western Drama". It has the wonderful feel of a 'Northwestern Mountie' location! I find this film to be quite ABOVE the Grade-B classification and it actually has quite a bit going for it! The shooting locations are real (hardly any soundstaging) and the snow-laced mountain locale adds a wonderfully chilly edge to the storyline. There are no recognizeable major actors (except for the great "B" character actor 'HARRY LAUTER' - who finally receives a more extensive role), but the acting is quite adequate and the story surprisingly rather well-paced. The Werewolf make-up is quite similar to the version seen in "The Werewolf of London" and I was quite pleased with the beast's appearance. It is quite frustrating that Columbia Picture has NEVER released this little gem on ANY format (no VHS, LASERDISC or DVD) and I (like the previous reviewer) taped a wonderful copy form TV's AMC 'Monsterfest' a few years back. It also sits in my vast collectible library and is one of my favorites! ***** COLUMBIA PICTURES needs to 'get off it's ASS and get on the ball with their wonderful 50's SCI-FI/HORROR features and roll into the 21st Century, because NONE of these Cult favorites have EVER been on LASERDISC or DVD: DIARY OF A MADMAN, EARTH VS THE SPIDER, AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN, 12 TO THE MOON, THE WEREWOLF, NIGHT THE WORLD EXPLODED, I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF, A STUDY IN TERROR (Sherlock Holmes), TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN, DAY THE WORLD ENDED, IT CONQUERED THE WORLD, THE GAMMA PEOPLE, INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN, SHE-CREATURE, THE GIANT CLAW and (Okay, I really want this one) .... RIDE THE WILD SURF!

The 1956 The Werewolf is not, despite its title, a horror film. Or not primarily anyway. It's got science fiction elements (nothing supernatural here); and its western setting makes it feel like a contemporary western. Also worth mentioning is that the fate of the central character is deeply tragic; all the more so for being brought upon by forces outside himself, which he cannot control.

As with two earlier, better known werewolf pictures, the 1935 Werewolf Of London and The Wolf Man, made five years afterwards, the man who turns into a wolf is a decent human being who must cope with a terrible predicament for which he is not responsible. In The Werewolf the main character is a hunted man fairly early on; and the nature of his monstrous transformations is such as to make seeking help from others not a wise course of action.

What makes this film so excellent is the wondrous serendipity of old Hollywood: good actors, a decent script and first rate, albeit spartan production values. This is a dark, shadowy film, and yet much if not most of it takes places outdoors, in the mountains of California. That it was filmed on location makes it feel more real than most films with similar themes. Director Fred Sears makes the most of what he was given to work with.

This is a first rate movie; and, due to the care and talent that went into making it, a classy change of pace for those fond of old films and aren't bothered by the absence of color. The routine, by the numbers nature of its story line, plus the lack of much in the way of character development, keep it from becoming a true classic of its kind. Near the end, as the title character, in full monster mode, is trapped by hunters firing upon him from a bridge, the film becomes emotional, even moving.

When a drifter is attacked by a robber, he transforms into the titular terror, leaving his attacker in a bloody heap. Has a shape-shifting monster come to the small, tranquil town of Mountaincrest? THE WEREWOLF is a 1950's take on the lycanthropy legend, adding mad science and radiation to the mix, as the true, twisted tale behind the violent vagrant emerges. Oddly enough, this novel approach works fairly well, and Steven Ritch is quite good in his tortured, unwittingly murderous role. After a rather lengthy stretch of dullness, the big finale kicks things into high gear! A furry fear fable w/ just the right hint of cheeeze...