The way we WERE
MARION MCMULLEN LOOKS BACK AT STARS WHO WERE OVER THE FULL MOON TO PLAY WEREWOLVES ON THE BIG SCREEN
PLAYING monsters was something of a family affair for Hollywood star Lon Chaney Jr.
The actor transformed into a werewolf for movies like The Wolf Man in 1941 and Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman two years later with Bela Lugosi playing the monster.
Born Creighton Tull Chaney, he was persuaded by studio bosses to take the name of his famous father, silent movie star Lon Chaney, to further his acting career.
His father was known as the Master Of Horror, but tried to discourage his son from following in his acting footsteps. “My father would be horrified if he knew I was making it in pictures and that I’m not billed as Creighton Chaney,” said Lon Jr.
The Wolf Man was his big movie break and saw the 6ft 2ins tall actor play the tortured Lawrence Talbot. His werewolf make-up was so extensive it took 45 minutes to take off at the end of each day’s filming.
Publicity for the film warned cinema audiences “Night monster... prowling... killing... terrifying a countryside... with the blood lust of a savage beast!”
Lon later said: “All the best of the monsters played for sympathy. That goes for my father, myself and all the others. They all won the audience’s sympathy. The Wolf Man didn’t want to do all those bad things. He was forced into them.”
Not long before his death, the Hollywood actor told an American TV chat show host his voice had grown weak due to playfully growling like a werewolf at kids on Halloween. Sadly, the real reason was the onset of throat cancer and he passed away in 1973 at the age of 63.
Horror movie audiences have always been fascinated by werewolves, cursed to turn into an unthinking beast during the full moon, stopped only by a silver bullet.
Film short The Werewolf in 1913 is believed to be the first of the genre and saw a woman turn into a werewolf to seek revenge for her dead lover. All prints of the film are believed to have been destroyed in a fire at Universal Studios in 1924.
Silent movie Wolfblood is the oldest werewolf movie known to still exist. It came out in 1925 and told the story of a man fearing he was turning into a beast after undergoing wolf blood transfusions.
Cry Of The Wolf in 1944 saw Nina Foch play the daughter of a gipsy who is hiding a deadly secret. The
posters declared “When the bell tolls midnight... werewolves prowl the Earth!”.
The Curse Of The Werewolf in 1961 was Oliver Reed’s big break and saw him playing a man called Leon doomed to be a werewolf after his mother died giving birth to him on Christmas Day in 18th Century Spain.
“Pepe the watchman has a silver bullet,” he tells the local priest. “Get it and use it. Use it on me, Father.”
It was the only werewolf film ever made by Hammer Studios and they reused old Dracula sets from 1958 for some scenes. Make-up artist Roy Ashton is said to have based the werewolf look on Jack P Pierce’s early work for The Wolf Man.
British Carry On film Carry On Screaming was one of the most popular films of 1966 and featured all manner of horror favourites from Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde to Frankenstein. Oddbod and Oddbod Jnr were the hairy wolf-like henchmen mindlessly doing the bidding of Kenneth Williams in his role as mad scientist Dr Orlando Watt. Steptoe And Son star Harry H Corbett played Detective Sergeant Bung and Peter Butterworth was Constable Slobotham who encountered one of the creatures while investigating the disappearance of young women. Slobotham said: “It never said a word. It came out of the woods, straight at me. Great big, glaring eyes, long pointed tail, 10 ft tall” “Did you notice anything unusual about it?” asked Bung. The comedy horror continued with An American Werewolf In London in 1981. It was the first film to win an Oscar for make-up and saw David Naughton transform into a werewolf on screen. Taylor Lautner made werewolves sexy when he starred as Jacob Black in the Twilight Saga films, while the Underworld movies with Kate Beckinsale have seen vampires and werewolves at war. Even Doctor Who has featured its own werewolf encounter. Of course, there are many ways of dealing with werewolves. In Sicily it was said you could cure a werewolf by hitting it with a knife on the forehead, the Danes swear by scalding water and in Germany you simply address it by its first name three times. Or there’s always the trusty old silver bullet.