The Wolf Man
Director: George Waggner
Year Released: 1941
Rating: 2.0
'Classic' horror schmaltz has Lon Chaney Jr. visiting Dad Claude Rains, encountering all sorts of wolf-related kitsch (a spooky fortune teller with the mark of the wolf! wolf's bane! a wolf cane! a wolf target at a shooting gallery!), being bitten by a man-wolf and then, yes, becoming The Wolf Man himself. Tolerance for the technical gawkiness and silly setup depends on the viewer: while this may have been a little creepy in the early forties, now it's astounding how wooden Chaney was as an actor. So there's a bit of the wolf in all of us? But what if it's just a little hormonal imbalance?
