The Curse of the Werewolf

Of the many different 'monsters' that have graced the screen in different horror films from vampires to Frankenstein's creation and the Mummy, one of the most enduring is The Wolf Man or, to give it its more common name, the werewolf. Although the undoubted king of the lycanthropic creation was Lon Chaney Jr in the Universal films, Hammer got in on the act with this 1961 movie from Hammer stalwarts Terence Fisher and Anthony Hinds, two of the studio's finest directors and screenwriters respectively.

The Curse of the Werewolf is set in Spain but this really doesn't matter as no one speaks Spanish and the setting doesn't really feature a great deal in the film. It begins with the Marques Siniestro having a lavish celebration because of his engagement. A beggar wanders into town and unashamedly crashes the party in the hope of some food but gets a little more than he bargained for when forced to drink a huge amount of wine and dance and behave like a dog in order to be given some chicken. Once the Marques has had his entertainment, he has the beggar thrown into jail where he is quickly forgotten about but the knees jailer's daughter takes pity on the wretch and, when she gets too close to him, he grabs her and rapes her.

Cast out, the girl finds sanctuary with Don Alfredo Corledo and his servant Teresa who nurse her through her pregnancy and deliver the child which arrives with a rather bizarre noise from outside and, when he is baptised, the font begins behaving rather strangely with a face appearing in the water prior to the priest completing the baptism. The child, Leon, is raised as Don Alfredo's own but seems to have a bizarre longing for blood after having drunk from a squirrel that Don Alfredo's groundsman shot. Leon's behaviour becomes increasingly strange as he grows up, especially when the moon is full and the hair that was on the palms of his hands when he was a child becomes increasingly evident.

Many years later and Leon, having grown up with bars on his windows to "keep out the nightmares", has grown into a fine young man who is seemingly completely cured of any strange tendencies. With a job in a winery putting labels on the bottles and the wine inside, he develops a crush on the owner's daughter, Cristina, which is reciprocated. However, the strange behaviour he had as a child has not gone away and, despite being in jail when the full moon is at its highest, transforms into a werewolf, breaks out and runs amok in the village.

This isn't a vintage werewolf movie but does feature a decent performance from Oliver Reed as the adult Leon and an extremely reassured and measured performance by Clifford Evans as Don Alfredo. The werewolf effects aren't exactly state-of-the-art and have more in common with those used on Lon Chaney Jr in the early 1940s, some 20 years earlier, than the groundbreaking effects by Rick Baker in An American Werewolf in London, 20 years later.

The Disc

The Picture
The last time I saw this was on Sky Movies and I say this DVD is a marked improvement over the one used for TV broadcast. The colours are brighter, the contrast levels are deeper and the overall level of detail is higher, especially in the low light scenes.

This has your traditional Hammer period detail which means that could be from just about any era but you're not really paying attention to the period costume or décor, you just really want to see the werewolf. The transformation sequence isn't the most convincing and is much more like the 1940s Universal films than either of the American Werewolf in... films.

The Sound
The Dolby Digital 2.0 mono is perfectly fine for this kind of film which is dialogue dominated and has very few action sequences. It is very nicely scored and really feels like a Hammer film.


Final Thoughts
Although this doesn't come with any extra features, it is great to have it available on DVD in the UK as this is one of the very few post-World War II werewolf films that I hadn't seen on DVD. The pacing may be a little on the ponderous side but it is extremely well acted and engaging so any fans of Hammer films will be very glad to see The Curse of the Werewolf available.