Curse of the Werewolf (1961)

1961
Directed by Terence Fisher
Starring Clifford Evans, Oliver Reed, Yvonne Romain, Catherine Feller, Anthony Dawson and Michael Ripper (what a great name for a horror actor)

Now, I'm not what you would call a Hammer Films connoisseur.  The total number of movies that I've seen in the vast, vast, EXTREMELY vast expanse of space that make up this catalogue is admittedly very slim.  From this list, though, I can report that Curse of the Werewolf is easily the most downright depressing movie I've seen from this factory of a film studio - in the good way, for the most part.

The flick was directed by Terence Fisher, one of the most beloved horror directors of all time and the guy behind several of Hammer's most famous films.  Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy, you name the luminary, this guy helmed films featuring them.  Ordinarily, I'm not a guy who delves deep into the boring abyss that is camera angles and tricks, but I'm a HUGE fan of the way the atmosphere that this guy creates in his movies.  The dark color palettes, the fog, the shadows...so cool.  Twenty years later, I'm still pissed off that I couldn't get Fisher to provide the atmosphere for my grade school Halloween party. 

With that, the movie.  It has what is admittedly a VERY long introductory sequence - close to 40 minutes if memory serves me correctly.  The setting this time is 18th century Spain, and a beggar makes his way inside the castle of Marquis Siniestro (Dawson, who is fantastic as one of the more despicable human beings in any horror film I've seen).  The beggar is subjected to mockery and eventual torture, thrown inside the dungeon for 15 years, during which his only human contact is with the jailer and his mute daughter.  Said daughter, it should be noted, starts this sequence as a little girl and is eventually played by the unbelievably hot and stacked Yvonne Romain.

As this (long long incredibly long) introduction comes to a head, the Marquis - now aging and decrepit - turns on the lechery with Romain and tries to get her into the sack.  When she rejects this, she is thrown into the dungeon with the beggar, who summarily rapes her and dies.  After killing the Marquis in revenge, Romain escapes into the surrounding forest where she is found by the kindly Don Alfredo Corledo (Evans).  Before long, she has the illegitimate child that the beggar...um...equipped her with and dies not soon afterward.  Smiles and sunshine all around, people!

From here...finally...we meet Leon Corledo (Oliver Reed in his first film role, and much like all of his Hammer projects, he really owns it), all grown up after being raised by Alfredo and his wife.  Since we're already well-past the third-way mark of the movie, from here we get the sped-up version of our expected slow-burning buildup to Leon being a werewolf.  Our explanation here (and really, we don't need an especially deep one) is that the tragic, bad circumstances of his conception have given him the titular curse.  Dismembered bodies of sheep and goats begin turning up first, but it is when he goes to work in a wine vineyard and falls for his boss' beautiful daughter Cristina (Feller) that the plot kicks into high gear, leading to an expectedly tragic ending that feels all the more appropriate given the fact that it comes at the end of such dark film. 

If you can't gleam it from the plot description thus far, Curse of the Werewolf is a movie with a pretty low body count.  There is not much rampaging werewolf action to be had in the flick, as most of the second half centers around his relationship with Cristina, his frustration at not being able to marry her, and eventually coming to the realization that being around the love of his life suppresses the curse.  This is a movie much more about emotion than blood and guts.  Movies that go for this approach tend to either hit a home run or come across as mind-numbingly boring, but this is the rare example that comes up somewhere in the middle.  On one hand, there are LONG stretches of this movie that drag.  On the other hand, the acting that we get to enjoy from Reed, Evans and Feller is top notch.  Had this movie been made today with the modern crop of cardboard cutouts that qualify as actors, the second half of this flick would have been terminally boring, but these three manage to save it.

So it goes with Curse of the Werewolf.  As already mentioned, Hammer Films was a studio built on atmosphere, and Terence Fisher creates plenty of that once again.  There is this lush-yet-Gothic quality to all of his films, and that is present here, as well, despite the fact that the story that we're given is occasionally less than stellar.  But what are you gonna do?  Even Steven Spielberg has directed his share of clunkers (Always and 1941, anyone?).

*** out of ****.  If you can put up with roughly 20 minutes of terminal boredom, there's plenty to enjoy in this flick.  Check it out.