Werewolf Flicks: Werewolf of London (1935)

Everybody has either seen or knows of the 1941 classic, The Wolf Man, or, at the very least, is familiar with the title monster himself, but unless you're a diehard horror fan, it's very unlikely you're aware of this, Universal's first go at adding the werewolf to their stable of classic monsters. Thanks to the Crestwood House monster books, I've known about Werewolf of London from a very young age. In fact, even though the book in question was about the Wolf Man and was titled as such, the cover was actually an image of the werewolf from this film (similarly, the inside cover had a photo of Oliver Reed in The Curse of the Werewolf, one of many odd image choices Crestwood House made) and it did discuss other werewolf movies. I remember it went into great detail about Werewolf of London, so much so that, years later, I remembered that the movie started out in Tibet and the main character's name was Dr. Glendon. But I didn't see it until 2004, when I was seventeen and bought the Wolf Man Legacy DVD set. I was rather curious about it, seeing as how it is the oldest surviving werewolf movie (the true first would be a lost 1913 film simply titled The Werewolf, also distributed by Universal) and the makeup design for the werewolf can be seen as sort of a prototype for the Lon Chaney Jr. makeup. Upon watching it, though, I wasn't exactly bowled over, and I still feel that way today. There are some who think the film is a classic in its own right but for me, it's little more than just okay. I do think the design of the werewolf is cool in its own right, and the film does have its own unique take on the mythology, as well as invents tropes that have now become classic, but it's just not that exciting or thrilling, it has little atmosphere, and most significantly, I have a hard time caring about the protagonist.

Dr. Wilfred Glendon, an English botanist, is in Tibet, search for the "mariphasa lumina lupina," a rare and mysterious plant purported to bloom only in moonlight. Despite warnings from their native laborers that the valley containing the flower is inhabited by demons, Glendon and his assistant, Hugh Renwick, journey into it. Going off alone, Glendon manages to find the plant but, while taking a specimen, he's attacked and bitten by a strange creature. After returning home to London, Glendon works secretly in his laboratory, attempting to make his specimen bloom through the use of artificial moonlight. His work, which he conducts even during a party thrown by the Botanical Society at his home, causes him to neglect his wife, Lisa. During the party, Lisa is reunited with Paul Ames, a childhood friend and old beau of hers, who now lives in California and has returned for a visit. Glendon himself meets the mysterious Dr. Yogami, who claims to have briefly met him in Tibet, and that he too was looking for the mariphasa. He goes on to tell Glendon that the plant is the only known antidote for "werewolfery," and that there are two werewolves in London at the very moment. Glendon initially dismisses Yogami's claims but begins to believe him the following week, when his hand grows extremely hairy when exposed to the artificial moonlight; when he squeezes the mariphasa's sap onto it, the process is reversed. Yogami visits again, eager to see the plant, as it's the first night of the full moon, but Glendon refuses him. Before leaving, Yogami warns Glendon that a werewolf is instinctively driven to kill the thing it loves best. That night, Lisa has Paul escort her to a party held by her Aunt Ettie, while Glendon does research on werewolves. After they've left, he fully transforms, and discovers that his two blooming specimens of the mariphasa have been stolen. His overwhelming killer instinct, coupled with his jealousy over Lisa's friendship with Paul, prompts him to go after her, but he ultimately kills a random woman on the street instead. Now, with only one bud that refuses to bloom remaining, Glendon must continue enduring the transformation while keeping away from Lisa.

The film is sort of a variation of an early version of what would eventually become The Wolf Man, written by Robert Florey in 1931. It was also originally meant as another film pairing together Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, though neither of them were available at the time. The director, Stuart Walker, like many of his peers, started out in the theater as both an actor and director, organizing a repertory theater company in 1915 that lasted throughout the 20's. Walker made his way to Hollywood in 1930, starting out as a screenwriter and dialogue director, and directed his first film, The Secret Call, the following year. It and his next six films were all done at Paramount, but in 1934, he began working at Universal, directing a comedy called Romance in the Rain. The rest of his films as director would also be made at Universal, with Werewolf of London actually being his penultimate directorial effort. After 1935's Manhattan Moon, Walker became a producer over at Paramount, where he would remain for the rest of his career. Said career was cut short in 1941, when he died of a heart attack at the age of 53 (California death records, however, state he was actually 61 at the time of his death).

With Boris Karloff unavailable to play the protagonist, Dr. Wilfred Glendon, Universal instead went with Kentucky-born stage actor, Henry Hull. While Hull appeared in numerous movies throughout his life, this was one of his few lead roles. Unfortunately, be it due to the script or Hull's own personal attitude (I've heard he didn't really want to do the film, as he felt horror films were beneath him, and thus, didn't put much effort into his performance), his performance isn't a particularly likable one. During the film's opening in Tibet, Glendon is the typical driven scientist who doesn't heed the local superstitions, nor the warnings of a priest he and Hugh Renwick meet, and heads into a supposedly haunted valley to find the "mariphasa lumina lupina." Despite some strange things that happen along the way, the two of them head on until Glendon finds the rare, exotic flower. He immediately goes for it, when he's stalked and attacked by a humanoid creature that bites him on the arm before he manages to ward it off. Despite being badly injured, he manages to bring a specimen of the mariphasa back to his home in London, and works tirelessly to get it to bloom through artificial moonlight. His obsession with the experiment causes him to neglect his wife, Lisa, and miss much of a botanical party held at his home, though he's hardly broken up about that. He's also very secretive about his experiment, letting no one other than his assistant, Hawkins, into the lab. Despite his neglect, he does seem to genuinely love Lisa, promising to be "more human" once he's finished with his work. But when he meets Lisa's childhood friend and old lover, Paul Ames, it's obvious he's instantly jealous, especially when Lisa's Aunt Ettie says he proposed to her once... when they were young kids. Paul comments, "Well, at this moment, I ask nothing more of life," and Glendon retorts, "Really? A very enchanting mood to be in... to ask nothing more of life. Are you in that mood, Lisa?" His jealousy is written all over his face and very clear in his tone. It's far more blatant when Lisa has Paul take her to a party held at Aunt Ettie's apartment. Lisa asks Glendon to come with them, but he refuses, saying, "I've listened to all the childhood memories I care to hear for one night." And in a later scene, when Lisa and Paul intend to go for a moonlight drive, Glendon forbids her to go, saying, "I can't have my wife gallivanting around the country in the moonlight with a total stranger." The real reason he doesn't want her to go is because, at this point, he knows he's going to become the werewolf again and wants her to be home safe from him, but he just comes across as a jealous jackass.

Besides his jealousy, Glendon just has an air about him that's equal parts snobbishness and intolerance, given how he has little patience for any of the guests at the botanical party, regardless of how annoying they actually may be. While he's not out and out hateful, he clearly would rather be anywhere else. When he meets Dr. Yogami there, he's intrigued when he claims the two of them met briefly in Tibet, "In the dark," but when Yogami tells him about the mariphasa, Glendon is incredulous at his believing that the flower actually

does bloom under only moonlight, given how he's been unable to make it bloom. He's even more disbelieving at the idea that the flower is an antidote for "lycanthropy," or "werewolfery," telling him, "I'm afraid, sir, that I gave up my belief in goblins, witches, personal devils, and werewolves at the age of six." But when Yogami tells him there are currently two werewolves in London, and that they were each cursed by being bitten by another werewolf, he gently touches the spot where Glendon himself was bitten. He adds,

"These men are doomed, but for this flower, the mariphasa" and you can tell Glendon is beginning to rethink his thoughts on the matter. The following week, he truly starts to believe Yogami when he sees his hand turn hairy in the artificial moonlight, and uses the mariphasa's sap to successfully reverse it. But when Yogami returns to ask him for two blossom from the plant, Glendon still acts as though it's nothing but superstition and refuses to let him into his laboratory. Upon learning that the

mariphasa is only a temporary antidote, and that a werewolf instinctively hunts down what it loves best, Glendon, instead of being horrified and dreading when the full moon rises, as he should, calmly reads up on the subject that night. It's only after Lisa and Paul leave, and his cat suddenly hisses and claws at him, that he realizes he truly is changing and rushes to get the other mariphasa blossoms, only to find that they've been stolen.

The werewolf that Glendon becomes is unlike most others in that, instead of a mindless, ravenous beast, he's a more feral version of the man himself, very akin to Mr. Hyde. Instead of tearing his laboratory apart in a bloodthirsty rampage once he's transformed, Glendon still goes for the mariphasa, and once he finds it's gone, his jealousy over Lisa and Paul takes over and drives him to go out after them. He even puts on a scarf, hat, and coat beforehand, definitely making him the best dressed werewolf there ever was. Though he makes

his way to Aunt Ettie's party and attempts to enter her building by climbing up to the balcony, when he enters Ettie's bedroom, her screams scare him away. Needing to kill at least one victim before morning or be stuck as a werewolf permanently, Glendon kills a woman on the street instead. The next morning, when he reads about the killing in the newspaper, he attempts to make the last remaining mariphasa bud bloom. He's so confident he will that he does, initially, promise to join Lisa and Paul in their moonlight drive that night. But

when it refuses to bloom, he goes down to Leicestershire and rents a room for the night, looking himself inside. This part of the movie kind of feels like The Invisible Man, with the idea of a scientist who's also a monster taking a room, and Glendon's outfit is akin to the clothes Jack Griffin wore. Though he locks himself in the room, when he transforms, he breaks out and sneaks into a zoo in London. Stalking a woman named Daisy, who's having an affair with the nightwatchman, Glendon

lets out one of the actual wolves to distract the man and then chases Daisy down and kills her. He does return to the apartment in Leicestershire afterward, but goes back home the next day, only to find the mariphasa still hasn't blossomed.

By this time, they're really trying to make Glendon come off as sad and tragic. When he's shown to his room, and the woman asks if he's single, he laments, "Singularly single, madam. More single than I ever realized it possible for a human being to be." Upon locking himself in the room, he prays to God, begging him not to let him transform or, at the very least, keep him away from Lisa. And when he returns the next morning to find the mariphasa still hasn't bloomed, he imagines what will happen if it doesn't soon, specifically that he

may kill Lisa. But the character and Henry Hull's unsympathetic portrayal don't do him any favors. Once again, he goes somewhere far away, telling Hawkins not to say that he's been home. For some reason, he decides to go to Lisa's childhood home and has the caretaker lock him up in the Monk's Rest, an abandoned church on the property. Unfortunately, Lisa and Paul visit the place that night, and after he's transformed, Glendon breaks out of the Monk's Rest and attacks Lisa. Paul, however, manages to drive him off, recognizing

him and getting the police involved. Glendon makes it back to his home, just as the mariphasa finally blooms, but the treacherous Dr. Yogami sneaks into the lab and uses it on himself. Glendon, knowing that Yogami was the werewolf who attacked him in Tibet, fights with him. He transforms during the ensuing struggle and manages to kill him, before going after Lisa in the house. He corners her on the staircase but is fatally shot by the arriving police. He collapses at the bottom of the stairs and, before he changes back, regains the ability to speak. He thanks the police for releasing him and says goodbye to Lisa, telling her, "I'm sorry I couldn't have made you happier."

Jack Pierce initially intended to use the design he'd come up with for the earlier, unmade version of The Wolf Man but both the studio and Henry Hull vetoed it. The studio's reasons were because of how time-consuming Pierce's makeup methods were, while Hull, himself a makeup artist, felt that the initial design was so extensive that Paul Ames wouldn't be able to recognize the werewolf as Glendon. Still, this more minimalist approach to the makeup is, in my opinion, very cool-looking, with the pointed ears, very pronounced widow's

peak, flaring eyebrows, sharp canines (you only see the bottom row of teeth, though), a chapped texture to the lips, a pair of hairy, clawed hands, and subtle canine touches to the face, like bits of hair above the eyebrows and some hair on the widened nose. The makeup also goes well with the outfit of a scarf, hat, and coat he wears, although it not only makes him feel like more of a spin on Mr. Hyde but also gives off Jack the Ripper vibes when he's stalking the streets of London. The actual transformations, believe it or not, are done better

than what you would later see in the classic, 1941 film of The Wolf Man, especially the first one, where Glendon walks through his house, passing behind some pillars and looking more wolf-like every time he emerges. The film does also make use of the familiar lap dissolve effect, both when his hand becomes hairy when exposed to the artificial moonlight and is then reversed, and when he transforms in both his rented room and the Monk's Rest (it wouldn't be until Frankenstein

Meets the Wolf Man when you would see Larry Talbot transform like that). My only qualm about the werewolf are the sounds he makes. Other than his howling (a fairly effective combination of a real timber wolf and Hull's voice), he only makes some really soft growls and snorts, sometimes sounding like he's choking on a grape. Not particularly threatening. And while the unusual depiction of his bloodlust is interesting, I would have liked for him to a lot more ravenous and dangerous in his attacks; this more sedated performance isn't that exciting.

The same year she played Elizabeth in Bride of Frankenstein, Valerie Hobson also appeared here as Glendon's neglected wife, Lisa, and I think she gives a better performance. We find out she was quite a wild thing when she was young and in love with Paul Ames: energetic and quick-tempered, the exact opposite of her character now. She admits to Paul that she hasn't had that spirit ever since they went their separate ways, and it's only gotten worse due to her husband's neglect. While she does love Glendon, and is likely sure that he loves her, her life would have been happier had she married Paul, as Glendon's single-minded interest in his work, secrecy over his latest experiment, and reluctance to ever leave his house has her feeling forlorn and overlooked. She also feels that Glendon no longer enjoys his work, that he's no longer excited by it, and says she wishes she could burn down his laboratory. She even admits that there's something about him now that frightens her, though Glendon dismisses her fears. When Paul comes back into her life, Lisa, though not at all intent on having an affair or even admitting her unhappiness to him, does allow him to take her to Aunt Ettie's party when Glendon is otherwise engaged. She quickly tires of both his overzealous devotion to his work and his jealousy when he reneges on his promise to join her and Paul in a moonlight drive, and then forbids her to go as well. She stands up to him, saying she's going to go no matter what. And when Glendon asks her to be back before moon-rise, Lisa tells him, "I'll promise you nothing of the sort. I shall ride tonight. Tomorrow night. The next night. In fact, every night there's a moon." And while Glendon keeps away to protect her from his monstrous self, she continues spending time with Paul, even visiting her old home with him. But she remains faithful to her husband, rejecting Ames' declaration of love and his attempt to court her again. After he attacks them, Lisa, like Paul, knows the werewolf is Glendon, and when he corners her in her house, she tries to make him remember her. But it's only when the police shoot him that Lisa is saved.

Paul Ames (Lester Matthews), Lisa's childhood friend and former beau, is very eager to see her when he attends the botanical party. Still very much in love with her, he hates to see how she's no longer the wild, energetic young woman he knew. He's also aware of Glendon's feelings of jealousy, as he hardly attempts to hide them, but that doesn't stop him from acting as Lisa's chaperone to Aunt Ettie's party and going on moonlight drives with her. Near the end of the film, he does admit his feelings for her but she refuses them, again feeling devoted to her husband. Significantly, he's the one who wonders if the murders that begin occurring are the work of a werewolf, given the howling he heard outside Ettie's home and her claiming that "the devil" came into her room. He's also had a bit of experience in something like this, recalling a similar situation he came upon in the Yucatan the following year. Naturally, the chief of Scotland Yard and Paul's uncle, Colonel Forsythe, doesn't take him seriously. He's even more outraged later on when, after being attacked by the werewolf, Paul insists it's Glendon. But when they investigate a murder at Dr. Yogami's hotel, they find clues in his room suggesting that Paul may be onto something. However, as more interesting as he is than the leading men in some of the previous films, Paul is, in the end, not the hero of the movie. During the climax, he's rendered unconscious by the transformed Glendon and it's Forsythe who stops Glendon from killing Lisa. Even so, while it's not explicitly stated, the last shot of the film is of a plane flying through the sky, suggesting that Lisa has joined Paul in his return to the U.S., where he resides and owns a flying school.

Dr. Yogami, the character whom Bela Lugosi would've played opposite Boris Karloff as Glendon, is instead played by Warner Oland, best known for his role of Detective Charlie Chan. The werewolf who cursed Glendon in Tibet when the two were both after the mariphasa, Yogami formally introduces himself to Glendon at the botanical party, saying they met briefly in Tibet, "In the dark." He not only insists that the flower does take its life from moonlight but also warns him of the werewolf curse and that the mariphasa is a temporary antidote for it. He doesn't come out and say it, but he does allude to the two of them being werewolves and, the following week, Yogami comes by to see him again. Warning Glendon that it's the first night of the full moon, he says that two blossoms of the mariphasa would save two people that night. Glendon, however, doesn't listen and tells him he must leave. Before he does, Yogami warns him, "But remember this, Dr. Glendon: the werewolf instinctively seeks to kill the thing it loves best." Whether he was intending to share the antidote with Glendon or steal it from the beginning is never made clear but, after Glendon refuses him, Yogami steals the budding mariphasa flowers and keeps himself from transforming, while Glendon suffers. He even attends Aunt Ettie's party, becoming visibly frightened when he hears Glendon howling outside, telling Ettie that it's, "A lost soul." 

Yogami's intentions are rather unclear. Though he seems really narcissistic in his stealing the mariphasa blossoms from Glendon, he's also upset when he reads about the murder Glendon committed. And while he initially gets angry when a hotel chambermaid picks up one of the blossoms in his room, he apologizes for snapping at her and gives her some money to buy herself some other flowers. He later tries to warn the police, telling them that there will be more murders whenever the full moon is out, and that they must seize the

mariphasa from Glendon's laboratory and find a way to make it grow successfully in England; otherwise, "There'll be an epidemic that will turn London into a shambles." Note, however, that Yogami only tells them this after he's used up the mariphasa blossoms he stole, suggesting he simply wants to find a way to procure the last one for himself again. Also, Yogami says that he called on Scotland Yard seven years ago, concerning another case of werewolfery, making me wonder if he used

to be a researcher into the subject who ended up becoming one. When they don't listen to him, Yogami transforms in his hotel room and kills a chambermaid. He later sneaks into Glendon's laboratory and steals the last mariphasa, using it quickly to stave off his transformation (makes me wonder why he bothered telling the police about it). But he dies during a fight with Glendon, who quickly transforms and overpowers him. 

You only get fleeting glimpses of Yogami's werewolf form during the opening in Tibet, when he stalks Glendon as he goes for the mariphasa. All you see of his face are some partially obscured shots of him watching Glendon from behind a ridge, and a very brief close-up when he attacks and bites Glendon's arm. But what little you can see does hint at how Glendon's werewolf will look, albeit with a much thicker head of hair and some very dramatic eyebrows. I can't find any evidence to the contrary, so I'm guessing that it really was Warner Oland who wore this makeup, at least in the close-ups, while a stuntmen likely performed the struggle with Glendon in the wide shots.

Many of the other characters worth talking about are comic relief. Case in point, Lisa's aunt, Ettie Coombes (Spring Byington). She's portrayed as the typical air-headed, slightly doddering, busybody older English woman, who often carries around her little dog. She's someone who Glendon is intent on keeping away from his lab, as he won't be able to keep any secrets otherwise. Case in point, when Glendon is first introduced to Paul Ames, Ettie blurts out that he once proposed to Lisa, with Lisa having to elaborate that he did it when they were young kids. She also has a hard time remembering Paul's name, mispronounces Yogami's name as "Yokohama" several times, and is positively revolted at the carnivorous plants in Glendon's garden, especially when one is fed a mouse. During one conversation, she claims to have once sat on a plate of salad, which is why she doesn't like buffets. But that's not the strangest thing about Ettie; it's how she chose her London home. She did so because, "It's right on the river, in the midst of the sweetest slums. So individual: murderers' dens on one side, pubs on the other." She gets really plastered at her own party, so much that she's practically about to fall over, and forgets that Sandro Botticelli was a painter, rather than a musician. Outside on the terrace with Yogami, she drunkenly talks about how moonlight makes everything look peaceful, how the sound of the River Thames soothes her to sleep, and how she's living next to the worst district in London. She becomes scared by the sound of the werewolf's howling, laughing hysterically and talking about being so nervous, as Paul and Lisa take her up to bed. After they leave her, the werewolf climbs up to the terrace outside and enters through her bedroom window. Her screams scare him off, but when they find her afterward, she insists the devil was in her room, exclaiming, "My wicked worldliness has caught up with me at last! The Babu of Garoka always said it would." During the climax, Ettie keeps Lisa company at her home, only for Glendon to break into the house as a werewolf and chase after them.

Glendon's assistant Hawkins (J.M. Kerrigan) is suspicious about the mariphasa, which he says, "Ain't a human plant." Regardless, he does continue to aid Glendon in his experiment and attempts to bring the last blossom out while Glendon is elsewhere, keeping himself away from Lisa, though Hawkins doesn't know exactly why he's so anxious about it. He's also good enough to not reveal that Glendon was ever there to anyone. But Hawkins' most memorable moment comes when he degrades the butler, Plympton, as an uneducated "indoor person" who knows nothing about botany and the "mysteries of nature." He also politely asks him not to lean his shoulder on the glass case he's standing next to. Plympton then asks Hawkins if he would kindly tell Glendon that Lisa is expecting him for tea but Hawkins answers, "Not a chance, I assure you, he's coming." My favorite part is when, as Plympton walks away, Hawkins murmurs, "Upstart." When Plympton asks, "Did you speak, Mr. Hawkins?" Hawkins, as he wipes down the glass, answers, "I did, Mr. Plympton, but not to you."

Mrs. Whack (Ethel Griffies) and Mrs. Moncaster (Zeffie Tillbury), are two old women in Leicestershire who are introduced while eating some tripe in a pub. They toast each other, Mrs. Moncaster saying it's the first drink she's had that day, despite there being two other empty glasses on the table, and Mrs. Whack says her son is a foreman in a pants factory, adding, "And the warden says he's the best prisoner he's ever had in the penitentiary." She then ends up getting some of her veil caught up in her tripe and chews on it until Mrs. Moncaster tells her what she's done. When Glendon shows up, asking for a room to rent, they both attempt to get his attention, with Mrs. Moncaster actually knocking Mrs. Whack out. Mrs. Moncaster then shows Glendon to his room and, on the way up, talks about what a jerk her ex-husband was in a breathless, sing-songy manner: "Ten years I was married to Moncaster, ain't seen him in twenty. He run away to Australia. What a man he was. Used to come home from his work, all portered up, hit the baby with the plate, throw the gravy in the grate, spear the canary with a fork, and then, with his heavy hobnail boots, black and blue me from head to foot, and all because I'd forgot to have cracklin' on the pork." 

Later, when Glendon transforms and breaks out of the window, Mrs. Whack shows up, saying she figured she might want some help. Mrs. Moncaster tells her about the strange sounds she heard and Mrs. Whack suggests she open the door and have a look. She also tells her to look through the keyhole first and when she does, she knocks her out as payback for earlier (they hit each other so softly, though, that it's crazy to think they could knock anyone out). Mrs. Whack then opens the door and is horrified when she sees the state of the room.

My favorite part with them is when the werewolf returns. Mrs. Whack comes back to find Mrs. Moncaster sitting on the stairs, drinking, though she denies it. When they hear the werewolf howl up in the room, Mrs. Whack, again, implores Mrs. Moncaster to go up and look through the keyhole. When she does, Mrs. Whack sees the bottle she was hiding and takes a swig from it herself, when Mrs. Moncaster yells. Mrs. Whack comes running and when she looks through the keyhole and sees

the werewolf, both of them head back down the stairs, talking about what they saw. Mrs. Moncaster says they can't go to the police because they'll say they've been drinking, to which Mrs. Whack says, "Well, maybe we have!" They both decide to swear off drinking, just in case, when the werewolf howls again, sending them running.

Naturally, Sir Thomas Forsythe (Lawrence Grant) is initially unwilling to accept that there's a werewolf prowling about London, despite what Paul tells him of his unusual and similar experiences in the Yucatan. He's similarly dismissive of Dr. Yogami when he comes to him to warn him that it's true and that he must obtain Dr. Glendon's specimen of the mariphasa, commenting, "A very interesting folktale, but of no value to the police." And when Paul tells him that he not only struggled with the werewolf but that it was Glendon, Forsythe can't bring himself to believe him. He initially believes he has proof that Paul is wrong when he's told of a murder that took place at a hotel that's 150 miles from where Paul says he was attacked. But when they investigate the site of the murder, which happens to be Yogami's room, and find the same sort of lacerations on the victim, while Paul finds the shriveled remains of Yogami's stolen mariphasa blossoms, Forsythe's skepticism begins to wane. When he and Paul find that Glendon isn't at home, Forsythe begins an extensive search for both him and Yogami. During the climax, Forsythe, Paul, and the police arrive while Glendon is attempting to kill Lisa and Forsythe stops him by fatally shooting him. After Glendon dies and changes back to his human form, Forsythe says that his report will state that he accidentally shot Glendon while he was trying to protect her.

One last character I like to mention is the priest (Egon Brecher) that Glendon and Hugh Renwick encounter in Tibet, approaching their camp while riding on a camel. He serves the purpose of warning the two men that they're meddling in things they'd best leave alone, saying, "I respect some of the superstitions of others. Often, they are founded in fact." He also warns them that nobody has ever returned from the supposedly haunted valley which contains the mariphasa. When they decide to ignore his warning and press on anyway, he tells them, "You are foolish but, without fools, there would be no wisdom." He blesses them both and rides on his way.

One problem I have with the film is similar to one of my major issues with Dracula: I find the setting of Tibet (actually Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park once again) in the opening to be far more interesting and atmospheric than the main one of London. Though we're only here for less than ten minutes as opposed to the entirety of the first act, this place is so much more exotic and memorable, especially with the setting being a moonlit night. Moreover, like Borgo Pass, the valley where

Glendon and Renwick search for the mariphasa is said to be an evil place the natives are frightened of, as they refuse to guide the scientists there. Specifically, it's rumored to be filled with demons, and both men have strange experiences while making their way through it. Renwick, at one point, claims that something is holding his legs and, shortly afterward, Glendon flies back against a stone wall, saying that something struck him (the way he mimes trying to power through whatever this invisible force is comes off as overdone and

silly). The first werewolf's presence is felt during this sequence, as he's heard howling in the distance, and when Glendon finds the mariphasa, the way they film the werewolf as he stalks him is very effective. The shots of his shadow appearing on the wall behind Glendon and peering at him over the rocks are creepy, and the scuffle between the two of them is done well enough to cover up any problems with the makeup. If there are any downsides to this opening, it's the dated cultural sensibilities that are front and center here. The

"Tibetans" are actually speaking Cantonese, while Henry Hull is just speaking some gibberish that means nothing. Moreover, they're referred to as "coolies," which I'd never heard before but have since learned is a racist term, referring to "unskilled" laborers from Asia; in other words, not politically correct in the slightest.

Once we move to London, the film loses a lot of its luster. Some of the sets are memorable, though. In particular, Glendon's laboratory, which is rather high-tech, with the machine he uses to produce artificial moonlight and another that alerts him when someone is approaching the lab, right down to a monitor he uses to see who it is. The lab is kept out in the back of his greenhouse, part of a large garden he has on his property, where he keeps a number of exotic plants, including some

carnivorous ones, and where guests can have tea under a lovely awning. Being a very wealthy man, his house is a big manor, with a very large foyer and big, curving staircase, a comfortable study with a bookcase and fireplace, a lovely dining room, and an equally nice-looking bedroom. On the other end of the spectrum, we have the low-rent tavern in Leicestershire where Glendon meets Mrs. Moncaster and Mrs. Whack, and the very small, dark room that he rents from the former, which is at the top of the stairs in her own small, poor home.

And finally, there's the most classically Gothic setting, which is the Monk's Rest at Falden Abbey. Though the abbey itself, Lisa's childhood home, is maintained well by its caretaker, the Monk's Rest hasn't been opened for years. And when the caretaker, Timothy, unlocks it so Glendon can spend the night inside, you see it's rundown and filthy, with big cobwebs, nothing but boxes for him to rest on, and a tall, thin window with bars on it.

But other than those sets, I don't think the setting of London is used that effectively. Unlike in Dracula, we're not confined to one stuffy set in particular, but the other interiors, like Aunt Ettie's apartment, Dr. Yogami's hotel room, and the offices of Scotland Yard, are nothing to write home about, and the scenes of the werewolf prowling the London streets aren't as atmospheric as I would like. When he stalks and kills his first victim on the street, it looks quite good, with a fair amount of

mist in the air, but other such scenes, like when he sneaks into the zoo and stalks his victims there, aren't quite as memorable (although, I do like the juxtaposition of the werewolf and real wolves in the cages). Also, while there are a number of characters I do like, the movie has that stuffy British air about it, with the party guests and higher-ups at Scotland Yard, and while I don't mind it in other films, I'm not very fond of in this instance.

The movie is well shot by cinematographer Charles Stumar, who also shot The Mummy, with Karl Freund as director, and you can tell he took inspiration from his style. He's especially good at shooting the opening scenes in Tibet, giving them the look and feel of taking place on a night lit up by the full moon. As I've already said, he films the first werewolf in a very effective manner, keeping him mainly in the dark and partially obscured, as well as coming up with a great image of his

shadow appearing on the rock wall behind Glendon, which looks really creepy in how distorted it is by the crags. Stumar continues to do pretty good work throughout the rest of the movie, especially in Glendon's laboratory, which is often completely dark, save for the artificial moonlight, and the same goes for the scene in his study when he feels himself beginning to change into the werewolf, when he locks himself in Mrs. Moncaster's rented room, when he's inside the Monk's Rest, and his shadow when he stalks Lisa

outside it. We also get some surprisingly major close-ups of the mariphasa plant when Glendon first examines it in his lab and when Dr. Yogami steals the blossoms, the latter of which is done in such a way where it's a complete surprise, as we cut from Glendon in his study to a zoom-in on the blossoms, as Yogami's hand comes in and snips them off with scissors. And when Glendon kills Yogami near the end, we get a full-on close-up of his werewolf form's face as he looks right at the camera before growling.

While Stuart Walker's direction is pretty straightforward, and sometimes even badly dated (there's a moment where the woman at the zoo sees Glendon reflected in her makeup mirror, which is so obviously a repeat of a previous shot; he's not even currently standing where the reflection shows him), there is one thing he does that I think is interesting. When Glendon returns home the following day and sees that the last mariphasa plant still hasn't bloomed, Hawkins assures him that it

may only need another night. Glendon thinks of what this may mean, as he runs through the newspaper headlines of his previous killings, visualized through transparent images of them appearing over his close-up, and then comes up with possible future headlines talking about the police closing in on, before ending with the one that horrifies him the most, about Lisa having been killed by him. It makes me think of how, in Psycho, Marion Crane imagines how various people will react to her having disappeared and taken the $40,000 with her. There have been other such uses of this motif, I'm sure, but this is one of the earliest I can think of.

As the oldest surviving werewolf movie, Werewolf of London is the one that created many of the tropes associated with the creatures, such as the notion that it's a curse passed on by the bite of another werewolf and that the full moon causes the afflicted to transform against their will, elements that most people credit to The Wolf Man (in fact, the full moon doesn't even figure in that movie). Moreover, this was the film that created the image of the werewolf as a hybrid of man and wolf,

which become their de facto design for decades to come. But there are aspects of the mythology here that are unique to this film alone. For instance, there's Dr. Yogami's further description of a werewolf as, "Neither man nor wolf, but a satanic creature with the worst qualities of both," an allusion to how Glendon becomes a monster guided by the worst aspects of his character, rather than a mindless, bloodthirsty beast. Yogami's description of it as "satanic" also doesn't seem to be hyperbolic, given how the valley in Tibet

containing the mariphasa plant is said to be inhabited by demons, and both Glendon and Renwick have bizarre experiences as they journey through it. Speaking of the mariphasa, it's one of the most memorable aspects of the film, with little like it appearing in other werewolf movies. And finally, when Glendon reads up on the subject, he finds that a werewolf must kill at least one person sunrise or remain in the beastly form forever. (However, the movie contradicts this, as Glendon seemingly doesn't kill anyone else after his attack on Lisa and Paul at the Monk's Rest; no other murders are reported that night, aside from Yogami's slaughter of a hotel chambermaid.)

The movie also succeeds in a bit of world-building in its concept, suggesting that real werewolves are found throughout the world. Though he attacks Glendon in Tibet, we don't know for sure if that's where Dr. Yogami is originally from and he became a werewolf himself there, or if it happened elsewhere. As I mentioned when talking about him, Yogami has a history with Scotland Yard, having called upon them years earlier to deal with another case of "werewolfery," so a werewolf has stalked

London at least once before, and it's possible that Yogami was once a researcher who specialized in werewolves but got too close to his subject matter. There being a flower that's a potential antidote for the condition that can only be found in a remote spot in Tibet is especially interesting. And then, there's Paul story about how, when he was in the Yucatan the previous year, the authorities were investigating a series of murders that were always preceded by the howl of a wolf. He goes on to say, "And then, one night, they shot something slinking

through the hills, and the murders ceased. They said it was a werewolf." I find it very interesting how they don't treat the phenomena as being localized, as you often get with monsters in movies, including The Wolf Man. And it also makes you wonder what else exists in this particular world.

As interesting as that is, it doesn't change the fact that Werewolf of London isn't that enjoyable of a film for me, and in addition to my mixed feelings about Henry Hull's performance and the lack of atmosphere, it's just not very exciting or thrilling. That's weird for me to say, because you first see the werewolf fairly early on and he has a lot of screentime, but because he's more cunning and stealthy than mindlessly savage, his sneaking around and stalking his intended victims isn't as

suspenseful as it could be. Moreover, what should be the big setpieces are shockingly lackluster in their action. For instance, take the moment where the werewolf ambushes and attacks Lisa and Paul at the Monk's Rest. He leaps through a window, down to the grounds, comes at Lisa, who screams at the sight of him, and instead of trying to rip her apart or bite into her jugular, he attempts to strangle her... very, very slowly. Paul comes running in, he and the werewolf have a short struggle that leads to them fighting on the ground,

Paul manages to fling him off, and when the werewolf charges him again, he grabs a club and smacks him. Not only is the blow not as impactful as it could've been, but Hull has a delayed reaction to it, attempting to resume grappling with Lester Mathews before acting like he's been hit and keeling over. Plus, the rather restrained sounds Hull makes as the werewolf don't help his attack feel as monstrous as it really should be.

Then there's the climax, which I don't feel works either. They try to build tension with a short montage of people calling about Glendon's whereabouts, like Colonel Forsythe and other police officers, while Paul calls Lisa to make sure she's safe at her house. After that, we get the confrontation between Glendon and Yogami in the lab, where a struggle between the two men turns deadly for the latter when Glendon transforms during the fight. We only see snippets of it, mixed

in with Lisa and Aunt Ettie hearing the sounds outside. After killing Yogami, Glendon makes his way out of the lab and greenhouse. Spotting him on the grounds, Lisa and Ettie call Scotland Yard, but learn that Forsythe is already on his way to the manor. Glendon climbs up to the terrace outside the bedroom window and breaks his way in, while Lisa and Ettie run downstairs to the foyer. He follows, smashing his way through the bedroom door, and on the landing beyond, spots them down

below. But then, he hears a car horn outside, as Paul arrives, and he ambushes him by climbing out another window and jumping on him from an awning. The two of them have a very brief struggle, and Glendon manages to knock Paul unconscious, but before he can kill him, he sees Lisa attempting to get outside to help him. Glendon smashes his way through the door, causing Ettie to faint, and stalks Lisa back up the stairs. All of this sounds like it should be exciting but there's no energy to it, not in the action, the sound effects, or

even the music score. And I know it's a 1930's movie, so I'm not expecting high-octane action, but there are other movies from around this time, from other studios as well as Universal, that are so much more thrilling. Regardless, before Glendon reaches Lisa, he's shot dead by Forsythe (no silver needed in this film) and falls down the stairs. Laying mortally wounded at the bottom of them, he thanks him for ending his misery and says goodbye to Lisa before expiring and turning back to his human form.

The music is credited solely to composer Karl Hajos but it's actually a mixture of his original work and pieces from past Universal horror films. He comes up with a pretty memorable and distinctive main theme, which you hear many times throughout the movie for scenes involving the werewolf, but except for the poignant version during the ending and the big, climactic one before the credits roll, it doesn't really do anything for me. The same goes for the rest of the music Hajos came up with himself, as I don't think it makes the respective scenes effectively tense or atmospheric, and as I said up above, it doesn't help the climax at all. A few of the classic pieces that were heard in The Black Cat are used here, such as the Robert Schumann composition used for Poelzig's theme, which plays when Glendon's cat, sensing his transformation, turns vicious towards him, and when he heads into his lab. Also, that menacing piece from Franz Liszt's Les Preludes is heard when Glendon first fully transforms and when, as a werewolf, he heads out after Lisa and Paul, and that piece that played during the scene with Poelzig and his wives is heard during the ending credits. Finally, I also recognized bits of Heinz Roemheld's very sparse score for The Invisible Man, mainly when Glendon approaches Lisa during the climax.

The biggest strike against Werewolf of London isn't even the movie's fault; it's simply that The Wolf Man came along and perfected nearly everything it tried to do. Though it wasn't financially successful when originally released, it has gained a larger audience in recent years, which is cool, but I don't think it's one of Universal's better horror films. It does have enough elements that keep it from being mediocre, such as great cinematography, some good sets, an interesting opening setting, some memorable characters, a take on the werewolf mythology that manages to be quite unique, as well as establishes what has since become accepted "lore," and a cool makeup design and transformation scenes for the werewolf himself. However, Henry Hull isn't all that likable as Dr. Wilfred Glendon, I don't think the main setting of London is as well utilized as it could, there's little atmosphere or mood, the music is nothing special, and the film, frankly, isn't that exciting, with the werewolf attacks including the climax, having little energy and no thrill factor. In the end, it's not terrible and is an effective way to kill 75 minutes all in all, but it's not a major classic.