Werewolf Flicks: I Was A Teenage Werewolf (1957)

If you want a prime example of a movie that many people have heard of but few have actually seen, this is probably it. In fact, the title might be more well-known than the movie itself, as it was one of the first to use the word "teenage" and you've no doubt seen countless variations on it and the story in pop-culture, both in legitimate movies and in parodies in other movies and TV shows, like on The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Monkees, and Scooby-Doo. The latter was where I first heard it, as there was an episode where Scooby, Shaggy, and Scrappy go to audition for a movie called I Was A Teenage Monster, only to find that the director is turning the would-be actors into real monsters. It wasn't until I got that book, Monster Madness, that I learned that wasn't simply made up for that cartoon, as the movie was mentioned in the section on the Wolf Man and in its filmography in the back (that was also where I first learned of Michael Landon; even though I had seen him on some of his TV shows beforehand when I was really little, I now had a name to go with his face). Again, like a lot of these movies I learned of from that book and other sources, I proceeded to read up on them, particularly in John Stanley's Creature Features and, when I first got the internet, on a website that was filled with reviews of horror films. Not all of the information I read was accurate (that website, for instance, said that Landon transformed whenever the school bell rang, even though that only happens once), as I would learn, but it was still enough to make me file the movie away in my mind so I could see it one day. Thinking back, though, I have a feeling I might have seen the tail end of it one night on Sci-Fi Channel when I was a really young kid. My dad just happened to turn it on to that channel after we got back from eating out and I can remember seeing a werewolf in an office-like place getting shot down by some men who broke in. Those were the same circumstances in which I first saw a little bit of both The Wolf Man and The Curse of the Werewolf, so it's quite possible the same could be true for I Was A Teenage Werewolf.

In any case, the first time I saw really saw it was on AMC's American Pop one Saturday night some time in the early 2000's (that History of Sci-Fi and Horror documentary I often mention did show some clips from it, most notably the scene where Landon first turns into the werewolf, and I'm pretty sure I saw that first), during a month where they showed different kinds of movies centered around high school in the 50's and early 60's, like High School Caesar and such. Like a lot of these movies, I can remember liking it when I first saw it, even if it didn't blow me out of my shoes. I thought the story was nice enough, as was most of the acting, and I liked the look of the werewolf, but at the same time, I didn't think it was an immortal classic or anything. Still, I did intend on picking it up some time... and then, I learned that I couldn't, because it didn't have any sort of home media release and it still doesn't to this day. The reason for that is Susan Hart, who was an actor that appeared in some movies produced by American International Pictures but, more significantly, was married to James H. Nicholson, one of its two founders (she was only in her early 20's when they married, while Nicholson was almost 50). After Nicholson died in 1972, Hart not only took over his production company but eventually gained direct ownership of a handful of the AIP films he produced, including It Conquered the World, Invasion of the Saucer Men, The Amazing Colossal Man, and I Was A Teenage Werewolf, which she's said is her personal favorite. Because of her refusal to license any of these films to any company for a home media release, at least not without getting paid a ridiculous amount of money, I don't think any of them have gotten a release past VHS (take that as an early warning that the images in this review aren't going to be in the best quality). You can find DVD-Rs of them at horror conventions (I got a copy of I Was A Teenage Werewolf at the very first one I went to) and through certain online suppliers that specialize in stuff like this, but at this point, there's no legit way to see these movies. That's a real shame too, because, while I, again, don't absolutely love I Was A Teenage Werewolf, I still think it's good enough to where people should be allowed regular access to it, especially given how much its title is ingrained in the popular lexicon.

A brutal fight breaks out between two students on the football field of Rockdale High School one afternoon and continues until the police arrive to break it up. Talking to the two combatants, Detective Donovan learns that the fight broke out simply because one of them, Jimmy, gave Tony Rivers a friendly slap on the shoulder. Tony is well-known for his volatility and suspicious attitude, having been pulled out of a number of fights before by the police. Warning him that he's coming dangerously close to having an official criminal record, Donovan advises Tony to seek help from a psychologist at the local airplane plant, Dr. Alfred Brandon. Tony, however, refuses when he learns that Brandon uses hypnosis as part of his therapy, not wanting any part of a "head shrinker," and he also refuses to listen to the advice of both his girlfriend, Arlene Logan, and his widowed father, becoming irate when the former's parents talk to him about his manner. But, when he viciously attacks one of his friends at a Halloween party over a little prank, Tony finally realizes he needs help and begins seeing Dr. Brandon. During their first session, Brandon gives Tony a mild sedative and then, to the horror of his assistant, Dr. Hugo Wagner, prepares to inject the boy with a serum that, combined with hypnosis, will regress him back to his primitive past and unleash his savage, animalistic instincts, an experiment for which he's been searching for the perfect subject. With each session, Brandon takes Tony further and further back, until they reach the point where the doctor tells him he was once a wild beast that hunted and killed without remorse; that night, while walking home from a party through a path in the woods, one of Tony's friends, Frank, is stalked and killed by a shadowy attacker. Believing that the boy was killed by fangs to the jugular, the police begin an investigation, trying to find if there are any places nearby that a vicious animal may have escaped from; upon seeing the photos, Pepe, the old janitor at the police station, believes the attacker was a werewolf, which he knows about since he was born in the Carpathian Mountains. Naturally, he isn't taken seriously, but soon, everybody believes when Tony transforms at school one day, kills a girl in the gym, and escapes into the countryside. Now, the police must try to protect the townspeople and stop the killing, which could very well mean death to Tony.

I Was A Teenage Werewolf was the first of only a handful of films directed by Gene Fowler Jr., who mainly worked as an editor, most notably on movies like It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, A Child is Waiting, and Hang 'Em High, as well as TV shows like The Abbot and Costello Show, Gilligan's Island, The Wild, Wild West, and The Waltons. As for his directing career, it didn't survive the 50's, with the sole exception being a 1978 sci-fi thriller called The Astral Factor, where he was one of actually three directors, none of whom got credited. His only other truly notable film is I Married a Monster from Outer Space, which may be a really stupid title but the movie itself is a sincere Cold War thriller in a vein similar to Invasion of the Body Snatchers, as it centers around a woman who begins to, correctly, suspect that her newlywed husband is not what he appears to be. It and I Was A Teenage Werewolf show that Fowler was not a bad director at all but, when the 1960's rolled around, he was mainly directing television, working on shows like Rawhide, Perry Mason, and Gunsmoke. Even those offers seemed to have dried up by 1962 and Fowler then stuck to editing for the rest of his career, retiring in 1985 after working a mini-series called Evergreen. He died in 1998, at the age of 80.

It's inconceivable nowadays to think that a movie about a teenager becoming a monster would be considered a risky and potentially shocking story idea, given how we've seen that done plenty of times, but that's exactly what the filmmakers of I Was A Teenage Werewolf ran into when attempting to film it, with producer Samuel Z. Arkoff actually getting a lot of resistance to the idea. I guess since the non-genre Rebel Without a Cause had already caused quite a stir a couple of years before, they weren't sure how this spin on that kind of story would fly. In any case, in the lead role of Tony Rivers, Michael Landon is very much in the mold of James Dean, both in the way he looks and acts. Tony is a very volatile, hot-headed guy, known for violently attacking and beating on somebody if said person simply tapped him from behind or surprised him in some other way. He's also an extremely suspicious and distrusting person, one who believes the whole world is out to get him, and doesn't like to be pushed around or told what to do. His first hypnosis session with Dr. Brandon reveals that this partly stems from something that happened to him when he was twelve, when he was playing with some kids on a beach and he chased down and beat up an older kid who tried to steal one of their toys. It's also complicated by the fact that his mother died some time ago. While you never find out much about her, his father says something that makes it clear she meant a lot to him and, therefore, it probably adds to his angst, especially since he appears to be alone a lot, as his father often works the night shift at his job. He's so stubborn and unwilling to seek help, especially from a "head shrinker," that he blows up at anyone who suggests it or tries to tell him what to do, including his girlfriend, Arlene Logan, as well as her conservative parents. It's not until he attacks a friend of his at a Halloween party after he gets a trumpet blown in his ear that he finally realizes that everyone's right and he begins seeing Dr. Brandon. Little does he know that, rather than help him, Brandon decides to use him as a guinea pig in his experiment to regress a human back to his primitive nature through a combination of hypnosis and a special serum. While the sessions do seem to help curb his temper, when his friend, Frank, is murdered in the woods, Tony is left with an uneasy feeling that he may have had something to do with it, unsure if whether what he experienced was real or a nightmare.

Some who have seen the movie say that they've found it hard to care about what's going on because they find Tony to be really unlikable but, while I can understand why someone would feel that way, I've always find myself not only being empathetic towards him but also relating to him. Being someone who has Asperger's, I've always been very socially awkward and, when I was in high school, I often blew my top and lashed out at others. Mind you, I never beat on anyone unless they pushed me too far, but I can relate to having a short fuse and having trouble interacting with your peers (that also came from the fact that the elementary school I went to left me very distrustful of others but that's another story). What's more, I'm sure we've all known someone like Tony at one time, be it in our families or in our day-to-day lives, someone we've tried to help in some way and probably got rebuffed by as a result. I also think it's hard not to feel at least some sympathy for Tony because of the very notion of this troubled kid putting his life in the hands of someone who's supposed to help him and, instead, repeatedly unleashes a vicious monster from deep within him that he can't control, seeing him as nothing more than an expendable test subject for the sake of scientific progress. It doesn't take long before Tony and the rest of the town realize the terrible truth, when he transforms while at school, kills a young gymnast, and flees into the countryside, with the principal and many students recognizing him because of his signature jacket. After spending the night prowling around the woods, evading a police search party, Tony becomes himself again the next morning and wanders back into town, trying to avoid being recognized. He attempts to call Arlene but, at the last minute, decides not to drag her in any further, knowing she can't help him. With no other options, he goes to Brandon, begging him for help, telling him that he knows what he becomes (you'd think he'd realize that Brandon likely has something to do with it; if he does, while I can understand still going back to him out of desperation, I'd expect him to be more angry and demanding that he reverse the process). This, however, proves to be Tony's undoing, as Brandon once again causes him to transform and, while he manages to kill both him and Dr. Wagner, he's shot dead when Detective Donovan and Officer Stanley burst into the building.

There are a few notable similarities between this film and yesterday's movie, The Werewolf, with the biggest being how the werewolf is the result of an immoral scientific experiment rather than an ancient curse. Like Dr. Morgan Chambers in that movie, Dr. Alfred Brandon (Whit Bissell) decides to use his intended patient as the subject of an experiment that he's been planning for a long time, one that he believes will be of a benefit for mankind, which he sees as on the brink of destroying itself and that the only way to save it, "Is to hurl it back into its primitive norm, to start all over again." To him, Tony is nothing more than a guinea pig, a potential sacrificial lamb for the sake of a scientific triumph (in fact, he often comes across as more interested in proving his theory right rather than actually helping anyone), adding, "This boy is a free police case. We're probably saving him from the gas chamber," and it's obvious that his helping the police with troubled teenagers was merely a way to find a suitable subject for the experiment. While neither of them are saints, I find Brandon to be more despicable than Chambers. Chambers simply inoculated Duncan Marsh with the serum that turned him into the werewolf after he was injured, while Brandon flat-out tricks Tony into thinking he's helping him with his deep-rooted problems but instead, sees to it that his deadly, savage animal side is unleashed through a combination of a serum and hypnosis. What's more, Brandon slowly brings the monster out over a series of sessions between him and Tony, continuously lying to him and putting him through emotional torture by dredging up bad childhood memories and making him imagine himself as a primitive beast stalking its prey. Even after Frank's death, which he reads about in the newspaper, Brandon isn't fazed; in fact, he decides that he must be absolutely sure that it's working and, patronizing Tony when he tries to tell him about the feeling of foreboding hanging over him, puts him through the process again. He plays ignorant when he's interviewed by Detective Donovan, saying that he doesn't believe the claims about Tony being a werewolf, but his knowledge about the old legends belies the fact that he knows exactly what he's unleashed and he even refers to Tony as a werewolf when talking to Dr. Hugo Wagner about it. Knowing that he's the only person Tony could possibly come to, he decides to bide his time and wait for him, and when Tony does show up, he again takes advantage of him in order to make him transform again and capture it on film to convince any skeptical scientists. This ultimately proves to be his undoing, though, as the werewolf proceeds to kill both him and Wagner.

Also like in The Werewolf, the scientist responsible for the creation of the monster has an assistant who has more of a conscience and knows what he's doing is wrong. Dr. Hugo Wagner (Joseph Mell) is dead-set against the idea of using Tony in the experiment, both because Brandon is sacrificing another human being as well as because said person is a troubled young man whom Brandon is supposed to be helping. It's suggested that he's helped Brandon before but now feels that he's going too far, although he doesn't anything to interfere, mainly because Brandon threatens if he does. All throughout the film, as the experiment proves to be horrifically successful time and again, Wagner continuously tries to dissuade Brandon from going on but his pleas fall on deaf ears, as Brandon sees him as nothing more than someone who doesn't have the stomach for actual, scientific work, commenting, "That's why you've never been more than an assistant," and referring to him as "an old maid" at one point. When Tony shows up at their office again at the end of the movie, Wagner tries once more to make Brandon help the kid but he's unsuccessful, as Brandon is more interested in making him change again in order to catch it on film. To that end, he makes Wagner the reluctant cameraman, but when the transformed Tony begins rampaging again, he lunges at and kills Wagner before turning his attention on Brandon.

While many of the adult figures in the movie are either untrustworthy, like Brandon, or try to force Tony to do what they want in a way that only provokes resistance from him, Detective Donovan (Barney Phillips) is one who recognizes that Tony really needs help and tries to make him see it after he breaks up the fight between him and Jimmy at the beginning. Having pulled Tony out of quite a few fights before, he tries to understand why he acts the way he does and, warning him that he's quickly heading towards having a real criminal career, tells him about Dr. Brandon and his methods. But, when Tony learns that he uses hypnotherapy, he flat out refuses and Donovan, seeing it's a lost cause, has no choice but to let him go, although he warns him that he won't be able to get out of trouble so easily if it happens again. Once Tony finally realizes that he does need help, you can assume that Donovan arranges him to meet with Brandon and, Brandon himself mentions, he told the doctor something about his behavior. After Frank's body is found, Donovan becomes preoccupied with investigating the murder and believes that he was killed by a pair of fangs to the throat, even though there are known wild animals in the area who could do such a thing. Knowing that such a fact would cause a panic amongst the townspeople, Donovan and his superiors decide to keep it confidential, with Donovan being especially concerned about the teenagers. When Tony transforms at school and kills the girl before running off into the countryside in front of the principal and a bunch of the students, Donovan talks to them and learns that it was indeed Tony. He goes to talk to Dr. Brandon about it and is clearly put off by his manner, writing off the claims of the eyewitnesses as hallucinations, refusing to reveal what exactly went on during his sessions with Tony, and especially how he continuously shies away from the word "werewolf," even though he clearly knows a lot about it, despite claiming to be a skeptic. Donovan and Police Chief Baker head up an attempt to capture the werewolf in the woods but it proves unsuccessful, and they don't get a lead until the next day, when Tony returns to town back to his normal self and is spotted. Heading out with Officer Stanley, they end up coming across him in the doctor's office after he's killed Brandon and Wagner and having to shoot him down. Looking at him after he's turned back to normal upon dying, he figures that Brandon had something to do with what's happened, ending the movie on the typical conservative note of the time, "It's not for man to interfere in the ways of God."

Tony's father, Charles Rivers (Malcolm Atterbury), also tries to help his troubled son, whom he says has never had to be disciplined, not even when his mother was alive. However, his way of helping him is to basically tell him to suck it up and do what others want, saying, "Sometimes, you just have to do it the other fella's way." Little does he know that this only adds to his son's growing frustration, as seen when Tony angrily smashes a bottle of milk against the wall after his father leaves for work. Regardless, Charles is sympathetic, as you get the sense that he really is trying to raise his son the best way he can but he often has to work the night shift, leaving Tony by himself. After he's ran off into the wilderness after transforming at school, Charles, as he's being interviewed by a reporter, wonders if he should have done things differently, perhaps remarry, before adding that Tony never pressed him to, probably because he knew that no woman could ever replace her. He also insists that Tony is a good boy, despite what anyone says, and says that you just have to talk to him the right way in order to get him to comply, suggesting that he's not only in denial about what happened but also about just how troubled his son has been for a while and that he no doubt coddled him, adding to the problem. The sad thing is that, the last time you see Charles, he's still fretting about Tony's safety, wishing that he knew he was still alive, completely unaware of what's about to happen to him.

Of the other teenagers, the only one who has any true significance is Tony's girlfriend, Arlene Logan (Yvonne Lime). Despite her worrying about Tony's troubling behavior, and the fact that she often has to bare the brunt of his bad temper, especially when she tries to convince him to start seeing the psychiatrist, Arlene really likes him, to the point where he's the only boy she dates. While she doesn't care for her parents' getting onto him because they don't feel he exhibits proper behavior, she does decide to find out what she can about Dr. Brandon and tries to convince Tony that it would be nice if he could really help him. Of course, it's only after Tony attacks one of his friends, to the horror of Arlene and his other friends, that he realizes how much he does need help and begins seeing the doctor. As he begins getting treatment, Arlene does notice a change in Tony but it seems to worry her more than please her, as he isn't acting like himself. After reading about Frank's death in the newspaper (Arlene's reaction to it could have had a whole lot more feeling to it, by the way), she and his other friends and classmates soon get a look at his unleashed wild side after he transforms at school and kills a gymnast before dashing off into the countryside. Because of her connection to Tony, Arlene gets hounded by the reporters when the press gets wind of what's happened, with the one reporter, Doyle, upsetting her more than she already is by asking if she realizes what would have happened if he'd changed while she was with him, much to her parents' consternation. The police also try to use her as a means of tracking Tony down in case he tries to call her, which he does when he walks back into town. But, when she picks up the phone, all he says is, "Hello," to her before deciding to hang it up, and she denies to the officer at her house that it was him, in a vain attempt to try to protect him. This is last time we see Arlene, with the last shot of her being her father comforting her, and of course, she's going to be crying a whole lot more soon.

While none of the other teenagers are really important characters, some of them are memorable. Jimmy (Tony Marshall), the guy who's fighting with Tony when the movie opens, gives some early insight into just how wound up he is when he describes how all he did was give Tony a friendly slap on the shoulder and he challenged him to a fight. He goes on to talk about how he apologized for it but it wasn't enough for Tony, despite the fact that Jimmy's a bigger guy (Jimmy was actually dominating Tony throughout the fight, with the only advantage he got being when he threw dirt in his eyes). Donovan manages to get them to shake hands and Jimmy apologizes again before walking off. At the Halloween party, we meet a few more of Tony's friends, particularly Vic (Ken Miller), his easygoing, bongo-playing friend who treats his friends to his new song, Eene, Meeny, Miney, Mo, showing off his singing and dancing skills. He also plays some practical jokes on his girlfriend, Pearl (Cynthia Chenault), who made the mistake of coming dressed as a clown because she thought it was a costume party, and he's also on the receiving end of the old bucket of water over the door jamb joke from Tony, but when he tries to get back at Tony by blowing a trumpet in his ear, he gets a brutal beating for it, much to the horror of everyone else. Doesn't seem to be any hard feelings between them, though, as they attend another party at the same place, although Vic also ends up witnessing his friend's transformation when it happens at school. And then, there's poor Frank (Michael Rougas), Tony's single friend who, having no other way to get home from the second party, and turning down Tony's offer for a ride, decides to walk home by taking a path through the woods. In the process, he ends up being stalked and killed by Tony in his werewolf form.

Rounding out the cast is Police Chief Baker (Robert Griffin), who's somewhat skeptical when Donovan suggests that Frank was killed by fangs to the throat and decides to keep their theories to themselves before the official report comes in, and once Tony's bestial nature becomes known, he and the police force block off the town with roadblocks and have the townspeople stay in their homes in an attempt to find and catch him. He also organizes a posse to try to catch Tony in the woods one night but it proves unsuccessful. Another member of the police force, Officer Chris Stanley (Guy Williams), is just as baffled by what could have killed Frank as his peers, commenting that he's lived in the area his whole life and has never seen anything that could have done that to someone. Pepe, the station's European janitor, asks Chris to look at the pictures of Frank's body, as he kind of knew the kid, but when he starts spouting off about a werewolf being the killer, Chris instantly balks at it. Of course, it isn't long before he's doing anything but balking, and late one night, when Pepe is cleaning up, he asks him if a werewolf was ever captured, to which Pepe replies, "Never." Stanley isn't seen much during the investigation but, when Donovan gets a call about Tony's whereabouts, the two of them head out together to find him and have to shoot him when they burst in on him Dr. Brandon's office. Going back to Pepe (Vladimir Sokoloff), he's the movie's most prominent connection to the classic werewolf lore, being from the Carpathian Mountains where the legends originate from and continue to be prominent. He instantly recognizes the marks on Frank's throat as that of a werewolf, explaining what such a creature is, and when Stanley scoffs at his claims, Pepe says that was how he reacted upon first hearing the legends but that he became a believer after, "What I saw, what I heard." He doesn't go into any more detail than that but it's clear that this guy has quite possibly seen werewolves firsthand or, at the very least, traces of their existence. Pepe is more than happy to try to forget what he saw in the photo but, when Tony is revealed to be a werewolf, he has another talk with Stanley about it, after which he's never seen again. And finally, you have Doyle (Eddie Marr), a reporter who, once the story gets out, really starts playing up the idea of Tony being a werewolf, for the sake of a good story as well as because he seems to really believe it, and goes on to hound some of the more significant townspeople. He criticizes Baker for keeping the murder of Fred a secret for so long and becomes irate when he refuses to show them the official pictures, telling him that the lid's been blown off of it. He even goes as far as to tell Baker not to turn it around on him when he gets accused of trying to add to the grief of everyone in town with his prying nature. Doyle proves him right, as he makes Arlene even more upset by talking to her about what might have happened had Tony transformed while she was with him and also upsets Tony's father when he tries to convince him that Tony is indeed the werewolf everyone's talking about.

This film works with its small town setting in a way that, while still not perfect, is more effective than it was in The Werewolf. The fact that it's an actual town in middle America rather than an isolated little village in the mountains already helps make it more relatable and, while not dwelt upon, you get a bit of a sense of the townspeople's lives, particularly the teenagers. You see the average-looking high school they attend, this old, rundown house in the woods, which they all refer to as "the haunted house," that they go to in order to party without being disturbed (I really like that idea and the way the place looks; it's said that Tony was the one who found it), and, most notably, the two types of possible households that can be found in town. You only see the kitchen and a bit of the living room of the house that Tony lives in with his father but it's enough to make out that it's a rather simple, low-class little home (albeit, not exactly rundown or destitute), whereas Arlene's family lives in a much nicer-looking, upper middle-class home, not unlike the Cleaver household. Most importantly, though, you also get a sense of the effect that the werewolf has on the town. After Frank's body is found, there's a moment where the high school students are reading a newspaper story about it; Donovan mentions that his mother is in a state of shock, while the father wants to know what they're doing to find the killer; and then, there's the feeling of bafflement that the police feel about what could have killed him. However, the most telling bit is one of Pepe's reasons for wanting to look at the photographs of Frank's body: he plays pinochle with his father, hitting home the notion that this is one of those towns where everybody knows each other and that any sort of tragedy affects every one of them. As a result, when Tony's wolf side comes to the surface while he's at school, everyone who sees him, from the students to the principal, realize that it's him because of the clothes, and after the police interview them, just about the whole town knows, with the press playing up the angle that the monster is one of the teenagers and the police knowing exactly who and what they're looking for. It gives the movie a bit more of a feeling of authenticity than you usually get in these types of movies.

Being a very low budget movie (according to various sources, it cost somewhere in the area of $82,000 and $123,000) that was literally shot in just a week, you shouldn't expect this movie to be too glossy or fancy in its camerawork and editing and, for the most part, it isn't. However, there are moments here that come across as more skillful than you'd expect, one of which is the opening fight between Tony and Jimmy. That whole sequence is quite well shot and edited, with lots of good angles interspersed with a couple of montages of quickly cut close-ups of the two of them as they trade punches, and the dirt that Tony throws at Jimmy hits the camera before the cut that shows Jimmy reacting to it getting into his eyes. In fact, the fight, in general, is well choreographed and progresses nicely, with Tony and Jimmy shoving and punching each other, Tony refusing to give up even after he's knocked down a couple of times and Jimmy pins him, the two of them rolling and Jimmy flinging Tony, Tony charging at him and tackling him to the ground, only for Jimmy to pick him up and punch him into a cart holding some gardening tools. Tony then actually grabs a damn shovel and swings it at Jimmy, only for him to tackle him down, making him drop it, and punch Tony to the ground when he lunges at him. He punches Tony into a wheelbarrow full of dirt, which Tony then uses to temporarily blind him when he comes at him again and lay into him with punches, although Jimmy manages to slam him to the ground, despite not being able to see. That's when the police show up and Detective Donovan and another officer break the fight up.

Some other examples of interesting, if random, filmmaking come during Tony's sessions with Dr. Brandon, which involve a lot of low-lighting, tight push-ins into Tony's face when he falls under the hypnosis (including big close-ups of his and Brandon's mouths when they're counting backwards during one such session, which they do in order to encourage the hypnosis, and their foreheads when the memories begin coming to Tony), and angles where Brandon is often looming over Tony, manipulating him into the primitive and savage state of mind that he wants him to be in. The most powerful of these shots is when Tony shoots up awake in his chair after Brandon makes him think of being a wild animal that waits for its prey to come by so it can pounce and Brandon comes into frame behind him, telling him, "Yes, I want you to remember. You must remember." And finally, when Tony transforms at school and attacks the gymnast he sees there, she happens to be bending up and down on some parallel bars when he changes, and so, her POV of him moving in for the kill on her is upside down, matching with the shot of her hanging off the bars in the same way. It's nothing major but it's an interesting bit of cinematography you don't often find in such a low budget movie.

I Was A Teenage Werewolf has more of a feeling of traditional horror to it than The Werewolf, which was more of a blend of the genre with science fiction (there are sci-fi elements to be found here but they're more downplayed), but it's still far from being in the same tradition as movies like Werewolf of London and The Wolf Man. In this case, it's more of a blend of a monster from Gothic horror with the "teen rebel" subgenre that was becoming popular around that time. Again, Tony is a lot like James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause, being a troubled, temperamental teenager and there being a conflict between him and the older generation, who he feels simply want him to roll over and do what everyone else expect of him. This comes up many times in regards to his suspicious nature towards those around him, like when he asks Donovan what he means when he's told that Dr. Brandon helps troubled teens "adjust" and becomes angry when his father tells him that sometimes you just have to do it the other person's way. A key scene in regards to this is when Arlene's parents have Tony come into the house before he takes her to the Halloween party and her dad, in addition to criticizing him for honking his car horn for her instead of coming to the door and calling on her "properly," suggests that he should have a steady type of job that keeps him out of trouble in order for them to feel proud of the fact he's dating their daughter. Arlene's father goes as far as to bluntly say, "You've got to bow to authority," which only makes Tony feel like everyone's on his back. Then, there's the irony that, when he does everyone wants him to and seeks help for his behavior problems, one such authority figure, Dr. Brandon, manages to cure said problems but turns him into a literal monster in the process. And while Tony's conduct at school and his social behavior improves, to the point where his future seems very bright, his friends feel like he's not being himself and are just as concerned about his new behavior as they were the old, soon learning they have a legitimate reason to feel that way.

I'm pretty sure that this was also the first movie where the werewolf was put into one of these types of B-level horror and exploitation films that centered around teenagers as the main characters (the most well-known example being The Blob), which AIP would come to specialize in. It's definitely, like I said earlier, the first movie where a teenager actually becomes a monster, and the movie was such a big hit for AIP, making $2 million, that it encouraged them to make more of these types of movies. Following this, you had I Was A Teenage Frankenstein (wherein Whit Bissell is once again the mad scientist who turns a teenage boy into a monster), Blood of Dracula (which, from what I've heard, is basically a remake of this film, only with the main protagonist and antagonist roles being gender-swapped to women and, naturally, the monster in question now being a vampire), and How to Make a Monster (which I saw a bit of on AMC many years ago, and features a makeup artist who turns a couple of young actors into actual monsters, specifically the Teenage Werewolf and the Teenage Frankenstein). None of them were quite as successful as this but, regardless, they do serve as another example of the impact this movie had even around the time of its release.

The nature of the creature that Tony transforms into is pretty similar to what Duncan Marsh becomes in The Werewolf in regards to both its origin and how the change comes about. Again, like in that movie, Tony's condition is a result of immoral science on the part of an unscrupulous doctor who believes that what he's doing will benefit mankind in the long run, as well as increase his standing in the scientific community, and, as a result, it's worth the risk. The serum that Tony is injected with is another similarity between the two films but here, it goes much deeper, as Dr. Brandon uses it in conjunction with hypnosis to unleash Tony's deeply buried, primal instincts, which I think is more unsettling; Marsh was forcibly transformed into something he wasn't, while here, it's suggested that Brandon slowly brings out of Tony something that was always there. Also like in that film, there are references to the traditional lore of werewolves, with Pepe telling Chris Stanley of the legends from the village he came from and Brandon himself proving to be well-informed on the subject, given what he tells Detective Donovan. When talking with Dr. Wagner at one point, Brandon does refer to Tony as a werewolf and mentions the beneficial aspects of the condition, like animalistic cunning that will allow him to evade capture. To me, this says that the precise end result of the experiment was not mere conjecture on Brandon's part, that his research into werewolves has convinced him that they are the embodiment of humanity's locked away, primitive nature which has been unleashed in some cases and that he now knows how to bring one out of a person. Wagner's protesting his using Tony because of how horrible the transformation is and Brandon referring to him as an "accomplice" up till then strongly suggests that he's tried it out before on other subjects, ones who either died or had to be eliminated, or, at the very least, that they've both looked into it enough to know what will happen to someone who's put through the experiment. In fact, since we don't know exactly what the serum is derived from, like we did in The Werewolf, there is the possibility that the experiment could be a combination of science and the supernatural, with the serum being made up of blood or similar bodily fluids of another, actually cursed, werewolf.

When the legends of werewolves are being discussed here, there are no mentions of the traditional elements of full moons, silver bullets, and bites passing the curse along. During Pepe's conversation with Officer Stanley about it, he describes a werewolf as being someone possessed by a wolf, saying, "When the evil eye is on you, the savage beast somehow gets inside and controls you, makes you look and act like a wolf." The "evil eye" could be referring to the full moon but it's never made clear; regardless, this is akin to the way Oliver Reed's character of Leon in Hammer's The Curse of the Werewolf becomes afflicted and it further hints that there could be a supernatural angle to this story. Like in The Werewolf, because of the circumstances in which he becomes afflicted with it, there are no clearly set conditions for Tony's transformation, as it happens sporadically, day or night, and, other than Brandon forcing it to happen one more time at the end with another session, the only instance in which there's a clear trigger is when he's startled by the school bell, which ties back into his violent reactions to being surprised from behind. It's possible that something like that did happen the night he stalked and killed Frank in the woods but get no hint to this whatsoever. There's definitely no clear reason as to why he turns back to normal, which undoubtedly fuels Tony's dread and paranoia when he walks back into town, not knowing when he'll change again. And, like in The Werewolf, no one attacked by Tony becomes cursed themselves (although, he kills everybody he manages to maul, so who knows?) and silver bullets are not required to bring him down at the end.

After Jack Pierce's makeups for Werewolf of London and, especially, The Wolf Man set the standard, the werewolves seen in movies for decades afterward often looked like them in one way or another, with no really distinguishable characteristics all their own (again, the transformed Duncan Marsh is a good example). However, while the makeup that Michael Landon wears in this film does fit into that same kind of Wolf Man mold, with a lot of hair and the vaguely wolf-like features to the face (pointy ears, big teeth, clawed, paw-like hands, etc.) there are details in its design that make it stand out in my opinion. Maybe it's me, but the face comes off as kind of rodent-like, with the teeth (which are very clearly fake) hanging so far out of the mouth feeling like the big incisors of a mouse or rat, and the black tip of the nose, though probably trying to evoke that of a dog, making me think of what you see on a rodent. And you can definitely can't forget that big, afro-like, helmet of hair that he has. A lot of werewolves from the old days had big manes of hair on their heads but he has to take the cake. In any case, while it may look cheesy and dated, it is a memorable makeup and one that manages to distinguish itself from its peers. Lap-dissolves are again used for the transformation scenes, only they're much faster than the ones you typically see in these movies and they put a rippling effect over it, probably to hide some of the errors in it.

The first couple of scenes that involve the werewolf are quite well-done, especially when Frank is stalked through the woods and killed. This scene relies on pure mood and suspense, as you never get a look at the werewolf. It starts out innocuous enough, with Frank casually whistling to himself as he walks home, only to hear the sounds of rustling behind him. The first time he hears it, he doesn't pay it any mind, but when he hears it again when he walks further down the path, he stops for a bit and listens to it until the sound stops again. A little more wary this time, he still goes on walking and whistling, only to immediately hear it again and realize he's being followed. Looking around and seeing nothing or nobody, he calls out into the woods, trying to get whoever it is to show themselves, but sees nothing but the dark, moonlit woods and the sounds of animals in the distance (while it's clearly done day-for-night, this scene still manages to look quite eerie and have a feeling of dread about it). Frank starts walking away again, only this time, he takes off in a full-on run, eventually falling to the ground in his panic. He yells, "Who's there?!", in a frightened voice but, once again, he sees and hears nothing. Aware that something is out there, he gets back up and goes on running, stopping and looking behind him at one point and taking off again after apparently seeing something. When he stops again, it's now obvious that he sees whatever is chasing him, as it lunges toward him after he backs himself up into a corner in a section where some trees are growing out of one spot. The scene ends with a tight close-up on his face as he him screams frantically, yelling at his attacker to get away as the scene fades to black.

The second werewolf scene, and the first time we actually see the werewolf, happens after Tony has a meeting with the principal after she tells him how happy she is about his improved conduct (incidentally, in that scene, we learn that, despite his temper, Tony has always gotten good grades). Walking down the hallway from her office when he walks by the gym and sees the young gymnast, Theresa, practicing a routine on the parallel bars. He walks inside and heads over to a corner, watching her for a little bit. Suddenly, the bell rings, startling Tony and triggering his transformation. Hanging upside down from the parallel bars, Theresa sees the werewolf stalking towards her, snarling, and lets out a scream before getting off the bars and running for it. The werewolf chases after her and nearly gets her when she tries to go out a pair of double-doors, only finding them to be locked, and chases after her as she runs up onto a stage. He actually falls over some stacked, folding chairs in his way but gets right back up and jumps on the stage, trapping her as the door in the back of the room there is locked as well. He moves in to grab her and she runs for it, falling past a piano sitting there, and he knocks over a section of wooden framework (I don't know why all this stuff is in a gym) as he comes in for the kill, as she sits there, screaming. As he grabs her and struggles with her, tearing off a curtain that ends up covering them both, the sound of her screaming attracts the attention of both the principal and the other students, who come running. Entering the gym, the principal is shocked to see the werewolf, crouching by Theresa's body, turn and growl at her. Other students, including some of Tony's friends, enter the room and he immediately bolts for the door, pushing past them as he runs into the hall, out onto the campus, and into the nearby countryside. As he does, the shocked witnesses all reveal that they recognized who the werewolf was.

Unfortunately, after this, the movie kind of gets bogged down as, like in The Werewolf, the transformed Tony spends the better part of the third act lurking in the woods and trying to evade a search posse. Chief Baker and Detective Donovan head up a team that tries to capture him one night in the woods, with Baker telling the men to fire only in self-defense. They also light up some torches when they get deep into the woods, hoping to use them as a means to scare the werewolf as well as to see. The scene mainly consists of him watching and hiding from them as they split up into groups and search different parts of the wooded ravine. There is one moment where a German shepherd sees and attacks him, sparking off a violent struggle between them, as the dog bites at his arm and attempts to choke and tear his throat out. The werewolf comes out on top, as Donovan and another man hear the dog yelp as he's killed and then find his corpse, but no sign of the werewolf himself. Meeting back up with Baker and telling him about the dog, Donovan is told that they might as well wait until daybreak but they post some guards to try to keep him from escaping. He comes close to being spotted when he hides behind a bush they're walking towards as they leave and he finally has to hide within the bush to avoid detection. (As you can tell from the screenshots, this scene is a reason why this movie desperately needs a digital transfer, as the lousy quality of the only existing sources can make it really hard to see in a sequence that's darkly lit anyway.)

The climax comes when Tony, having changed back by morning, makes his way into town and, after attempting to call Arlene, instead decides to go to Dr. Brandon. Upon arriving, he begs the doctor for help, saying that he knows what he is and that he doesn't want anyone to see him like that. Brandon says that he'll help him but, naturally, he's only interested in furthering his experiment, as he's then seen in the lab in back, preparing to make Tony change again so he can catch it on film to convince the scientific world. (By the way, speaking of dark scenes, it's as if all the light-bulbs in this place have been broken, as it's so dimly lit.) Talking Dr. Wagner into manning the camera, Brandon then injects the unconscious Tony with the serum and, after locking the door, the two of them watch as he becomes the werewolf once more. Brandon is very pleased with the results, and Tony is actually docile at first, but then the phone rings, alarming him. Instead of answering it, Brandon just allows the phone ring and then sees that the werewolf's eyes are darting around the room frantically and he begins to growl in anger. Focusing on Wagner, he begins to sit up, snarling at him, and Wagner tells Brandon to make him stop. Wagner grabs the camera tripod to use as a weapon and backs away, as the werewolf gets to his feet, knocks the light they were using for filming out of his way, and grabs the tripod and tosses it aside when Wagner tries to hit him with it. He's then on Wagner and wrestles him to the floor, where he proceeds to tear him apart, while Brandon rushes into the lab and grabs another syringe out of the safe, probably hoping to sedate him again. The werewolf then enters, drool gushing out of his mouth, and begins moving in on the trapped scientist, angrily smashing the beakers on the counter to his left. Brandon tries to talk the beast down, telling him he's the only friend he has left, but in this state, Tony is far beyond reason. Smashing a shelf on the counter, he forces Brandon into the corner, grabs him, and wrestles him to the floor, as Donovan and Officer Stanley burst in through the door. Once the werewolf has finished Brandon off, he moves in on the two armed policemen and they're forced to pump him full of lead, causing him to knock over a cabinet full of drugs as he falls offscreen to the right of the doorway. The two officers walk in and see Tony, dead but back to normal, lying on the floor, as they speculate on why he killed Brandon and about how the newspapers will have a field day with it. Donovan ends the movie by saying that it proves that man shouldn't interfere with God's ways.

Paul Dunlap, a composer who's mainly known for his work on westerns, did the score and he came up with a pretty distinctive main theme for the film, which is this brooding, kind of jazzy saxophone piece that you hear over the opening credits. It's most definitely Tony's leitmotif, and you hear many different variations of it throughout the film. Some examples include a crazed, frantic version when his opening fight with Jimmy really gets serious, a very forlorn-sounding one that hints at his troubled state of mind when he throws a milk bottle at the wall in anger after his dad tells him that he sometimes has to do what others say, a version that starts out violent when he attacks Vic and then turns somber when he gets ahold of himself and sees his friends staring at him with shocked faces, you can hear some of its notes very softly in the subtle piece that plays when Pepe talks to Stanley about werewolves, and you hear it one last time at the end after Tony's been shot to dead. That piece is the only part of the score that's really memorable but that's not to say that the rest of the music is bad, because it isn't. The soft, kind of eerie music that plays during Tony's hypnosis sessions with Dr. Brandon, the tense, frantic music that plays when Frank is stalked through the woods, and the bombastic music for the werewolf attack and chase scenes all fit their respective parts of the movie very well, and Dunlap would actually go on to score two more of the teen-oriented horror films that AIP produced in its wake.

While we're on the subject of the music, another aspect of I Was A Teenage Werewolf that makes it a noteworthy film is the addition of the song, Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Mo, which Vic sings and dances to at the Halloween party. Although it has no relevance to the story, except as something that the kids have fun with at the party, and the movie actually becomes a musical for a couple of minutes as Vic sings and dances it to with Pearl while everyone else stands around and watches , the song, while dated, has an old-fashioned sound to it that has a charm and actor Kenny Miller sings it quite well. Granted, it's about how the singer is only interested in marrying a girl with a lot of money so he can be well off and also how he's not too choosy about who the girl is, but it's still nice to listen to. But the real reason why it's worth mentioning is because it makes this the first horror film to have a "rock song" in it (I put rock song in quotation marks because it's rather slow and laid back, all things considered), putting it in the record books.

Many would say that I Was A Teenage Werewolf is a classic of the genre but, although I like it and do think it's a notable movie for a couple of reasons, I don't know if I would award it classic status. It does indeed have plenty of pros to it, like a pretty good cast who give acceptable performances, with the standouts being Michael Landon and Whit Bissell; surprisingly creative uses of cinematography and editing for a low budget movie that was shot in just a week; a fairly effective portrayal of a small town reacting to a monster in their midst; it's an interesting combination of the classic story of the werewolf with 50's teen rebel and exploitation films; the werewolf himself manages to have a distinctive makeup design and his unusual origin is very interesting; the movie has some well-done sequences, especially Frank being stalked through the woods; and the music score is quite fair, with a memorable song. Still, it's not without its flaws, as there are some instances of acting that could have been better and the movie really gets bogged down following the transformation at the school, with the sequence in the woods where the posse looks for the werewolf not being that exciting and the climax coming across as a bit ho-hum, all things, even if the real villain does get his deserved comeuppance. Still, it is a movie that I think fans of the genre, especially of this era, should see, and hopefully, it'll finally get a DVD or Blu-Ray release some time soon.