3/5
George Waggner’s The Wolf Man used to be my favorite of all of Universal monster movies, but in revisiting this nearly 20 years later, I’m struck by how clunky and disjointed the narrative is. What begins and ends as a tragic story of fathers and sons has an awkward and poorly executed romance subplot shoehorned in (complete with our hero spying on his romantic interest through her bedroom window with a telescope, harassing her at work, and continuing to pursue her after she rebuffs her advances). And the fact that our protagonist’s romantic interest seems uninterested in him until the very end of the film – when she decides she’s willing to run away with him – leaves that part of the narrative feeling flat and lifeless – an invention of the writers rather than a choice that a living, breathing human would make. This shift away from the more intriguing father/son dynamic to a romantic plot that has no real shape or structure is a missed opportunity and dilutes any emotional impact or payoff the film could have achieved. Still, the practical effects are compelling, the woodland sets atmospheric and beautifully shot, and the performance by Claude Rains as the father is magnificent – in fact, it’s the reason I remember the film so fondly all these years later.
