Behind the Scenes: The Wolfman, 1941

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The Wolf Man, 1941. (Lon Chaney Jr.)

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Blog Created: 7-17-2025

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The Wolf Man is a 1941 American Gothic horror film written by Curt Siodmak and produced and directed by George Waggner. The film stars Lon Chaney Jr. in the title role. Claude Rains, Warren William, Ralph Bellamy, Patric Knowles, Bela Lugosi, Evelyn Ankers, and Maria Ouspenskaya star in supporting roles. The title character has had a great deal of influence on Hollywood's depictions of the legend of the werewolf. The film is the second Universal Pictures werewolf film, preceded six years earlier by the less commercially successful Werewolf of London (1935). This film is one of the Universal Monsters movies, and garnered great acclaim for its production. After this movie's success, Lon Chaney Jr. would reprise his role as "The Wolf Man" in four sequels, beginning with Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man in 1943.

A promotional photo for the film, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, 1943 with Bela Lugosi as the Frankenstein monster and Lon Chaney Jr. as the Wolf Man.

Plot ~

Larry Talbot returns to his ancestral home in Llanwelly, Wales, to bury his recently deceased brother and reconcile with his estranged father, Sir John Talbot. Larry falls in love with a local girl named Gwen Conliffe who runs an antique shop. As an excuse to talk to her, he purchases a walking stick decorated with a silver wolf's head. Gwen tells him that it represents a werewolf, a man who changes into a wolf "at certain times of the year". The werewolf always sees a pentagram on the palm of his next victim. Various villagers recite a poem whenever werewolves are mentioned.

Though Gwen firmly refuses Larry's persistent proposals for a date, they meet that night at the proposed time, and are joined by Gwen's friend Jenny to go have their fortunes told. The Romani fortuneteller, Bela, sees a pentagram when he examines Jenny's palm, and frantically sends her away. While awaiting their turns, Larry and Gwen take a walk. Gwen informs Larry that she is engaged. They hear screams from Jenny, who is being attacked by a wolf. Larry attempts to rescue Jenny. He kills the wolf with his new walking stick but is bitten on the chest. Police investigating the scene find Jenny's throat torn out and Bela battered to death, with Larry's walking stick clearly the murder weapon in the latter case. Suspicion on Larry deepens when he cannot substantiate his story of fighting a wolf, since his chest wound miraculously healed overnight. The fact that Larry and Gwen were not with Jenny when she was attacked additionally raises suspicions of adultery. Though Gwen's fiance Frank believes in their innocence, Larry and Gwen become local pariahs.

Bela's mother, Maleva, reveals to Larry that the wolf which bit him was Bela in the form of a wolf, and Larry is now a werewolf too because he was bitten by one. Silver is the only thing that can kill a werewolf. Maleva gives him a charm to prevent the transformation. Uncertain whether or not to believe her, he instead gives the charm to Gwen for protection.

Like Maleva warned, Larry transforms into a humanoid wolf hybrid on the following night and kills a villager. He returns to normal the next morning with no memory of his rampage. Authorities believe the killing to be the work of a wolf; they set traps and send out hunting parties. The next night, Larry turns into a werewolf and is caught in one of the traps. Maleva uses a spell to temporarily change him back to human form, allowing him to free himself before a hunting party finds him.

Now convinced he is a werewolf, a distraught Larry decides to leave town. When he says his goodbye to Gwen, he sees a pentagram on her palm. He tells his father he is a werewolf and killed Bela and the villager, but his father thinks Larry is delusional and ties him to a chair to prevent him from leaving and prove to him he is not a werewolf. When the moon rises Larry transforms again, breaks free of his restraints, and attacks Gwen. Not recognizing the werewolf as his son, Sir John bludgeons him over the head with Larry's silver-headed cane which Larry gave him. Maleva arrives and again uses the spell. Sir John watches in horror as the dead werewolf transforms into Larry's human corpse.

Themes and interpretations ~

In an essay for the 1984 book Planks of Reason, academic Bruce F. Kawin wrote that, "The Wolf Man expresses and exorcises the Id-force of uncontrolled aggression in its own system (the werewolf), in Larry Talbot (his werewolf phases), and in the community (the destabilizing forces of rape, murder, gypsy liminality, and aristocratic privilege—Talbot often behaves as if he had droit du seigneur when courting the engaged Gwen)." In 1995, author Edmund G. Bansak compared Talbot's "blindly aggressive drive" in his romantic pursuit of the Welsh Gwen to that of Oliver Reed, a character played by Kent Smith in the 1942 film Cat People who courts the Serbian-born Irene Dubrovna (Simone Simon): "neither of these stereotypical All-American males will take no for an answer."

As with other werewolf films, The Wolf Man has been analyzed as an allegory for puberty. In his 2012 book Horror and the Horror Film, Kawin wrote: "The fear of sexual passion and its ability to bring chaos is part of the arsenal of anxiety inherent to puberty, and the werewolf does, as has been widely noted, grow hair and become subject to animalistic drives as if it were going through puberty. In The Wolf Man (1941) as well as in Cat People (1942), desire is dangerous. The monster is one's animal nature, out of control and making one behave like an animal."

In 1993, film historian David J. Skal characterized The Wolf Man and its sequels as reflecting the anxieties of American audiences amidst World War II, calling the series "an unconscious parable of the war effort" that centers around Talbot's "crusade for eternal peace and his frustrated attempts to control irrational, violent European forces." In his 2004 book Nightmares in Red, White and Blue, Joseph Maddrey wrote that the resolution of The Wolf Man "is not reassuring in the way that earlier Universal horror films, with their distinctly Manichean view of the world, were. Larry Talbot is not torn between forces of good and evil; he is a victim of a cruel or indifferent fate in a less comprehensible world."

Special effects makeup ~

Chaney did not undergo an on-screen facial transformation from man to wolf in the original film, as featured in all sequels. The lap-dissolve progressive makeups were seen only in the final ten minutes and were presented discreetly. In the first transformation, Larry removes his shoes and socks. His feet are seen to grow hairy and become huge paws (courtesy of uncomfortable "boots" made of hard rubber, covered in yak hair). In the final scene, the werewolf gradually returns to Larry Talbot's human form through the standard technique.

Application process ~

Stories about the makeup and transformation scenes have become legendary and are mostly apocryphal. The transformation of Chaney from man into a monster was certainly laborious; the entirety of the makeup took five to six hours to apply and an hour to remove. Jack Pierce had initially designed it for Henry Hull in Werewolf of London (1935), but Hull argued that the disguise made no sense within the plot since "Dr. Glendon" needed to be recognizable by the characters even in his werewolf form. Pierce was ordered to design a second version which left more of Hull's face recognizable. Pierce then recycled his original design for the 1941 film.

Makeup man, Jack Pierce applies the makeup to transform Chaney into the Wolf Man.

Chaney claimed he was forced to sit motionless for hours as the scenes were shot frame by frame. At times he claimed he was left to remain sitting while the crew broke for lunch and was also equivocal about using the bathroom. Chaney even said special effects men drove tiny finishing nails into the skin on the sides of his hands so they would remain motionless during close-ups.

However, studio logs indicate that during the filming of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), the entire crew, including Chaney, took a two-hour break during the filming of a transformation and filmed the rest of the scene later that day (though the makeup for Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein had significantly been redesigned and streamlined by Bud Westmore over the original Jack Pierce makeup). A plaster mold was made to hold his head still, as his image was photographed and his outline drawn on panes of glass in front of the camera. Chaney then went to makeup man Jack Pierce's department, where Pierce, using grease paint, a rubber snout appliance, and a series of wigs, glued layers of yak hair to Chaney's face. Then Chaney would return to the set, line himself up using the panes of glass as a reference, and several feet of film was shot. Then Chaney would return to the makeup department. A new layer would be applied to show the transformation being further along. He would then return to the sound stage to film. This was done about a half-dozen times. Talbot's lap dissolve transformation on screen only took seconds, while Chaney's took almost ten hours.

Lou Costello (on table) is confronted by the Wolf Man in the 1948 comedy film, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. This film brought three of the Universal monsters together: Frankenstein, Dracula and the Wolf Man.

In this film, the part of the Frankenstein monster was played by veteran actor, Glen Strange. He went on to later play Sam the bartender in the TV show, Gunsmoke.

Reception ~

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 91% based on 43 reviews, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "A handsomely told tale with an affecting performance from Lon Chaney, Jr., The Wolf Man remains one of the classics of the Universal horror stable." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 72 out of 100, based on eight critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

Author and film critic Leonard Maltin awarded the film 3.5 out of 4 stars, calling it "one of the finest horror films ever made". Maltin praised the film's makeup effects, atmospheric music, and Chaney's performance in his review.

Legacy ~

The Wolf Man is the only Universal monster to be played by the same actor in all his 1940s film appearances. Lon Chaney Jr. was very proud of this, frequently stating in interviews that the Wolf Man was his 'baby'. The Wolf Man is listed in the film reference book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, which stated that the film 'remains the most recognizable and most cherished version of the [werewolf] myth'.

The Wolf Man is one of three top-tier Universal Studios monsters without a direct literary source. The others are The Mummy and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. In the 1970s, novelizations of the original films were issued as paperback originals as part of a series written by "Carl Dreadstone", a pseudonym for British horror writer Ramsey Campbell.

Sequels ~

The Wolf Man proved popular, so Chaney reprised his signature role in four more Universal films. However, unlike his contemporary "monsters", Larry Talbot never had a sequel all to himself. Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943) had Talbot's grave opened on a full moon night, causing him to rise again (making him, in the subsequent films, technically one of the undead). The full moon, which had not been shown or mentioned in the first film, was used as a quasi-explanation for the monster's resurrection, and the poem known to the local villagers was retconned to mention the full moon so that the last line became "and the moon is full and bright."

Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney Jr., go at it in a fight scene at the end of the film Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Mna.

The resurrected Talbot seeks out Dr. Frankenstein for a cure but finds the monster (Bela Lugosi) instead. The two square off at the climax, but the fight ends in a draw when a dam is exploded, and Frankenstein's castle is flooded. In 1944 Universal wanted to pair Dracula and the Wolf Man in "The Wolf Man vs. Dracula", but it was canceled in favor of a remake of Phantom of the Opera. In House of Frankenstein (1944), Talbot is once again resurrected and is promised a cure via a brain transplant but is shot dead with a silver bullet instead. He returns with no explanation in House of Dracula (1945). He is finally cured of his condition, but he is afflicted once again, in the comedy film Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948). This time the Wolf Man is a hero of sorts, saving Wilbur Grey (Lou Costello) from having his brain transplanted by Dracula (Bela Lugosi) into the head of the Monster (Glenn Strange). Grabbing the vampire as he turns into a bat, the Wolf Man dives over a balcony into the sea, taking Dracula with him.

Notes ~

The poem mentioned more than once in the film was not, contrary to popular belief, an ancient legend, but was in fact an invention of screenwriter Siodmak. "Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night / can become a wolf when the wolfsbane blooms and the Autumn moon is bright." The poem is repeated in every subsequent film in which Talbot/The Wolf Man appears including the film Van Helsing with the only exceptions being House of Dracula and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. The later films change the last line of the poem to "And the moon is full and bright", and in episode 944 of Dark Shadows, Christopher Pennock (as Jeb Hawkes) recites this version of the poem.