Dr. Charles Morris (Fritz Leiber), an expert in occultism and owner of the La Tour museum, is killed in mysterious circumstances. His son Robert (Stephen Crane) investigates, aided by his Transylvanian sweetheart Elsa Chauvet (Osa Massen). Could Celeste, the beautiful leader of a tribe of gypsies, be involved?
I'm unsure as to whether it is an attempt at Val Lewton-style subtlety or a case of necessity due to a severe lack of budget, but the transformation scene in Cry of the Werewolf is one of the most pathetic I have ever seen: a shadow of a human fades into the shadow of a wolf. It's a lacklustre effect not helped by the fact that the resulting creature is actually an Alsatian dog.
Still, it's fairly befitting of this film - the directorial debut of Henry Levin - which is a disappointing affair all round, from its opening scrawl which is missing an apostrophe, to its uninspired and overly talky script, to its wholly unremarkable performances. When I watch an old werewolf film, I at least expect to see a hairy hand or fanged face (preferably with some time-lapse transformation effects involved) - not a few seconds of a dog, and a distinctly un-scary one at that.
Oh, and no grammatical errors would be nice too.
I'm unsure as to whether it is an attempt at Val Lewton-style subtlety or a case of necessity due to a severe lack of budget, but the transformation scene in Cry of the Werewolf is one of the most pathetic I have ever seen: a shadow of a human fades into the shadow of a wolf. It's a lacklustre effect not helped by the fact that the resulting creature is actually an Alsatian dog.
Still, it's fairly befitting of this film - the directorial debut of Henry Levin - which is a disappointing affair all round, from its opening scrawl which is missing an apostrophe, to its uninspired and overly talky script, to its wholly unremarkable performances. When I watch an old werewolf film, I at least expect to see a hairy hand or fanged face (preferably with some time-lapse transformation effects involved) - not a few seconds of a dog, and a distinctly un-scary one at that.
Oh, and no grammatical errors would be nice too.