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Legend of the Werewolf
UK 1975
produced by Kevin Francis for Tyburn
directed by Freddie Francis
starring Peter Cushing, David Rintoul, Lynn Dalby, Stefan Gryff, Ron Moody, Hugh Griffith, Roy Castle, Renee Houston, Marjorie Yates, Norman Mitchell, Mark Weavers, David Bailie, Hilary Farr (as Hilary Labow), Elaine Baillie, Michael Ripper, Patrick Holt, John Harvey, Pamela Green, Sue Bishop, James McManus, Jane Cussons
written by Anthony Hinds (as John Elder), music by Harry Robertson, conducted by Philip Martell
review by Mike Haberfelner
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When he was little, Etoile (Mark Weavers), who was actually brought up
by wolves, was the attraction of a tiny zoo, but the more he became
domesticated and in fact normal, dull maybe even, the less he was of use
to Maestro Pamponi (Hugh Griffith), so when he (as an adult played by Hugh
Griffith) eventually ran away, Pamponi didn't waste much time or sweat
looking for him. Before long, Etoile finds employment at a Paris zoo
though, as the zookeeper (Ron Moody) did notice his great talent handling
animals, especially (surprise) wolves. Eventually, Etoile falls in love
with Christine (Lynn Dalby), a regular customer to the zoo ... but then
he's really devastated having to find out she's actually a prostitute -
and that night (full moon night), three of her regulars are brutally
slaughtered by a wolf. The police's a bit baffled by this, but coroner and
amateur sleuth professor Paul (Peter Cushing) investigates on his own,
puts two and two and maybe some more twos together, and when the next full
moon, some more people are killed by the "wolf", he's already
pretty close on Etoile's trail, having figured he has to be a werewolf.
Ultimately, Etoile is allowed to die in Christine's arms though ... Both
stylistically and narratively, Legend of the Werewolf is a rather
typical British horror flick, of the kind that studios Hammer
and Amicus
had been putting out successfully some 10 to 15 years earlier ... and
that's already the main problem of the film: Since the 1960s, the horror
genre has evolved significantly, both in story and style, had put more
emphasis on contemporary stories and settings, showed less love to
traditional monsters like werewolves ... and yet, Legend of the
Werewolf tries to neglect all that, tells a very old-fashioned story
in a very old-fashioned and very formulaic way. This isn't only bad per
se, as the film has some bright moments, and Peter Cushing turns in
another absolutely marvelous performance - but at the same time the film
looks oddly out of place in the mid-1970s, fails to really hold interest
due to its high predictability, and despite being at least solidly
directed on a budget (e.g. the very limited Paris-sets fail to convince
this "Paris" is any more than a small village), its main problem
is it has exactly nothing new or original to offer to the genre - and that
said, if old-fashioned horror fun's what you're after, you'll probably at
least be entertained by this one (as was I).
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