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After some gruesome killings in the park near her house, that are said to be
committed by a female werewolf, young heiress Phyllis thinks that it might be
her who turns into a werewolf at night (attributing it all to a family curse).
Her step-aunt & housekeeper Martha (Sara Haden) pretends to calm her, but
it's rather obvious that she's playing some evil ghame with the girl's mind
being envious of her inheritance.
As the murders go on, with the police not having a clue, Phyllis finds more
& more evidence that points to herself, and, thinking herself a menace even
breaks off any contact with her fiancé Barry (Don Porter). He is
understandably miffed & decides to watch the entrance of Phyllis' house one
night, & really, he sees a female figure leave, & soon afterwards
attack a man, but he & some police constables patrolling the park chase her
away.
Soon afterwards, Carol (Jan Wiley) arrives on the scene, & the man who
was attacked turns out to be Dwight (Martin Kossleck), her penniless lover (who
is of course despised by her mother). Barry immediately suspects Carol of being
the real she-wolf, but there is not sufficient evidence to hold her ...
Back at Phyllis home, Phyllis decides to let Carol in on her secret - that
she is the she-wolf - but Carol, upon seeing the evidence, immediately sees
it's all ahoax & goes to the police ... much to the dismay of her mother,
who is of course the real she-wolf, & she now sees only one way out - to
kill Phyllis & make it look like suicide. Unfrotunately though she loudly
announces what she's planning to do, and chambermaid Hanna (Eily Malyon), who
has just happened to be eavesdropping, can step in just in time & save poor
Phyllis from certaion death. Martha, being faced with changed priorities, now
decides to kill Hannah first, but when running after her falls down a stairway
& right into her own knife.
The police, alarmed by Carol, can only collect the corpse & close the
case ...
A late entry into the Universal horror cycle (not that such a
cycle ever consciously or officially existed back in the 40's), She-Wolf of
London is a very poor horror-werewolf-whodunnit, that pretty much presents
the whole case (including the solution) within the first 10 minutes - when
Martha explains to her daughter that Phyllis is a rich heiress while she &
her daughter are poor - & then takes another 50+ minutes to not leave the
path once taken in the slightest, but at the same time making no efforts in
producing any kind of atmopsphere let alone suspense.
& despite the fetchy title, there is not
one she-wolf, werewolf, or any other kind of wolf in sight (there are a few
dogs in the movie, though), & Jack Pierce's job as head make-up man was
obviously reduced to make the humans look ... well, human.
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