Cry of the Werewolf (1944)

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

A Masterpiece!

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The rather unlikely directoral debut of Henry Levin, 'Cry of the Werewolf' (a title not echoed by anything that actually happens in the film) is a quickie detective/horror hybrid that owes more to Val Lewton's films at RKO than Universal's Wolf Man.Borrowings abound from 'The Cat People', such as the click of high heels pursuing the hero below stairs at the funeral parlour. Lewton, however, would shrewdly have avoided showing us as much as the animal as we see here, which obviously isn't a genuine wolf; and John Abbott's vivid description on the soundtrack of the "master's mangled body, over him stood a terrible animal, with flaming dripping jaws" is completely undercut by the inoffensive-looking doggie woggie we see nonchalantly padding off in the accompanying flashback.The luxurious main set, lit with his usual aplomb by L.W.O'Connell, was probably recycled from an earlier production along with the main theme from Castelnuovo-Tedesco's score for 'The Return of the Vampire'. As a pair of matriarchal lycanthropes, the enjoyably malevolent-looking Blanche Yurka and Nina Foch wouldn't have looked out of place as members of the Palladists in 'The Seventh Victim', while - probably intentionally - far more electricity is generated between the remarkably youthful looking Miss Foch (who gets preposterously little screen time) and Osa Massen than between either of them and the incredibly boring hero Stephen Crane. Barton MacLane as a tough, no-nonsense detective carries himself as if marauding werewolves are all in a day's work for cops on the New Orleans beat.

A really good werewolf entry. This film has an air of mystery that is appealing to me as well as a she-wolf. This one is about 2 years earlier than Universal's She-Wolf of London (1946) (which is also a good film).Nina Foch is Celeste, a princess of the gypsies. Celeste was born a werewolf like her mother before her. This story is about Celeste who hunts down those that find out about her.It's a little bit different than other werewolf films of the time era... even though there are gypsies and hunt for the werewolf. So this is not a film that is a repeat of other werewolf flicks - it is a story of it's own that is enjoyable to watch.7/10

"Cry of the Werewolf" is a decent enough entry in the genre, and is pretty entertaining.**SPOILERS**In a museum tour, guide Peter, (John Abbott) explains about local legends involving vampires and werewolves. After the last one, he and Dr. Charles Morris, (Fritz Leiber) retire for the night, only for Bob Morris, (Stephan Crane) and his girlfriend Elsa Chauvet, (Osa Massen) to find that the museum had fallen under a series of mysterious events. Starting to investigate what happened, a very long legal battle over the culprit resolves with nothing accomplished. When they find that a local gypsy tribe has a way of explaining what happened, they quickly race to stop the creature that has been attacking those nearby.The Good News: This here is actually rather fun. The fact that this one is a predominant mystery makes it really good. There's a lot of back-and-forth over what is going on and that is rather entertaining. This also has a really believable one for this, since it manages to mix in a story about how the ancestors handled it and some rather intelligent areas explored in the back-story. That back-story allows for a bit of mystery concerning what has happened, which is done with the mixing together of a gypsy legend and that of a distorted family version. The huge museum also looks rather creepy, which is perfect for setting up an air of suspense and dread with it. The last big positive is that there's a lot more action than expected. This one has several really nice scenes , including a spectacular chase through the museum at the end, which has some great moments inside it and an earlier sequence where a character is stalked through a mausoleum by a large shadow across the wall. It's a great scene, but can't compare to how great the final museum chase sequence is. That is quite fun, and is the film's really good points.The Bad News: This one doesn't have a whole lot wrong, and is a mildly flawed film. The biggest flaw is that there's a rather large chunk of time taken up with the impossibly long courtroom scene. This drags on forever and takes quite a long time to get through. This is also time consuming with a large segment without drawing anything with it. The case is concluded with only a few little pieces captured about the background but doesn't do anything else. This never says anything about what might've or could've helped, and that would've been a justifiable reason for keeping it there. It's a useless scene that only serves to eat up time. Another pretty big flaw is that this one's werewolf is played by dogs or wolves dressed up to look like werewolves. This really takes away from the creature when they're obviously completely against the norm. seeing a grown man do a horribly-choreographed shoving contest with a dog while others are screaming at him to avoid the werewolf is beyond ridiculous. These are the films with the film, and are responsible for lowering this one.The Final Verdict: With a fair amount of both strengths and negatives, this one comes out as being rather decent overall. It's not mind-blowing spectacular, but serves just good enough for fans of the horror from the time period or those into the earliest werewolf movies to give this much of a look.Today's Rating-PG: Mild Violence

Cry of the Werewolf (1944) * 1/2 (out of 4) A gypsy woman is cursed by being a werewolf in this Columbia film. After five minutes I had to pause this film so that I could pass out candy and I must say that this was a lot more fun (and scary) than watching this film, which is incredibly dull and it's quite shocking that this would come from a major studio. The werewolf transformation scenes are laughable and the story seems to be about everything except for the actual werewolf. The cast is extremely dull and lifeless and the direction isn't any better. I had seen this years ago but forgot just about everything so that's why I watched it again and I've got the feeling that I'll have forgotten the movie by morning. Check out The Undying Monster instead.