Horror film, released in
1961 by
Hammer Films. Directed by
Terence Fisher and written by
Anthony Hinds, based (loosely) on "
The Werewolf of Paris" by
Guy Endore. Set in
18th century Spain and filmed in the
lush fashion of all the Hammer pictures, the
film starred
Oliver Reed as
Leon, born on
Christmas Day to a
mute servant girl raped by a mad
beggar, and thus
fated to become a
werewolf. Leon is
adopted into the home of a
sympathetic professor, who is told by the
village priest that
love is the only way to stave off the boy's
lycanthropic attacks. Under the professor's care, Leon grows up completely unaware of his
condition. When he falls in love with a local girl, it looks like his
lycanthropy is done for...but when a friend takes Leon out to a cheap
dance hall, the
sordid surroundings provoke his
bestial instincts and awaken...
The Curse of the Werewolf! (Dum dum DUMMM!)*
This
film is considered one of the more
intelligent of the early
werewolf films. Hammer had a
reputation of approaching its
horror movies with lots of lurid
sex and
violence that was absent from the classic
Universal pictures, but the nature of the
horror genre suggests that a more
adult view can be taken to fully understand both the
monster and our own views of the monster...
* Couldn't resist. Sorry.