Cry of the Werewolf
      
Director: Henry Levinl
Year: 1944
Rating: 5.0
Aka - Daughter of the Werewolf


It felt shocking that a B horror film from the 1940's did not have Lugosi or Karloff or Carradine or Lorre or Atwill or Cheney or Zucco in it. None of them. I thought that was illegal. Instead, it stars two women - Nina Foch and Osa Massen and they are excellent in this fun take on the werewolf genre. It is a very different take in fact - it is a woman who shifts form from human to wolf (one of the first to have a female doing this) and the transformation can be done at will and has nothing to do with a full moon. It runs a touch over 60 minutes and has some nice moments.


 
It begins with a tour in a horror museum in which the guide takes the group through the vampire exhibit, the voodoo room and finally werewolves where he tells his audience that once the lady of the household, Marie La Tour, was a werewolf who murdered a man and disappeared years ago. The head of the museum is researching into Marie and thinks he knows where she is buried. Too bad for him. The Princess of a tribe of gypsies (Nina Foch) hears about it and kills him. By becoming a wolf. There is a nice little scene where all we see is her shadow against the wall turning into her other self. The son of the head (Stephen Crane, who is a wet toast leading man) and his girlfriend (the very lovely Osa Massen) investigate along with the policeman played by Barton MacLane, who made a career out of playing loud not very smart cops.

 

Produced by Columbia and directed by the usually competent Henry Levin (those that have seen the Matt Helm films Murderer's Row and The Ambushers might disagree), this is a fine low budget horror film that depends on atmosphere to create some quiet suspense. Poor Nina Foch goes slumming for this role. Crane has the zip of an opened coke can for three weeks, MacLane is loud, Messen is lovely and the wolf gets no billing. Two good character actors show up - John Abbott as the museum guide and Milton Parsons as once again a funeral director. I love that guy. They should have done more to make the werewolf scary as it just looks like a dog they got out of the pound. But Werewolf films were still in their early days. This was on a list of the 50 Worst Horror films of all time but that just seems cruel.