THE WOLF MAN
1941,
Universal,
70 min,
USA,
Dir: George Waggner
Lon Chaney Jr. achieves cinematic immortality in the title role, one of Universal’s great movie monsters. Bitten by a werewolf (Bela Lugosi, in a wonderful cameo) while visiting a gypsy camp, Larry Talbot (Chaney) is cursed to become a hairy beast “when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright.” Noted horror scribe Curt Siodmak penned the original screenplay for this eerie classic, which costars Claude Rains, Ralph Bellamy and Maria Ouspenskaya, whose portrayal of an old gypsy fortuneteller is unforgettable.