Legend of the Werewolf ** (1975, Peter Cushing, Ron Moody, Hugh Griffith, Roy Castle David Rintoul) – Classic Movie Review 6208

Director Freddie Francis’s moderate British 1975 horror movie stars Peter Cushing as the police surgeon/ coroner Professor Paul, a lycanthrope expert who turns detective and follows the werewolf trail of grisly murders in 19th century France to a Paris zoo.

There, a feral wolf boy called Etoile (David Rintoul), who was raised by wolves, is employed as an animal keeper. He falls in love with a prostitute, leading him to insane jealousy, and her clients turn up brutally murdered.

Written by Anthony Hinds (writing as John Elder), this standard Seventies horror movie story is set in 1850.

It is all too basic stuff, laden with some daft dialogue, but grounded by Cushing and enlivened by the valuable presence of esteemed comedy performers Ron Moody, Hugh Griffith and Roy Castle as the creepy zoo keeper, travelling showman Maestro Pamponi and photographer, as well as the reasonably hair-raising werewolf transformation sequences.

Also in the cast are Stefan Gryff, Lynn Dalby, Renée Houston, Marjorie Yates, Michael Ripper, Norman Mitchell, David Bailie and Patrick Holt.

It is a Tyburn production, released by 20th Century Fox-Rank, shot in Eastmancolor by John Wilcox, produced by Kevin Francis and scored by Harry Robinson. Tyburn was not nearly as famous as Hammer, but the company felt confident to call it ‘A Tyburn Tale of Terror’ in the advertising. It was filmed at Pinewood Studios, Buckinghamshire, England.

Castle also starred with Peter Cushing in the film Dr Who and the Daleks in 1965.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6208

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