The Curse of the Werewolf **** (1961, Clifford Evans, Oliver Reed, Catherine Feller, Yvonne Romain) – Classic Movie Review 2680

Director Terence Fisher’s 1961 British movie The Curse of the Werewolf gives the 23-year-old Oliver Reed his first taste of stardom as the furry fellow in this creepy Hammer horror set in a Technicolored, sinister Spain and shot in the studio at Bray Studios, Down Place, Oakley Green, Berkshire, England. The leading role of the werewolf is Reed’s first significant credited film appearance.

Reed gives one of his most finely judged performances in an unsympathetic role as Leon Corledo, born on Christmas Day as the lycanthrope son of a serving wench who was raped by a beggar (Richard Wordsworth). Leon’s mother dies giving birth and he is looked after by Don Alfredo Corledo.

Leon turns into a werewolf after being taken hunting as a child. When he grows up, he works in a wine cellar and falls in love with the owner’s daughter Cristina (Catherine Feller). But the path to true love is difficult as, come the full moon, Leon turns into a werewolf again and goes on a rampage.

Perhaps the film starts slowly, but it builds into a superior chiller, packed with resonant scenes and scary moments.

Clifford Evans provides a calm, authoritative centre for the film as Don Alfredo Corledo, the professor who unwittingly adopts the werewolf. The makeup and production are above average for a fantasy picture of this vintage, and the idea-stuffed screenplay’s ambitions put a seal of class on the proceedings.

Also in the cast are Yvonne Romain (as the servant girl), Anthony Dawson, Warren Mitchell, Anne Blake, Michael Ripper, Peter Sallis, Ewen Solon, Josephine Llewellyn, Hira Talfrey, Justine Walters, John Gabriel, George Woodbridge, Martin Matthews, David Conville, Denis Shaw, Charles Lamb, Sheila Brennan, Joy Webster, Renny Lister, Desmond Llewelyn (first footman, uncredited), Michael Peake, Francis de Woolf, Richard Golding and Howard Lang.

Producer Anthony Hinds writes the screenplay, based on Guy Endore’s 1933 novel The Werewolf of Paris, under the name John Elder. Though the first 20 minutes are narrated by Don Alfredo, he could not know the story as he did not witness it.

Makeup-artist Roy Ashton based Reed’s makeup on Jack P Pierce’s work on The Wolf Man (1941).

British TV shows the restored version containing three scenes cut by the 1961 censor for the original release print.

Peter Sallis, who died on 2 June 2017, aged 96, who plays Don Enrique, voices Wallace in Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit by chance all those years later in 2005.

The Curse of the Werewolf is directed by Terence Fisher, runs 93 minutes, is made by Hammer Films, is released by Rank Film Distributors (1961) (UK) and Universal Pictures (1961) (US), is written by Anthony Hinds (as John Elder), is based on Guy Endore’s 1933 novel The Werewolf of Paris, is shot in Technicolor by Arthur Grant, is produced by Anthony Hinds, is scored by Benjamin Frankel and is designed by Bernard Robinson.

It was shot between 12 September 1960 and 2 November 1960 at Bray Studios and on location at Black Park, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England; Callow Hill Sandpit, Virginia Water, Surrey, England; and the Sand and Gravel Quarry, Wapseys Wood, Gerrard’s Cross, Buckinghamshire, England.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2680

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