The Werewolf ** (1956, Steven Ritch, Don Megowan, Joyce Holden, Eleanore Tanin, S John Launer, George M Lynn) – Classic Movie Review 3862

Director Fred F Sears’s quaint 1956 horror movie features Steven Ritch as a man called Duncan Marsh, who suffers the unfortunate side effect of lycanthropy after a problem with chemicals. Scientists Dr Emery Forrest (S John Launer) and Dr Morgan Chambers (George M Lynn) find the unconscious Marsh in the wreckage of a car crash, take him back to their lab and inject him with a serum. He becomes an all-powerful killer werewolf.

Written by Robert E Kent and James B Gordon, the Clover production by Sam Katzman for Columbia studios is cheap and mostly unconvincing.

However, Ritch is okay as The Werewolf and director Sears manages a few creepy moments and a busy climax as a posse chases the monster, which certainly help to make it watchable.

Also in the cast are Don Megowan as Sheriff Jack Haines, Joyce Holden, Eleanore Tanin, Harry Lauter as Deputy Ben Clovey, Jean Charney, Don C. Harvey, Jean Harvey, Charles Horvath, George Cisar, Larry J Blake, Ken Christy, Marjorie Stapp, Ford Stevens and James Gavin.

Sears also narrates.

It is notable as featuring the screen’s first sci-fi, non-supernatural lycanthrope. Though having great strength and ferocity, he could be killed by ordinary bullets and doesn’t need a full moon to turn into a werewolf.

It was released in a double bill with Sears’s Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956).

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© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3862
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