User Reviews

A gypsy princess (Nina Foch) who can change into a wolf kills to prevent her family's secrets from being exposed. Entertaining B movie that I'm surprised has such a low score and reputation here. It's got some nice atmosphere and a good cast. Stephen Crane is positively goofy but Barton MacLane makes up for it with his enjoyable tough cop routine. Heavily-accented Osa Massen is nice to look at, even if her acting leans to the melodramatic at times. The star of the movie is Nina Foch, Columbia's B movie queen in the mid-40s. She's excellent, as usual.

There's essentially two kinds of werewolf movies. The ones where the person transforms into a half-human/half-wolf creature and the ones where the person transforms into an actual wolf. Like most people, I prefer the Wolf Man type of werewolf. This one does the other, simpler version of just having Foch change into a wolf. Just like movies and shows today that deal with werewolves, it all comes down to budget or special effects limitations. Even though I prefer something more like Universal's idea of a werewolf, I don't hate this kind so it doesn't keep me from enjoying the movie.

Look, it's barely over an hour so it's not going to kill you to try it out. A lot of the complaints seem to be directed either at the lack of a person in werewolf makeup or at how the movie doesn't adhere to the so-called rules of werewolf movies. The former I've already addressed but to the latter I will just say "Are you serious?" Most of those rules didn't even exist until the 1941 Wolf Man movie made at a different studio so it's not surprising Columbia didn't try to make their movie fit that mold. If anything, they should be commended for trying to do something different instead of just ripping off what Universal did.

I enjoyed this film precisely due to the reasons that another reviewer DIDN"T! It was interesting to have a woman as a werewolf, there was no werewolf costume used, and there was an element of mystery in the proceedings.

I enjoyed the Val Lewton-ish scene in the mortuary basement where the hero is being stalked by the werewolf!

I myself am glad that the werewolf transformation scene was done in shadow (the Val Lewton touch), as the special effects of the time were far removed from today's slick computer-created animations. Anything other than the way it was done would've looked SILLY.

A nifty, seldom-seen film! Norm

(PS. Hull's makeup looks MUCH more "wolfish" than Cheney Jr's!).

(There are Spoilers) Werewolf movie with a twist in that this time around the creature is a woman and there's, probably due to budget restrictions, no long and cumbersome stop motion sequences where the person slowly changes into a werewolf or visa versa.

The story has to do with this group of Gypsies, the Troyincas, who immigrated to the United States from their ancient homes in far off Transylvania. The curator of New Orlean's Occult Latour Museum Dr. Charles Morris, Fritz Leiber, has discovered the Toryinca's secret ceremonies that has to do with their involvement in the occult sciences. This leads to Dr. Morris being murdered by Troyincan Matriarch Marie Latour, Nina Foch, who with the help of fellow Troyincan Jan(Ivan Triesault), who works as the janitor in the museum, hid Dr. Morris' body.

It's when Dr. Morris' son Bob, Stephen Crane, shows up from New York that he suspects that his father, who's body had since been discovered, was not killed by a wild wolf, like the local police believe, but some kind of wolf-like man that his father uncovered in his investigation of Troyincan legend. Bob with the help of his father's assistant Elsa Chavret, Osa Massen, who just happens to have been born and raised in Transylvania finds Dr. Morris' burnt notes that if made legible will reveal the deadly secret that cost him his life.

As expected the evil Marie Latour does everything to stop the truth from coming out about her and the background of her mother, Marie Sr, in that their descendant of werewolves who are descant to rule the Troyincan tribe both in Transylvania as well as in the United States. The film soon turns into a tug of war between the two leading ladies, Marie and Elsa, over the handsome and a bit confused, by the plot, Bob Morris.

Marie seeing that she's getting nowhere with Elsa has her turned into a zombie like android muttering over and over to herself as well as out loud that she in fact was the one who murdered Dr. Morris. If that tactic on Marie's part was to turn Bob against Elas it fell flat on it's face. Bob as naive as he was wasn't convince that Elsa murdered his father since her fingerprints wren't found at the murder scene but, a it later turned out, Marie's were!

***SPOILERS*** The very predictable ending has Marie turn into a werewolf for the very last time but this time around the police lead by Lt. Barry Lane, Barton MacLane, are ready for her. It took a lot of lead to put put the big bad wolf down in a wild and almost five minute long shootout but it was Lt. Lane's movie ending, that was supposed to tie all the loose ends together, statement that really got to me. With the killer werewolf, Marie Latour, lying dead and crumpled on the floor Lt. Lane, a non-believer in these kind of things, is totally awestruck at the sight of a wild animal-werewolf-changing into a human being! The fact is that the dead Maria Latour didn't start changing back from werewolf to human well after Lt. Lane made that statement!

I was a bit disappointed with this horror tale as Columbia Pictures decided to take a stab at their own werewolf flick as Nina Foch stars as a gypsy high Priestess, Celeste, whose mother was a lycanthrope passing the affliction to her. She kills a museum owner who has been delving into Foch's mother's history. The man's scientist son, Bob(Stephen Crane) and future Transylvanian wife, Elsa(Osa Massen) decide to follow a few leads through some burnt written words that his late father was penning for a forthcoming novel to be published about the infamous Marie La Tour and her werewolf lineage. The great Barton MacLane stars as Lt. Barry Lane, on the case to discover who murdered Bob's father. While the film certainly has that wonderfully polished B&W noirish look Columbia Pictures is known for, there aren't enough juicy bits with the werewolf that I desired, but Foch is striking in the lead role. No werewolf transformations except some shadow changes on the wall with Foch turning to a regular wolf. The film is more about the search for the killer of the museum curator, with Foch's Celeste using her mind-control black magic powers to persuade Bob and Elsa off her tracks. Too short with a conclusion that I found rather hastily finished. But, good cast and production values helps significantly. The idea of a woman werewolf certainly is interesting and I wish this film could've established that a bit more. Yeah, a woman in a werewolf costume would've definitely satisfied me, to tell you the truth.

Actually, here the werewolf actually looks like a wolf, not the hairy beast of the still excellent Universal horror classic. The creature is actually a she-wolf, the Gypsy princess Nina Foch who seeks vengeance in the most sinister way. Like some of the Val Lewton classics, this has a very mystical feeling to it and the horror is a combination of psychological torment and subtle chills that wouldn't have the same effect had they been so blatantly gory. Foch, a soft looking actress, uses that quality to make her character all the more mysterious and deadly, while Osa Massen (who usually played more sinister characters) is quite lovely as the heroine who is the target of Foch's vendetta.

Another superb performance is by John Abbott as the museum tour guide who first discovers the horror while searching for a scared cat. His constant repeat of "Here kitty kitty" gave me chills, reminding me of Boris Karloff's claim in "The Body Snatcher" that "You'll never be rid of me". Barton MacLane is commanding as the police lieutenant investigating the mysterious goings on, set in New Orleans which gives an even more Gothic feeling to the proceedings. When Foch tells one of her people, "You will lie with your ancestors in the ground selected by my mother", even more chills are felt as he realizes the outcome of that prediction and a wolf howls in the background.

Blanche Yurka, who was so memorable in vengeful roles, plays a more thoughtful character here, a gypsy elder who is Foch's companion and aware of the secrets of the past which she is afraid will be repeated over and over. She still has a commanding presence that made her the most memorable Madame DeFarge on film, and is quite subtle after some major theatrics in other films such as "Lady For a Night" and "The Furies". Her Hungarian background makes her perfect casting to play a gypsy. While certainly not a masterpiece, this is a must see among the stylish horror films of the 1940's and will leave you feeling truly haunted.

"Cry of the Werewolf" is a decent enough entry in the genre, and is pretty entertaining.

**SPOILERS**

In a museum tour, guide Peter, (John Abbott) explains about local legends involving vampires and werewolves. After the last one, he and Dr. Charles Morris, (Fritz Leiber) retire for the night, only for Bob Morris, (Stephan Crane) and his girlfriend Elsa Chauvet, (Osa Massen) to find that the museum had fallen under a series of mysterious events. Starting to investigate what happened, a very long legal battle over the culprit resolves with nothing accomplished. When they find that a local gypsy tribe has a way of explaining what happened, they quickly race to stop the creature that has been attacking those nearby.

The Good News: This here is actually rather fun. The fact that this one is a predominant mystery makes it really good. There's a lot of back-and-forth over what is going on and that is rather entertaining. This also has a really believable one for this, since it manages to mix in a story about how the ancestors handled it and some rather intelligent areas explored in the back-story. That back-story allows for a bit of mystery concerning what has happened, which is done with the mixing together of a gypsy legend and that of a distorted family version. The huge museum also looks rather creepy, which is perfect for setting up an air of suspense and dread with it. The last big positive is that there's a lot more action than expected. This one has several really nice scenes , including a spectacular chase through the museum at the end, which has some great moments inside it and an earlier sequence where a character is stalked through a mausoleum by a large shadow across the wall. It's a great scene, but can't compare to how great the final museum chase sequence is. That is quite fun, and is the film's really good points.

The Bad News: This one doesn't have a whole lot wrong, and is a mildly flawed film. The biggest flaw is that there's a rather large chunk of time taken up with the impossibly long courtroom scene. This drags on forever and takes quite a long time to get through. This is also time consuming with a large segment without drawing anything with it. The case is concluded with only a few little pieces captured about the background but doesn't do anything else. This never says anything about what might've or could've helped, and that would've been a justifiable reason for keeping it there. It's a useless scene that only serves to eat up time. Another pretty big flaw is that this one's werewolf is played by dogs or wolves dressed up to look like werewolves. This really takes away from the creature when they're obviously completely against the norm. seeing a grown man do a horribly-choreographed shoving contest with a dog while others are screaming at him to avoid the werewolf is beyond ridiculous. These are the films with the film, and are responsible for lowering this one.

The Final Verdict: With a fair amount of both strengths and negatives, this one comes out as being rather decent overall. It's not mind-blowing spectacular, but serves just good enough for fans of the horror from the time period or those into the earliest werewolf movies to give this much of a look.

Today's Rating-PG: Mild Violence

Scenes featuring three magnetic actresses lift The Cry of the Werewolf to a brief but intriguing glimpse of an occult matriarchy and sisterhood who renounce men for lycanthropy. A short running time and shorter budget prevent these themes' development, but the film delivers one loopy turn after another:

*Despite being set in New Orleans, where water levels preclude underground construction, the film features two extended scenes in basements of surprising dimensions.

*Granted, New Orleans is a multicultural city, but who suspected it was teeming with immigrants from Transylvania, among them a sizeable encampment of Gypsy or Roma folk in traditional covered wagons?

*Several scenes hinge on a quadruped other than a wolf: Minnie the cat's yowls at wolves or gypsies earn her surprising screen time as well as solicitude from employees at the Marie La Tour Museum. Three scenes are punctuated by characters acting on Minnie's behalf.

*Those wandering Gypsies / Roma converge in New Orleans one month a year for ethnic courtship and to bury their dead. Just when you're asking yourself, "What do they do with their dead those 11 other months?", another eccentric scene answers the question. . . .

*"Adamson and Sons Undertakers" is, in its front rooms, a facsimile of a mid-20th-century funeral parlor, complete with drab furniture, cheap drapes, and recorded organ music playing in the background. Hurrying to turn it off is the last of the Adamsons, played by Milton Parsons (also uncredited), whose bald noggin and solicitous manner would lead to film and TV appearances through the 70s as a clerk, clergyman, professor, choirmaster, or coroner (thanks, IMDb).

*"Refrigerated vaults" keep the Gypsy dead "on ice" at Adamson and Sons. A quick tour leads to a basement as extensive as a hospital wing. There a four-legged werewolf stalks Dr. Robert Morris, the movie's insipid leading man played by Stephen Crane—no kin to The Red Badge of Courage author but doing his gosh-darnedest to imitate Jimmy Stewart.

*The other basement, back in the Marie La Tour Museum but unseen till late in the movie, is entered through a mantelpiece by a secret passage whose operations everyone seems to know. Murders are overheard occurring somewhere beneath the fireplace. For most of the movie, though, viewers aren't granted a view of this secret chamber of blood. Near the end, though, Dr. Morris and Ilsa (Osa Massun), his Translylvanian foster-sister-turned-fiancée, explore the space. An altar designed like a Murphy bed drops out of the wall, bearing a large stuffed wolf, a human skull, and a goblet.

These surprises aren't consistent enough to build on each other, but the film's a fast 66 minutes, so take a chance if only for the sake of its uncanny climax. That occurs in the covered wagon of Nina Foch's Gypsy Queen, named Marie La Tour after her mother—-herself named perhaps to evoke the historical Marie Laveau (1801-81), a Voodoo queen of New Orleans who shared the name of her similarly talented mother.

Under the guiding eye of Blanche Yurka as Bianca the "old woman," Queen Marie recruits her look-alike Ilsa, a non-Gypsy Transylvanian-American, to join her as a "sister" in the werewolf matriarchy founded by her mother, the previous werewolf-queen. No men!

Ilsa's eyes grow and glow, but the moment is so overloaded with feminine beauty, lycanthropy, and alternative sexuality that the only exit available to her is a dead faint. When Ilsa is rescued by the regrettable Dr. Morris, the revelatory allure of that occult alternative shines a little brighter.

In the 1940s, Columbia Pictures decided to try to cash in on Universal's horror films by creating a few of their own (such as RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE and this film)--with generally poor results. The biggest reason was that although the atmosphere and acting were pretty good in these films, the adherence to the lore surrounding the monsters was mostly ignored--leaving the audiences confused and irritated--especially in the case of CRY OF THE WEREWOLF.

Here is just a partial list of the inconsistencies that completely violated accepted notions of werewolf films. First, no one actually becomes a part-person/part-wolf in this film. The leading lady is either a lady or a wolf--nothing in between. Also, there's NOTHING about a full moon and instead the lady can change herself at will. And this wolf is easy to kill as would be the lady--just shoot it with ordinary bullets! And finally, instead of the nice and kind gypsy played by Maria Ouspenskaya and her tortured son played by Bela Lugosi in the original WOLF MAN (1941), here the gypsies are evil Devil-cult members!! Now if you ignore the fact that this film bears NO RESEMBLANCE to prior wolf-man films like WEREWOLF OF London (1935) and WOLF MAN (1941), then perhaps you'll find this film enjoyable. But, since I am a rabid fan (get it?) of the films, I felt this one had contempt for the audience and wonder if any of the writers had even seen a werewolf film before writing this silly film.