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First off,  I really dislike werewolf movies........

...outside of the Lon Chaney, Jr.  classic Universal cycle, and maybe the first HOWLING, I have no interest in the sub genre whatsoever.  Something about the whole prospect of physical trasformation and metamorphisis I find...icky.  Which is weird, seeing how I'm a huge fan of Cronenberg's works. There's probably something Freudian in all of this, but I'm too shallow to even worry about it.

(1961)  Director:  Richard Benson Starring:  Barbara Lass, Carl Schell

It's also of my opinion that nothing new has actually been done with the concept on film for years, due to the fact that it's sort of a one note situation and maybe that's the problem.  Maybe there is nothing new left to say.  You can only strain the old "who's the Boogeyman?" game of cat and mouse mystery and/or the "tortured were-guy with the heart of gold" concept so far without it becoming repetitive.  This is one of the reasons why I found the French BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF so refreshing....it seemed to be building up to that sort of climax...yet switched gears just short of there and went in a completely different direction.  To me, with the track record of the genre in my hindsight, it wasn't a cop-out......

Exhibit A:  The first victim

The Plot:  You've seen it all before.  Handsome young teacher shows up at a reform school for girls just in time to get involved in a series of brutal slayings.  A local business man is suspected after accusations of adultery and blackmail start flying about.  The young teacher reveals he's a dishonored doctor who was working on a werewolf-itis cure before coming there.  COINCIDENCE!....or, MYSTERY OF THE UNKNOWN?!?!?    You decide..... Well...to make a long story short, the Headmaster of the school is revealed to be the Larry Talbot in question, and gets shot down by the Handsome, Young Doctor.   The End.

Exhibit B:  Warren Zevon's bread and butter......

Like I said....you've seen it all before.  And much better by other filmmakers.  One of the redeeming factors of the film is that it holds your attention, at least.  The suspense level is there, and the scares are timed to perfection.  That's alot to say about an early 1960s European low-budget horror flick.  The monster make-up is good, straying away from the Universal "look" made popular by THE WOLF MAN, and more similar to that used in THE WEREWOLF OF LONDON. Reccommended to werewolf completionists.   And Warren Zevon nuts, too.

The Madacy "Killer Creature Double Features" DVD I own....