Have a howling good time at the House of Franklin-Stein! Chris and Cindy discuss the Hammer Films classic The Curse of the Werewolf. Oliver Reed’s nights get rowdier than usual when he grows fur and fangs! Then, it’s off to the crypt (or is that the attic) to read Spectacular Spider-man #152 by Gerry Conway and Sal Buscema, where the wall-crawler tangles with the lycanthropic Lobo Brothers!
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Clip credits:
The Curse of the Werewolf directed by Terrence Fisher; Music by Benjamin Frankel
Opening wedding march by Marc Shaiman from Addams Family Values
Music from Taste the Blood of Dracula and Scars of Dracula by James Bernard
Mariachi Suite and Bucho’S Gracias/Navajas Attacks by Los Lobos from the Desperado soundtrack
Tracks from Spider-Man (1967) by Ray Ellis
Bark at the Moon by Ozzy Osborne
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I love when you guys do movies that I’ve actually seen. We watched “The Curse of the Werewolf” when it was on TCM just because it was on and I had never seen it before. It was good. Not great, but good. A worthy installment to werewolf lore, in my opinion.
While you’ve never seen “I was a Teenage Werewolf” as a stand alone, have you at least seen the MST version? It’s great fun (as they all are), especially the Bonanza riffs. It’s also available on YouTube. 😀 https://youtu.be/MbHqWwQZz0o
The design of the Lobo Brothers reminds me of Anthony Romulus. (And just what is it with writers telegraphing the character being a werewolf like that, anyway? Remus Lupin anyone?) I’m really shocked that I have never read this issue. It’s by one of my favorite artists, a great writer, was on the stands when I was buying a good amount of Marvel, and it has werewolves! Talk about being in my wheelhouse. Of course, it’s NOT on Marvel Unlimited, so I’m going to have to keep waiting to read it.
I haven’t seen the MSTK version of Teenage Werewolf, but you can bet your silver bullets I’m going to now! Thanks Gene!
And yeah, the Lobos do look quite a bit like the animated version of Batman’s werewolf. Comic book werewolves have to have names that telegraph their lycanthropy. Anthony Romulus (or Lupus, as in the comic), the Lobos, and of course, the all time great: Jack Russell.
Chris
I guess that goes along with the naming convention of everyone else. Your name in comics tends to lead to what you’ll be called as a superhero/villain. 🙂
I watched the MST3K version of Teenage Werewolf last night…that was a hoot. Michael Landon was way too good to be in that movie, but he played the tortured teen well. The MST3K bits were pretty spot on. Loved the Bonanza, HIghway to Heaven and Little House jokes!
We watched it, too. I just couldn’t resist. “This is a job for Old Teen!” 😀
I am ashamed to admit, I have never seen COTW. We had it at the video store I worked at (Movies Unlimited, RIP) and the box was a big close up of Reed in the make-up. I thought it looked ugly and cheesy and while that didn’t stop me from watching other movies, I just never got around to seeing this. Your coverage makes it sound pretty cool so on some afternoon when Tracy’s not home I will have to fire up the old iTunes…
That clip of the kid talking about drinking blood and liking it was super icky.
I was never that big a Sal Buscema fan, but the pages you posted look really cool. Did he ink it himself? It’s a got a sketchiness that I think looks great, a good fit for a horror story.
Great episode guys!
I think I know the video you’re talking of, and yeah, it was cheesy. I passed up a lot of great old horror movies due to truly horrendous VHS box art.
Yeah, little Leon is quite disturbing!
Buscema did ink himself here. His work got a bit more impressionistic during this period, still looking enough like his old stuff, but also making it a little more exciting for the era, I think.
Chris
Anthony Dawson also had a Bond connection, as the original physical appearance of Bloefeld (he’s the one stroking the cat, until we first see Donald Pleasance, in You Only Live Twice), and he appears in Dr. No, as prof. Dent. He also appeared in OK Connery (aka Operation Double Double-O), with Sean’s brother, Neil.
Oliver Reed was always good; but, the drinking destroyed his career. He built a reputation as being unreliable and was prone to an explosive temper. It’s sad to see him in some of the junk he ended up doing, like Gor, based on the fantasy novels. That film is attrociously bad and he is so slumming in it (followed by Jack Palance, who appeared in the sequel). He became one of Terry Gilliam’s multiple headaches on The Adv. of Baron Munchausen, constantly drunk and trying to seduce young Uma Thurman. Gladiator was a rare A-list picture; so, it kind of became a nice eulogy for him, showing how good he was, while ending up dead, in a bar.
Ah, I forgot about those Bond connections. 1951 Downplace always connects the Bond dots, and I know I heard those on their Werewolf episode.
Yeah, Reed was his own worst enemy it seemed. I didn’t recall him going to movie jail until doing research for this episode. I recently watched him in Burnt Offerings, thanks to Rob’s Film & Water, and he was great in that as well.
Chris
A fun, early, cameo to see is The League of Gentlemen, with Jack Hawkins and Richard Attenborough. For those unfamiliar, the movie is about a group of ex-soldiers, after the war, who are bored with their lives. Hawkins gets in contact with all of them and arranges a luncheon, where he proposes undertaking a major bank robbery, based on a novel, using military precision. It’s a nice caper comedy and a huge favorite in the UK. At one point, the group is meeting in a theatrical rehearsal hall, to go over details and rehearse their raid. At the end of the scene, Oliver Reed and another actor stumble in, looking for a different rehearsal group. Reed has the campiest voice you will even encounter, this side of John Inman (Are You Being Served?) and it’s a real hoot, given his reputation.
People complain about Christmas being promoted too early in the calendar. Well, not for nothing, but you two dropped a bunch of CHRISTMAS VACATION references in the first five minutes of one of your Halloween episodes!
I haven’t finished listening to the episode yet, but I wanted to mention that your coverage of CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF makes it sound terrific. I haven’t seen it, but between you synopsis and the sound clips, I definitely want to check this one out sometime this Halloween season.
Rarely a day goes by that I don’t quote Christmas Vacation in some fashion. It’s semi-autobiographical for us.
I just checked TCM’s October schedule, and couldn’t find Curse of the Werewolf among the many horror flicks showing that month. But there are some good ones!
We used to call my dad Clark around Christmas time after one particularly painful year when he pulled the latter/stairs to the attic down on his head, knocking him unconscious; and then later, like two weeks later, he stepped wrong, missing one of the floorboards in the attic and his foot crashed through the ceiling above the kitchen.
My brother and I kept hoping he’d go for the trifecta and let a squirrel loose in the house.
Your Dad for the win!!!
The story about the filmmakers using mild electro shocks to control the performance of a cat? I’m pretty sure James Cameron used that same technique on Ed Harris in THE ABYSS.
More like Mary Elizabeth Mastrontonio. She was not a happy camper on that one. Cameron does seem to have a rep for being a “Richard.”
Sorry to be late to the game. I am going to give you guys high praise for making me interested in The Curse of the Werewolf.
My favorite monster is the Wolfman so as a kid I tried to see as many Wolfman/Werewolf movies as I can. And luckily, one of the local channels had ‘The Creature Double Feature’ on Saturday afternoons, back to back horror movies/monster movies.
I watched Curse of the Werewolf as a kid and most of that backstory (rape, etc) must have gone over my head. What I did know as an 8ish yr old is that it bored me to tears and we barely saw the werewolf! A few years later, after having seen Reed in the Musketeer movies, the movie was shown again on local tv and I watched it. But, unfortunately, 11-ish yr old Anj must not have understood the subtext (or just text) either. But I was bored again. So I have passed on this movie since then. Now, if it is on again, I feel I need to watch it as an adult … maybe I’ll appreciate it more!
I can see that Anj. The pacing is very slow in this one. Had they told the story in flashback style, it may have worked better, but Hammer was pretty linear, for the most part.
It’s a slow burn, but I feel it’s worth it. Let me know what you think when you give it another look.
Chris