Legend of the Werewolf

There’s a werewolf in Paris, but it isn’t an American one. No matter what I would say against the film, I know werewolf aficionados like me would definitely go out of their way to see Legend of the Werewolf if given the opportunity. I wouldn’t dissuade you from attaining a copy, cheap, because while I don’t consider it much of a success as a werewolf movie, as a Peter Cushing vehicle it is such damned fun. 

His title is “police surgeon” but in 17^th Century Paris he’s a glorified mortician, with a degree of interest in the savage murders compiling on the streets and finding their way into his morgue because the neck wounds favor wolf bites. He’s full of vigor and energy, that Cushing, and the cast can barely hold their own in scenes with him.

 Poor David Rintoul has the movie named about him, and early he has a decent enough part, with some focus on his attraction/love for a prostitute, Christine (Lynn Dalby), but once he turns and attacks her usual clients (important members of Parisian society), the plot shifts to Cushing’s investigation and his dedication to finding the young man who turns wolf before police hunt him down to kill him. His werewolf favors Oliver Reed’s in Curse of the Werewolf (he has gray fur and these blood-shot eyes that bulge); actually, come to think of it, Rintoul sort of moves like him. The anguish is there, I give Rintoul credit for that, and I think he does enough with the time given him, to establish some sympathy. But, I have no idea why Rintoul’s Etoile turns werewolf. He was raised by wolves (the very wolves that murdered his family), left in the wild to fend for himself, is picked up to be exploited by a two-bit traveling barker and his family, and on his own after attacking a victim in the woods when the werewolf emerges with a blood lust needing quenched. Ron Moody cracked me up as a twitchy, unkempt, rather unsanitary zookeeper operating a small zoo in Paris, taking Etoile on as hired help because he’ll work cheap. Moody was famous for his awesome turn as Fagin in Oliver! (1968) and he has a knack for adding a color and personality that appeals despite his filthy, grungy appearance. He’s just a poor guy trying to scrape by, unknowingly employing a werewolf. 

Because of Cushing’s character, his place of employ, his profession, there’s plenty of “morgue humor” and his visit to the high-class Paris brothel in the less-than-desirable district to question the madame of the establishment (Marjorie Yates, who does a lot with very little) is priceless. I mean, I couldn’t get enough of Cushing’s clashing with his surroundings, how obviously uncomfortable and out-of-place he is yet undeterred he still dives in, getting a rise (but no answers) from the madame regarding some photographs (the photographer’s ill-at-ease responses to his subject is hilarious) taken of the dead clients who had left perfectly alive the night the werewolf would take them. Cushing even heads into the sewers (the great Hammer character actor, Michael Ripper, has a small cameo as an unfortunate bum in the wrong place at the wrong time) to find and attempt to convince Etoile to stop killing and turn himself over to the police. All for naught. 

Why a silver bullet would stop him and the full moon would turn him into a lycanthrope is never explained and never makes sense. It just happens one night and the rest is history… Director Freddie Francis likes to shoot POV with a red lens as the werewolf is about to strike the throats of the living, even taking the camera into the characters necks right before. Then he follows this with nice tight shots of the ferocious, monster face and especially the blood-soaked teeth. While most of the time we just get reactionary shots of Cushing and others pulling up a blanket to look at the victims, there are a few gaping open torn throats for our perusal. I will reiterate: this might just be a potential gem for some werewolf fans, but it really hasn’t anything that particularly extraordinary to offer other than Cushing on the prowl (oh, I couldn’t resist…) for the beast. Still, I laughed plenty, although I’m not sure that felt like the initial intent of the material (it felt like the film wanted us to follow the difficulties of a young man of the wild trying to make his way in a fairly civilized, but realistically grim world, only to go into a different, more tongue-in-cheek direction).