She-Wolf of London

 **½

That werewolf lover in me just has this angst once Jean Yarbrough's She-Wolf of London (1946) is over. I don't necessarily blame him, though. I think his direction couldn't be any better. There are some highlights many low-budget filmmakers would die to claim as their own, I'm sure. The foggy London nights where a woman is on the "prowl", and the Allenby mansion itself are fine set-pieces Yarbrough could be proud of. Direction isn't what I find a problem: it's the screenplay and denouement.

Maybe there's this attachment to The Wolf Man and Werewolf of London that does more harm than good for She-Wolf of London. Maybe The Curse of the Allenbys would have better served as title for this film. June Lockhart in a Universal Studios Gothic piece is ideal to me. The main result really does the film a disservice. As part of the Wolf Man Legacy set that came out years ago, She-Wolf of London could be re-evaluated. I imagine prior to this, knowledge of it was scant. Out of the films in the Legacy set, this film is perhaps the notable Black Sheep of the pack due to its leanings more towards murder mystery and the elaborate hoax meant to cast suspicion on Lockhart's Phyllis Allenby.

It is kind of an injustice to the film because it is set up to disappoint, doomed to fail. I think, as a film that shouldn't be in the same conversation as The Wolf Man or Werewolf of London, it could be viewed as a stand alone Gothic mystery where the Scotland Yard detectives and cobblestone cops are after a killer masquerading as a werewolf, taking a claw-tool (for gardening) to the throat of a few male victims (a child, a police officer, a victim in a park) isolated in the London fog.

The dialogue assures us near the thirty minute mark that lycanthrope fans will be let down once the film is over. Still Lockhart's connection to Universal "horror" is quite nifty to a buff like me. I just wish it could have been more memorable. Seeing her turn into a she-wolf, tragic in that it hampers her upcoming marriage to a barrister named Barry (Don Porter), with the murders surely a monkey wrench in what she so longs for but is denied due to the Allenby curse; this could have really set She-Wolf of London up as a winner for Universal. As is, the film kind of falls into the obscure shadows of the other Universal werewolf films, perhaps to be watched on occasion but not religiously. Even Werewolf of London (1935) has seen a nice resurgence as there are some now who consider it equal and sometimes, according to a few, better than the much revered The Wolf Man. I can't see She-Wolf of London achieving that same uprising in respect.

That said, I love the look of the film and the sets. Loved them. I kind of felt a bit cheated that the film confines Lockhart to a bedroom, in bed due to her "continual illness", for such a duration, although I think she's successful in conveying the anxieties and increasing concern that the curse is real and causing her to turn werewolf in her sleep. Sara Haden, as Martha Winthrop, is cold as ice. I think that is obviously intentional. Even when she seems to be concerned for Phyllis' welfare it does seem to be feigned worry, perhaps not so authentic. The cat is out of the bag early in the film when she talks to her daughter, Carol (Jan Wiley), about marrying up instead of romantically involving herself with a struggling artist (the wasted Martin Kosleck). Martha establishes that she is not the aunt of Phyllis, that their staying in the manor is due to her being a servant in time's past. Because Phyllis is marrying soon and the sole heir left in her family, they could possibly be out of the manor.

Motivations for heinous acts often culminate in a final desperate attempt to rescue killers from what they deem a no-win situation. This drives the killings (which aren't all that thrilling; two are reported while only the detective's murder is shown in any real detail, a woman approaching him, a snarl, a cry of pain, and two cops meeting up with him as the poor guy holds his bleeding throat.) and one final expository explanation as a knife is pulled from a robe while the maidservant listens on inquisitively as Lockart's falling into near unconsciousness due to being drugged concludes the plot's reasoning for mock werewolvery.

I admit that I want my werewolf. Jack Pierce is on your staff. You are Universal and have the makeup department that can afford such luxury. You have the opportunity to turn a woman into a werewolf. You have the perfect title: She-Wolf of London. A she-wolf moving about the foggy London streets (think early moments of Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man; except add Lockhart in werewolf makeup by Pierce), with no man safe. Barry is the one that must stop her...a werewolf can only be killed by the one that loves *her* the most. It is so purely melodramatic: fitting for Universal Gothic horror. Sigh. What might have been.

I think this could be disassociated from the Wolf Man franchise, and in doing so might go down easier, but expectations from those who haven't seen this in anticipating a werewolf will not have their appetite satiated. Again, the title is misleading and will undoubtedly leave hearts wanting. Pierce's talents not used at this time is quite a waste.