The Way You Walk is Thorny

When Larry's coffin is visited in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943), Sir John's fate is mentioned when it is realized his son is no longer there. Sir John died of a broken heart. I don't know, but that sat with me as I was finishing one of my all-time favorite horror films, The Wolf Man (1941) when a father must kill his son and somehow deal with it. Claude Rains is such a capable actor, conveying as he kneels at the dead body of his son such anguish, with eyes welled up with pained tears. It resonated with me. You get where you watch all the Universal sequels during the month of October (or as I did this year, September and October) and forget of the true quality of the original films that gave inspiration to the studio to follow up on them. And then return to The Wolf Man or Frankenstein and realize just how the sequels actually enhance them because we recognize what Universal could do when their whole heart, mind, and soul is put into a production. Those scenes in the woods outside of Talbot Castle with the wolf man skulking about in the darkened fog looking to devour whatever will cross its path, and Lon Chaney's torment hadn't overstayed its welcome: both are just two reasons this remains a treasure to me. Chaney, Jr. was able to show you the charm of Larry before Bela, in werewolf form, bites him, and then his continual bouts with guilt, hysteria, strife, and sadness as the inability to control the lycanthropy produces the werewolf that Sir John must use a sliver-wolfhead cane to combat. Chaney seeks answers and is told he needs to disavow the old wive's tales filled in his head by the "old gypsy woman" As Maleva lost her son, now Sir John must accept the loss of his own.