🐺 The Wolf Man

A man cursed to transform into a werewolf

Also known as Wolfman, Larry Talbot, Werewolf

📺 "Check the sky, folks. Tonight's feature is a nice young man with a very bad reaction to moonlight. Keep your silverware handy."

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Origin: European werewolf folklore
First appeared: The Wolf Man by Universal Pictures (1941 film)
Classic film: The Wolf Man (1941)
Pack: Universal Classics

terminal-of-terror monster wolf-man

💀 Facts

Lon Chaney Jr. played Larry Talbot in all five of his Universal films
Chaney Jr. also played the Monster, the Mummy and a son of Dracula for Universal
Larry is cursed after a bite from a werewolf played by Bela Lugosi
The transformation was filmed in stages as Jack Pierce added yak hair between shots
The film opened just five days after the attack on Pearl Harbor
Accused werewolves were put on trial in early modern France and Germany

📜 Legend

Men who become wolves are among the oldest monsters in Europe. Ovid tells of King Lycaon turned into a wolf by Jupiter, the Roman writer Petronius includes a werewolf tale, and the medieval poet Marie de France wrote of Bisclavret, a knight trapped in wolf form. In the 16th and 17th centuries accused werewolves were put on trial in France and Germany. Folklore werewolves changed by wearing a wolfskin or belt, using a magic salve, or through a curse, not by a bite.

🎬 The Film

Title	The Wolf Man (1941)
Studio	Universal
Director	George Waggner
Starring	Lon Chaney Jr.
Makeup	Jack Pierce
Released	1941-12-12

🎞️ Written by Curt Siodmak, with Claude Rains as Larry's father and Bela Lugosi as the werewolf who bites him.

🎭 Myth vs Movie

True or false? Make your guess, then click a card (or press r) for the verdict.

In the 1941 film, the Wolf Man is killed with a silver bullet.

✘ FALSE

His father beats him to death with a silver-headed walking cane. Silver bullets came later.
Folklore werewolves always transformed under the full moon.

✘ FALSE

Old tales relied on wolfskins, magic belts, salves and curses. Universal's 1940s sequels cemented the full-moon rule.
The Wolf Man was Universal's first werewolf picture.

✘ FALSE

Werewolf of London (1935), starring Henry Hull, came six years earlier.
In the 1941 film, Larry Talbot is cursed by a werewolf's bite.

✔ TRUE

Larry is bitten while killing a wolf that is really the werewolf Bela, played by Bela Lugosi.
Silver as a werewolf-killer comes straight from ancient legend.

✘ FALSE

Silver was an old charm against witches and spirits, but the silver-bullet werewolf story is largely a 19th and 20th-century embellishment.

🃏 Stat Card

Strength: 9
Speed: 9
Cunning: 5
Dread: 8

⚡ Powers

Savage strength
Speed through the forest
Keen senses of smell and hearing
Resistance to ordinary weapons

🧄 Weaknesses

Silver
Wolfsbane
The mark of the pentagram
His own guilty conscience

Stats power the Monster Mash: terminal-of-terror mash wolf-man

🎞️ Legacy

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943)
House of Frankenstein (1944)
House of Dracula (1945)
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)

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