Last week acclaimed director Mark Romanek pulled out of the new Universal version of The Wolf Man, and the project became front and center of the week’s movie news. It appeared that every director with a lull in his schedule was interested in taking over for Romanek. Frank Darabont. James Mangold. Joe Johnston (who got the job). Even Brett I-can-direct-anything-you-ask-me-to Ratner was rumored to be in talks for the job. I found it pretty astonishing that a handful of directors with great talent and a repertoire of excellent, memorable films would make themselves immediately available for a project that was essentially all set to go creatively. Darabont especially seemed an odd but possibly inspired choice. What about the subject matter attracted these guys? I’m sure that classic 1941 movie has all to do with it.

While not in the same league as the beautiful Bride of Frankenstein and freakishly entertaining The Invisible Man, the classic The Wolf Man, starring Lon Chaney Jr in the title role, is a lot of eerie hokey fun that breezes by faster than a hot summer afternoon at the beach. I almost want to revitalize this trend from the 30’s and 40’s of making fun, slick horror films that last never more than 75 minutes in length. There are so many bad horror movies lately that could benefit from a shorter running time. Now we’re in this weird age of making every entertaining blockbuster at least 2 1/2 hours in length. Why? There’s no shame in making something shorter if it merits a shorter running time. The Wolf Man is an entertaining ride that has the perfect lnegth to tell its story.

Lon Cheney Jr, whose father was the man with 1,000 faces (or was it a million?) Lon Cheney, does a fine, dignified job in the most famous role of his career. He would go on to appear in other Universal monster movies, including some later Frankenstein sequels, but this is the film that he’ll always be known for. He does as good of a job as the wolf as he does as the human character. The storyline doesn’t offer much anything new, with an ending that we know coming even if we’re not familiar with the story, but it still manages goosebumps in that a touching father-son story comes to an end like it does in this movie. Technically the movie is much better than some of the early 30’s Universal horror films, but effects wise, nothing really comes close to The Invisible Man. The make-up effects here are astounding, and they must’ve really sent a fright up the spine of 1941 audience members. The eerie use of location, with all the trees and fog, for much of the werewolf material adds to the gloominess of the scarier sequences.

Watching this film marks the end of my return to looking at the older Universal monster movies (unless I want to look at The Creature from the Black Lagoon, made in the 1950’s), and it’s been a lot of fun. My dad introduced all these movies to me growing up, and it’d been awhile since I’d looked at any of them. My favorite is still probably The Bride of Frankenstein, which just works the best out of all of them, although The Invisible Man was a wonderful surprise. The Wolf Man falls somewhere in the middle, but it definitely doesn’t disappoint in the werewolf segments, and the ending is emotional and really well done for a movie like this. All in all, I enjoyed The Wolf Man, and I especially look forward to the new version due in February 2009.