The Wolf Man (1941)

It opens on a shot of the "lycanthropy" definition in an encyclopedia, describing it as a mental illness and superstition. It says the pentagram is the "sign of the Werewolf," though the first I heard of that was yesterday in An American Werewolf in London. Some guys in a fake car scene drive to a fake castle scene. One of them, Larry, has come to inherit the family wealth now that his elder brother died in a freak hunting accident. His pop has a telescope that he uses to spy on the gal next door, Gwen.

He heads down to her shop, where they have a playful back and forth. He asks her about a silver, pentagram-sided, wolf-headed cane, and she explains the history of werewolves. He buys the cane, and she rejects his advances. He ignores her rejection, because it was the 1940s and "no" didn't mean "no" yet. She tells him "no." several more times, and he says "fine, I'll be here at 8!"

He picks her up at 8. She rejects him again, but then invites her friend Jenny to join them. The two girls walk him out into the misty woods and talk some more about werewolves. They take him to meet Bela Lugosi, the gypsy fortune teller who lives in a little tent in the woods. Bela, who is named Bela, has a pentagram on his forehead, and sees a vision of a pentagram in Jenny's hand. He doesn't like it one bit, and dramatically kicks her out. She runs off into the misty, scraggly wood. The horses buck and kick, a wolf howls, and a girl screams.

Larry runs off into the woods alone, beats a wolf with his wolf cane, and gets bitten. Bela's mother comes by in a horse-drawn carriage and carries Gwen and the injured Larry home. As soon as they arrive home, they receive word that Jenny was found dead. Investigators find Bela's corpse next to her, beaten to death… with a wolf-handled cane!

The stories don't match up, and Larry's wolf bite is mysteriously healed the next morning. The police are kind and understanding – he is a rich white man, after all – but need a suitable explanation for how two people wound up dead and no wolves were found. Everyone tries to convince Larry that he's confused, and beat Bela to death by accident. Larry isn't having it.

In a new development, dogs really don't like Larry anymore. "There's something very tragic about that man, and I'm sure that nothing but harm will come to you through him," Gwen's fiancé pronounces mysteriously and unprompted. They all go to the fair together, where Larry shows that he's an excellent shot with a rifle… except cries and misses when the target is a little wolf.

Bela's mom pulls Larry aside to explain how werewolves work yet again. She's not a great actress, and having a foreign accent can only help so much. But she has Larry's best interest in mind; she tells him he's a werewolf now and gives him some techniques to control it. She gives him a protective charm, which he immediately re-gifts to Gwen because he's a swell guy. She betrays her fiancé, because she's less swell and "no" means "try again a dozen more times."

Back home Larry begins to wolfify. This is handled by fading scenes of his feet with more and more felt hair covering them over each other. His full wolf costume is… a man in a felt mask. Felt-man runs off into the misty night, and attacks the cemetery groundskeeper in a most non-wolf-like manner.

Far from the generic monster movie that one might expect from an old film generically called The Wolf Man, this is a well-made movie with a well-told, if simple, story. The sets are solid, at times even beautiful, and the camera work is professional and diverse, the lighting top notch. The acting is very 1940s, but certainly solid. Quite theatrical, as was the style of the time. It's funny how much more they speak like actual humans in these old films, compared to the utter nonsense spewed in modern films (lookin' at you, Underworld). The only major flaw, really, is his ridiculous wolf costume.

A series of philosophical conversations follow, frequently returning to ponderings on mental illness and "the diseased mind." Everyone agrees that there's no such thing as transmogrifying into an animal, in any case. Well, everyone except Larry, who has done it a couple of times.

Larry sees the pentagram on Gwen's hand. Apparently he's a gypsy fortune teller now. His dad doesn't believe him, but agrees to tie him to a chair. The ropes don't seem to hold him at all, and everybody in the film runs out into the still-misty woods.

The same mistake happens again, as man beats wolfman to death with the silver cane. The confusion starts over, and the credits roll.