Rating: 
Summary: Films starting to show their age...
Review: Audiences who have seen the Predator and Alien films may consider the Wolfman to be somewhat medicore by comparsion. I guess that's true. Over the 50 years or so since these movies were made, Creature Features have become B-movies and the Wolfman was really no different. The story is somewhat now incorient, the performances of the actors are a bit over-kill, and the make-up used to transform Lon Channey into the Wolfman may not seem all that effective now, as it was when it was first used in 1940. Some still like the movies, but many others do not.
Rating: 
Summary: The Hairy Guy Gets His Due...
Review: Another great collection from Universal! This time, it's the Wolf Man who gets the star treatment. In the original WOLF MAN, Lon Chaney jr. is Lawrence Talbott, son of sir Jonathon Talbott (Claude Raines). Larry gets bitten by a werewolf (Bela Lugosi) and starts the whole full-moon-rampage-thing. A classic. Next up is FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN. Lon jr. returns as lycanthropic Larry Talbott, trying to find a way to be destroyed, thus ending his torment. Ends in the legendary battle between the Wolf Man and Frankenstein's monster! Third, we have SHE WOLF OF LONDON, starring June Lockhart as a woman who is either a murderous beast, or is being framed in a hideous plot to drive her insane. Lockhart is great, showing a charm and innocense that make SWOL more than just another gothic mystery. Lastly, we get WEREWOLF OF LONDON, about a botonist attacked by a werewolf while attempting bring a rare tibeten flower back to London. This flower only blooms at night, during the full moon, and can keep a man from tansforming into a werewolf. This should help our hero, but alas, the werewolf who bit him is now in London too, seeking to have the flower for himself! Not a bad entry in the wolftale anthology. Buy this now, before Universal gets stingy again! Highly recommended...
Rating: 
Summary: Classic Horror Fun--Mostly
Review: As a fan of all manner of movies and someone interested in the old Universal Horror characters, I must say I am pleased that the new VanHelsing movie did one good thing in getting all these old film series on DVD. As someone who's always preferred werewolves to vampires and who finds there aren't anywhere near as many good werewolf movies as there are good vampire movies, I chose this set first. The extras on this set are very much worth it, giving the history of the character and other fun facts that can add depth to your viewing experience. After all, the Wolf Man was the only one of the classic Universal monsters to always be played by the same actor, Lon Chaney Jr.
As for the films themselves, while hokey compared to today's horror films, they have a good deal of style of their own. Chaney doesn't quite come across as the son of the English lord (in fact, he's not a particularly good actor for the dramatic parts compared to some of his co-stars), but his watery eyes and pathetic demeanor show a man who is really haunted by the fact that for a couple days a month he turns into a ferious beast-man.
That said, there is one stinker in the set, the "She-Wolf of London". Starring a very young June Lockhart, this movie doesn't even have a werewolf in it (preventing me from making the obvious, "She also played Lassie" joke). About the only good thing about "She-Wolf" is it's short, barely over an hour. Otherwise, it's predictable (I figured out who did it and how before I was told), overly melodramatic, and not particularly scary even by the standards of the other films.
As for the rest, "Werewolf of London" was actually very good, complete with a couple comic relief old ladies with drinking habits that were actually somewhat funny, and a good plot. "Frankenstien Meets the Wolf-Man" worked well aside from Chaney's delivery of some of his lines, and Bela Lugosi had his only turn as Frankenstien's monster. And the main feature, "The Wolf Man", still packs the punch it's always had.
Rating:
Summary: Wolfman: The Legacy Collection
Review: First of all, the credit given to Claude Rains is incorrect. Lon Chaney Jr. is the actor to whom the credit is due. Although Henry Hull made the transformation first in "Werewolf of London" (1935), almost everyone agrees that Chaney's 1941 version "The Wolf Man" is the true origin of the film iconization of the character. The deep tragedy in Chaney's portrayl is nothing short of brilliant.
Frankenstein meets The Wolfman is a moderate film, save Lugosi's performance of the Frankenstein monster, whose facial expressions so closley mimic that of his Dracula (1931), that it seems as though the two characters have merged in a shorter less vivid one.
She-of London is probabaly my least favorite of the four, but all-in-all the performances are fairly solid.
The DVD collection is a must-have for fans of the period and genre. It is beautifully packaged and has cool and interesting extras.
Rating:
Summary: Wolfman: The Legacy Collection
Review: First of all, the credit given to Claude Rains is incorrect. Lon Chaney Jr. is the actor to whom the credit is due. Although Henry Hull made the transformation first in "Werewolf of London" (1935), almost everyone agrees that Chaney's 1941 version "The Wolf Man" is the true origin of the film iconization of the character. The deep tragedy in Chaney's portrayl is nothing short of brilliant.
Frankenstein meets The Wolfman is a moderate film, save Lugosi's performance of the Frankenstein monster, whose facial expressions so closley mimic that of his Dracula (1931), that it seems as though the two characters have merged in a shorter less vivid one.
She-of London is probabaly my least favorite of the four, but all-in-all the performances are fairly solid.
The DVD collection is a must-have for fans of the period and genre. It is beautifully packaged and has cool and interesting extras.
Rating:
Summary: Where It All Began ... ...
Review: Great classic stuff here. In my mind Lon Chaney Jr. was always my favorite Wolfman. You really feel sorry for Lawrence Stewart Talbot being cursed with lycanthropy. In this set you get:
1) The Werewolf of London (1935)
2) The Wolfman (1941)
3) Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman (1943) By the way is actually
a sequel to both The Wolfman (1941) and The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), continuity wise.
4) She-Wolf of London (1946)
5) a 45 minute documentary, Monster By Moonlight. Pretty much ahistory of Universal's Wolfman mixed with actual Werewolf lore.
6) Tom Weaver does commentary on a separate audio track of The Wolfman (1941). Extremely interesting P.O.V..
7) A neat peek at Van Helsing's homage to Universal's classic
Wolfman.
All in all I really enjoyed this set. I just can't wait until
Universal raids their Atomic Age Monster vaults like this. Til'
then, ENJOY.
Rating:
Summary: An impressive set of four Universal werewolf classics
Review: I had never really thought of The Wolf Man as being in the same league as Dracula and Frankenstein's Monster - I was wrong. Watching Lon Chaney, Jr.'s portrayal of Larry Talbot in The Wolf Man and Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man has opened my eyes. Chaney's Wolf Man is by far the most sympathetic of Universal's three major monsters. Dracula loves being Dracula, Frankenstein's monster is a full-time monster made out of dubious body parts, yet Larry Talbot is a victim of cruel fate. Rushing in to help a damsel in distress, he sustains a bite from a werewolf - hardly the type of reward a hero deserves. Doing the things a werewolf does is bad enough, but Talbot knows he is a werewolf and has to spend all of his normal waking hours wallowing in mental agony, knowing he can do nothing to contain the hairy monster lurking within. Beginning with his resurrection in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, Talbot's overriding ambition and sole wish is to die and be freed from the curse forever, yet he now knows he can never die- not by conventional means, anyway. He truly is a lost soul trapped in a nightmare from which there seems to be no escape. This was the role Chaney was born to play, and he delivered one amazing performance after another in his five werewolf films. The Wolf Man Legacy Collection contains only two of them, the original The Wolf Man from 1941 and the sequel/monster crossover film Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1942). Chaney's Wolf Man also appears in House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula, each of which can be found on the Frankenstein and Dracula Legacy Collections, respectively. The Wolf Man has exerted a huge influence on the art of horror for over six decades now, thanks to the heralded make-up prowess of Jack Pierce, the tight and powerful script of Curt Siodmak, some impressive photography work, a moving musical score, and wonderful performances from a truly stellar cast of actors and actresses (including Claude Raines in the role of Larry Talbot's father, Maria Ouspenskava as the gypsy woman and surrogate mother figure to Larry, and the great Bela Lugosi in a somewhat minor yet crucial role). Chaney's Wolf Man appearance is amazingly vivid and, one supposes, somewhat frightening to moviegoers of the early 1940s. His emotional performance adds to his character's tragic status; his strange and slightly awkward manner, tempered by a sort of gentle slowness always leaves me mesmerized.
With the success of The Wolf Man in 1941, it didn't take Universal long to trot out a sequel; the following year, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man not only capitalized on the success of everybody's favorite werewolf, it also brought in Frankenstein's monster, thus becoming one of the first Universal monster cross-over films. Lon Chaney, Jr., returns as the ill-fated Larry Talbot, and the legendary Bela Lugosi dons the makeup of the Frankenstein monster - this fact alone makes the film intriguing. Talbot, now afraid he cannot die, longs to be killed and put out of his misery. He ends up at the castle of Frankenstein, where a helpful young doctor promises to help him and destroy Frankenstein's monster in the process - things don't quite work out that way, and the film ends with a monster grudge match between the Wolf Man and Frankenstein's Monster. Werewolf of London (1935) and She-Wolf of London (1946) could not be more different, and both are unmistakably distinct from the Universal werewolf films starring Lon Chaney, Jr., yet I think they both work marvelously. Many fans don't care for them, especially She-Wolf in London, but I find both films quite compelling. They differ significantly from the storyline running through Chaney's Wolf Man films, but these two films have a great deal of their own to offer fans. Often overlooked and unduly dismissed by some reviewers and horror fans, these are two classic werewolf films. In terms of extras, you get trailers for three of the four films, a truly excellent commentary of The Wolf Man by film historian Tom Weaver, a well-made 1999 documentary called Monster By Moonlight, and comments on the Wolf Man character by Van Helsing director Stephen Sommers. With only four movies and relatively few extras, The Wolf Man Legacy Collection falls a little short in the value department compared to the Dracula and Frankenstein Legacy Collection sets, but nothing can change the fact that this is must-have material for fans of classic horror movies.
Rating:
Summary: Lon Chaney Jr.'s Finest Hour
Review: Lon Chaney Jr.'s finest hour (other than his performance as Lenny in the Hal Roach production of "Of Mice and Men") came as the character he used to call "my baby" -- the Wolfman. Thanks to the great make-up artist Jack Pierce, Chaney's transformations from luckless wolfbite victim Lawrence Talbot into the Wolfman were defining moments in the history of screen special effects. But most importantly for Chaney, who spent much of his career standing in the shadow of his famous father and following up portrayals by Karloff and Lugosi by playing variations on Dracula, the Frankenstein Monster or the Mummy, the Wolfman character was truly his, and it looks like he will remain the only actor to portray both man and creature, as the Wolfman in the upcoming "Van Helsing" is noticeably a CGI beastie. Both "The Wolfman" and "Frankenstien vs. the Wolfman" are must haves for fans of classic Universal horror (the added bonus being that in the latter, you also get Bela Lugosi's one turn as the Frankenstein monster, which isn't definitive but is still interesting). Less successful but still interesting is "Werewolf of London," a sort of dry-run for "The Wolfman" starring idiosyncratic actor Henry Hull. This reviewer hasn't seen "She-wolf of London," and as an avid monster film fan, he does not believe this to be a good sign. Unfortunately, "The Wolfman's" status as a slightly b-team monster makes it impossible for Universal to put all his "golden era" performances in one place, as Chaney's "baby" always supported other more well known "names" in his latter appearances, and those names have box sets of their own where his appearances reside. For more of Chaney as the Wolfman, get the "House of..." movies ("House of Frankenstein" and "House of Dracula" are both in the respective "Legacy" editions of their own) and the hilarious "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein," in which Chaney proves he could pull off comedy as well as drama by frequent "straight man" bits opposite Lou Costello. Some purists view the Abbott and Costello picture as a shameful finale to the great horror cycle, but it's actually a film that works both as a monster film and as slapstick comedy, and a very fine piece of work it is too. It was Jerry Garcia's favorite movie -- how much more of an endorsement do you need?
Rating:
Summary: Definately worth the rather low price
Review: O.k., I'm not a big fan of old monster movies, but 30 bucks for four, oh yeah. The extras are definately good too, giving a good deal of information on the Wolfman, and monsters in general. Here are my thoughts on the movies individually: The Wolfman: Reasonably good, although like all these movies it's very short and the guy doesn't even become a werewolf until it's half over. It becomes incredible to explain about the making, and tell alot of information about the various versions of the movie's script (there were three; one in 1932 that wasn't made because it would have offended Catholics, one that was the script until weeks before shooting and would have left the question of whether or not Larry (Gill not Talbot in this version) was turning into a wolf open (you only saw the wolf as a reflection through Larry's eyes), and the one that was made. He also points out the plotholes (probably left-overs from script changes). There are a good number of holes to laugh at, but I don't blame them since this was probably done on the budget of two or three "Twilight Zone" episodes. Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man: This is actually better in some ways than the original. While the idea sounds rediculous, and the excuse for the final battle seems silly, the opening is actually spookier (I won't say "scarier" because nothing in any of these movies are truly scary in our world) than the original. She-Wolf of London: This is not a Werewolf movie. It's a murder-mystery in which the murderor is trying to convince a girl she's turning into a Werewolf because the girl believes her family is cursed. While I suppose the various instances in which it was implied she was a werewolf could be explained as part of an elaborate scheme, I can't help but think this was suppose to be more along the lines of the second aforementioned "Wolfman" script until the end when you saw the She-Wolf (or maybe even only saw it as a reflection), but the studio got cheap and wouldn't buy the make-up. I can't prove that, but I suspect it. I did not like this movie, but I don't blame them for having a filler(the only movies with the actual Wolfman are either in this set, in another Monster Legacy set, or "Abbot and Castello mee Frankenstein" which both doesn't have the Wolfman name in the title and was a comedy; the only real other black-and-white Werewolf movie I guess they had was "Werewolf of London"). Werewolf of London: Not much to say about this, it was OK, but I never really got into it.
Rating:
Summary: Good B-Movie Set
Review: Poor Larry Talbot. Frankenstein may be generally a good person but he's arrogant enough to challenge the forces of nature and risk lives to achieve his goals. Dracula is a force of pure malevolence. Larry Talbot, however, is a nice guy who by accident is turned into a murderous creature and is wracked with guilt because of it.
The Wolf Man begins Talbot's saga. Bitten by a werewolf, he soon becomes one himself, both incredibly strong and incredibly murderous. Lon Chaney is at his best in his original turn as Talbot, faced with becoming a killer against his will. In Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, he begins his quest for a cure after learning that not even death will permanently rid him of his curse; in the process, he meets Frankstein's creature, which sets up a battle between the two monsters at the climax. Both movies are satisfying if not really spectacular B movies.
For the other Lon Chaney/Wolf Man movies, the viewer must turn to House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula in the other "Legacy" collections; Chaney's final turn in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein is not included in any of the collections. The remaining two movies in The Wolf Man set are completely separate stories. Werewolf of London, noted as being the first werewolf movie, is decent enough, featuring two werewolves who are more demonic than beastly. She-Wolf of London, on the other hand, is decidedly weak (in fact the weakest in all the whole set of "Legacy" films): the story of a girl under a supposed curse that turns her into a wolf, it is more of a mystery than a supernatural thriller and most viewers will have the whole thing figured out long before the end.
Of the three "Legacy" collections, this is probably the weakest in the bunch, but it has enough fun stuff in it to merit a weak four stars. If your budget, however, limits your purchases, go with the Frankenstein collection instead and save this for a later day.
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