Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Ceticultsot Beautiful, moving film.

Rexanne It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Richard Chatten The rather unlikely directoral debut of Henry Levin, 'Cry of the Werewolf' (a title not echoed by anything that actually happens in the film) is a quickie detective/horror hybrid that owes more to Val Lewton's films at RKO than Universal's Wolf Man.Borrowings abound from 'The Cat People', such as the click of high heels pursuing the hero below stairs at the funeral parlour. Lewton, however, would shrewdly have avoided showing us as much as the animal as we see here, which obviously isn't a genuine wolf; and John Abbott's vivid description on the soundtrack of the "master's mangled body, over him stood a terrible animal, with flaming dripping jaws" is completely undercut by the inoffensive-looking doggie woggie we see nonchalantly padding off in the accompanying flashback.The luxurious main set, lit with his usual aplomb by L.W.O'Connell, was probably recycled from an earlier production along with the main theme from Castelnuovo-Tedesco's score for 'The Return of the Vampire'. As a pair of matriarchal lycanthropes, the enjoyably malevolent-looking Blanche Yurka and Nina Foch wouldn't have looked out of place as members of the Palladists in 'The Seventh Victim', while - probably intentionally - far more electricity is generated between the remarkably youthful looking Miss Foch (who gets preposterously little screen time) and Osa Massen than between either of them and the incredibly boring hero Stephen Crane. Barton MacLane as a tough, no-nonsense detective carries himself as if marauding werewolves are all in a day's work for cops on the New Orleans beat.

slayrrr666 "Cry of the Werewolf" is a decent enough entry in the genre, and is pretty entertaining.**SPOILERS**In a museum tour, guide Peter, (John Abbott) explains about local legends involving vampires and werewolves. After the last one, he and Dr. Charles Morris, (Fritz Leiber) retire for the night, only for Bob Morris, (Stephan Crane) and his girlfriend Elsa Chauvet, (Osa Massen) to find that the museum had fallen under a series of mysterious events. Starting to investigate what happened, a very long legal battle over the culprit resolves with nothing accomplished. When they find that a local gypsy tribe has a way of explaining what happened, they quickly race to stop the creature that has been attacking those nearby.The Good News: This here is actually rather fun. The fact that this one is a predominant mystery makes it really good. There's a lot of back-and-forth over what is going on and that is rather entertaining. This also has a really believable one for this, since it manages to mix in a story about how the ancestors handled it and some rather intelligent areas explored in the back-story. That back-story allows for a bit of mystery concerning what has happened, which is done with the mixing together of a gypsy legend and that of a distorted family version. The huge museum also looks rather creepy, which is perfect for setting up an air of suspense and dread with it. The last big positive is that there's a lot more action than expected. This one has several really nice scenes , including a spectacular chase through the museum at the end, which has some great moments inside it and an earlier sequence where a character is stalked through a mausoleum by a large shadow across the wall. It's a great scene, but can't compare to how great the final museum chase sequence is. That is quite fun, and is the film's really good points.The Bad News: This one doesn't have a whole lot wrong, and is a mildly flawed film. The biggest flaw is that there's a rather large chunk of time taken up with the impossibly long courtroom scene. This drags on forever and takes quite a long time to get through. This is also time consuming with a large segment without drawing anything with it. The case is concluded with only a few little pieces captured about the background but doesn't do anything else. This never says anything about what might've or could've helped, and that would've been a justifiable reason for keeping it there. It's a useless scene that only serves to eat up time. Another pretty big flaw is that this one's werewolf is played by dogs or wolves dressed up to look like werewolves. This really takes away from the creature when they're obviously completely against the norm. seeing a grown man do a horribly-choreographed shoving contest with a dog while others are screaming at him to avoid the werewolf is beyond ridiculous. These are the films with the film, and are responsible for lowering this one.The Final Verdict: With a fair amount of both strengths and negatives, this one comes out as being rather decent overall. It's not mind-blowing spectacular, but serves just good enough for fans of the horror from the time period or those into the earliest werewolf movies to give this much of a look.Today's Rating-PG: Mild Violence

sol (There are Spoilers) Werewolf movie with a twist in that this time around the creature is a woman and there's, probably due to budget restrictions, no long and cumbersome stop motion sequences where the person slowly changes into a werewolf or visa versa.The story has to do with this group of Gypsies, the Troyincas, who immigrated to the United States from their ancient homes in far off Transylvania. The curator of New Orlean's Occult Latour Museum Dr. Charles Morris, Fritz Leiber, has discovered the Toryinca's secret ceremonies that has to do with their involvement in the occult sciences. This leads to Dr. Morris being murdered by Troyincan Matriarch Marie Latour, Nina Foch, who with the help of fellow Troyincan Jan(Ivan Triesault), who works as the janitor in the museum, hid Dr. Morris' body.It's when Dr. Morris' son Bob, Stephen Crane, shows up from New York that he suspects that his father, who's body had since been discovered, was not killed by a wild wolf, like the local police believe, but some kind of wolf-like man that his father uncovered in his investigation of Troyincan legend. Bob with the help of his father's assistant Elsa Chavret, Osa Massen, who just happens to have been born and raised in Transylvania finds Dr. Morris' burnt notes that if made legible will reveal the deadly secret that cost him his life.As expected the evil Marie Latour does everything to stop the truth from coming out about her and the background of her mother, Marie Sr, in that their descendant of werewolves who are descant to rule the Troyincan tribe both in Transylvania as well as in the United States. The film soon turns into a tug of war between the two leading ladies, Marie and Elsa, over the handsome and a bit confused, by the plot, Bob Morris.Marie seeing that she's getting nowhere with Elsa has her turned into a zombie like android muttering over and over to herself as well as out loud that she in fact was the one who murdered Dr. Morris. If that tactic on Marie's part was to turn Bob against Elas it fell flat on it's face. Bob as naive as he was wasn't convince that Elsa murdered his father since her fingerprints wren't found at the murder scene but, a it later turned out, Marie's were!***SPOILERS*** The very predictable ending has Marie turn into a werewolf for the very last time but this time around the police lead by Lt. Barry Lane, Barton MacLane, are ready for her. It took a lot of lead to put put the big bad wolf down in a wild and almost five minute long shootout but it was Lt. Lane's movie ending, that was supposed to tie all the loose ends together, statement that really got to me. With the killer werewolf, Marie Latour, lying dead and crumpled on the floor Lt. Lane, a non-believer in these kind of things, is totally awestruck at the sight of a wild animal-werewolf-changing into a human being! The fact is that the dead Maria Latour didn't start changing back from werewolf to human well after Lt. Lane made that statement!

lorenellroy I may possibly have seen worse werewolf movies than this but if so have mercifully expunged them from my memory bank The plot while perfunctory is adequate-a Romany princess is descended from Marie Laveau,and like her late mother can turn herself into a wolf when required.This she deems is a skill she needs when a team from the local museum discover the whereabouts of Ms Laveau's tomb which the Romanies decree must be kept secret.Thus she begins to work her way through the team by metamporphosing into a wolf The budget does not extend to on-screen transformations but the budget is not the problem.Val Lewton never had much in the way of money to spend when creating masterpieces like The Cat People,The Leopard Man or Bedlam.What he did have was imagination and flair -qualities lacking in this trudge through cliche after cliche Badly acted and directed and made by people with no feel or enthusiasm for the horror genreAvoid.