Director Gene Fowler Jr.'s I Was a Teenage Werewolf proved a clever gamechanger for American International Pictures, as scripters Aben Kandel and Herman Cohen (who also produced) blended The Wolf Man with Rebel Without a Cause. In fact, Teen Werewolf's formula made it drive-in dynamite, its cultural explosion clinching a trend of other successful, adolescent-based, horror ventures.
As part of their Classic Movie Monsters Collection, authors/researchers Nige Burton and Jamie Jones share a commemorative look at the 1957, lycanthrope classic, with pre-Bonanza Michael Landon making his mark "in a powerful performance" as the titular entity, aka temperamental Tony Rivers.
Burton and Jones not only perform an excellent job spotlighting the legend-to-be, but his distinctive costars: Whit (Teenage Frankenstein/The Time Machine) Bissell, Barney (The Sand Peebles) Phillips, Yvonne (High School Hellcats) Lime, Malcolm (How to Make a Monster) Atterbury, Guy (Zorro) Williams, Louise (Blood of Dracula) Lewis, Joseph (City of Fear) Mell, Dorothy (Reform School Girl) Crehan, Tony (Rockabilly Baby) Marshall (aka Charles Wilcox), Cindy (Rockabilly Baby) Robbins/Chenault, Ken (Attack of the Puppet People) Miller, Michael (Ice Station Zebra) Rougas, Vladimir (Mr. Sardonicus) Sokoloff and Playboy Playmate, May 1957, Dawn Richard (a gymnast victim of the voracious, wolf youth).
For this terrifying tale, Bissell's determined Dr. Alfred Brandon uses hypnosis to summon the beast that constituted Tony in a prior life. With this psychological disinterment, a merger of human and beast run amok on suburban and woodland turfs, as the authorities close in, each suspenseful moment sharpened by Paul Dunlap's sinister score.
In addition to the emoting Dunlap, respectful bios on the aforementioned Fowler, Kandel and Cohen (the latter two using a pseudonym, Ralph Thornton, for their concoction), are submitted, along with substantial snippets on Reynold Brown (the movie's acclaimed, poster artist) and AIP's masterminds, Samuel Arkoff and James Nicholson, as well as significant others who made Teen Werewolf such an influential hit.
(To embellish the edition, Burton and Jones interlock their prime text with "quotable quotes" and ferocious facts and intriguing trivia, guaranteed to please fans.)
I trust that Burton and Jones will compose comparable "ultimate guides" for I Was a Teenage Frankenstein, How to Make a Monster, Blood of Dracula (aka Blood is My Heritage), Attack of the Puppet People and Invasion of the Saucer Men, but for now, their Teen Werewolf recapitulation sure hits the lupine spot.
Order at
https://www.classic-monsters.com/shop/product/i-was-a-teenage-werewolf-1957-ultimate-guide-magazine/
No comments:
Post a Comment