Monster by Moonlight! The Immortal Saga of 'The Wolf Man'

Monster by Moonlight! The Immortal Saga of 'The Wolf Man' (1999)

**** (out of 4)

John Landis hosts this documentary that takes a look at the various werewolf tales released by Universal back in their Golden Age of horror films. The majority of this documentary takes a look at the 1941 masterpiece THE WOLF MAN that launch Lon Chaney, Jr. as a star but we also get the production history of WEREWOLF OF London and then the sequels to that 1941 film. Overall I think this is one of the best documentaries produced for the original monster movies from the studio. The film does a terrific job at telling the history of werewolves and it's always fascinating to learn how the majority of myths out there about wolves comes from the 1941 film. It's funny to think that a movie could leave such an impact on history where its made up stories are what most people believe as the truth. Screenwriter Curt Siodmak is interviewed about how he came up with the story and he also mentions the original treatment by Robert Florey. Florey was originally set to film this with Boris Karloff before the project fell apart and sat on a shelf for several years. Rick Baker discusses the make up methods used for WEREWOLF OF London and THE WOLFMAN. He also talks about Jack Piece's eventual downfall and how the make up worlds was changing. The sequels to THE WOLF MAN are also discussed and we get some nice stuff about Chaney, Jr. in his most famous role. Fans of the Universal films are going to love all the information here and this comes highly recommended.